Brine

J Appledog

I believe that this exact subject has been touched on before but if it was, I wasn't paying attention.[p]I have a partially thawed turkey and I know that a brine solution is supposed to be very cold. Does anyone know of a reason why I can't toss the bird in the brine now?[p]Thanks. JCA

MAC

J Appledog,
Just my opinion and what do I know but I have done several that way.I get impatient and put a 1/2 frozen bird in warm brine and either put all in the frig or outside depending on the temp. It cools off quick enough with the cold bird and the cold air. Good luck this week end. So you are going to give JR the BIRD this week end?

Marvin

J Appledog,
Not at all. Putting it in the brine now will just hasten thawing - but only to the temperature of the brine which should be about 40 degrees. It will probably make little difference in the brining time. A 24 hour brine might take 25 or 26 hours to the same salinity but that's insignificant.
Regards,
Marvin

Unknown

MAC, warm brine ? reg

MAC

reg,
Ya, cools off pretty quick with a frozen bird and in the frig.

BlueSmoke

J Appledog,
I'm more accustomed to breasts than to whole birds. I usually plan a 36 hour brine, starting with a frozen breast. It's in the brine vat in the icebox so I don't have to worry about either the temperature or the unwanted attentions of my 4-legged helpers.

Mark

J Appledog,
Cooks Illustrated has an article in this months issue on brining, have only skimmed the article but it did mention 40 degrees as the optimum temp. for brining.
Mark

Mike Oelrich

MAC,[p] If you want to cool the brine down realyy fast, just put a bunch of ice cubes into a zip lock bag and swich the bag around in the brine. I normally will mix up a very concentrated batch of brine in a pot, boiling it to extract the flavors from whatever aromatics are in the mix. Then I cool that with the bagged ice. I then pour that over the bird and cover with plain water and more ice cubes . . .[p]MikeO