Brine, real or Bro Science

tfhanson said:

My office buddy (Weber Guy) and I were discussing brining a few moments ago and were wondering about how much of it is real and how much is Bro Science.  I was just wondering if anyone has done this.... I am planing on taking a chicken and placing it in a batch of brine.  I plan to dump a whole bottle of red food coloring and seeing how far the brine penetrates the bird.  Should be interesting.

That sounds awesome! I would be really curious to see how that works. 

The brine will get further than the coloring. Salt molecules are much smaller than the color molecules and they can use osmosis to pull through cell wall membranes. You will find that the marinade (the color) won't penetrate far at all, but the salt does equalize inside the bird and outside the bird. 

nolaegghead said:
Salt is special. 

Agree^^^^^^. It makes French fries and peanuts taste great

Brining works. It disperses flavor throughout the whole cut of meat, be it a bird or a pork butt.

Legume said:

I find that I can skip the air-dry in the fridge step after brining when I deep fry my turkey.

That is the beauty of deep frying. You can fry a wet bird right out of the pack and the skin will still be great. 

In gradeschool I'd learned that osmosis is when a solvent travels across a membrane from a lesser concentration of solute to a greater concentration, hence any water in the bird would leave the chicken to dilute the brine.
Yet, I've soaked two chicken breasts, one in brine and one in water as a control, grilled them side-to-side, and yup brining seasons chicken to the core.
Don't quite know what I'm missing here.