How To Brine Your Turkey

Today I am borrowing a blog from my friend John Moody who runs Whole Life Co-op in KY.  His really cool and informative new site for all things local/whole food/ buying club related is: http://www.foodclubsandcoops.com/ ...Meanwhile, check out his blog on brining your turkey.  After brining, you will NEVER go back!  Also, see the value in buying a local bird, where you actually get what you pay for!  Happy reading, and a Happiest Thanksgiving to you! 

How to brine a turkey


If you have never brined a turkey or other poultry, you do not know what you are missing!
Moist meat, full of flavor all the way through, with a shorter cooking time.

Would you like meat with your salt water?

Many store bought poultry and meat items are industrially brined or otherwise enhanced… but this is not for the purchaser’s benefit.  A brine is just another name for a salt-water mixture. Store bought birds are injected with salt water to make them moister and to add weight so that people pay… for salt water.
How much of the bird is salt-water? A recent USDA study found around forty percent!  That almost doubles the price per pound of what the almost meat actually costs.  Good deal for industrial poultry producers and processors – salt and water is cheap.  Bad deal for the buyers, you are getting low quality salt and water instead of the almost meat they paid for at checkout.

Real poultry from local farmers is never industrially injected with icky stuff, so not only are you getting a nutritional deal (pastured birds are far healthier and more nutritious than industrial birds), you are also getting a clear, fair price.

Why brine?

Brining has three main benefits.

First, it helps ensure your turkey will be moist. Nothing is as sad as a bad Thanksgiving bird. We have all had them – dry, listless, lifeless, flavorless.

Second, brining helps drive flavors deep into the meat. We have all had meals where the flavors are stuck on the outside but as you dig down, these become blander and blander.  A proper brine helps ensure more even flavor all the way through.

Third, brining produces extra liquid for making a lovely reduction sauce to go with your meal.

At least for our family, we never have enough drippings to make sufficient sauces! Every little bit more is appreciated.  If you overcook the turkey, brining may just save your neck… turkey neck, that is.

A few years ago, my wife overcooked our turkey by well over thirty minutes… and the bird was still tender and extremely moist.


What you will need –

A large stock pot or five gallon food grade pail/bucket
A good turkey, preferable free-range, pastured bird from a local farm
Good quality salt (1-2 cups)
Various herbs and spices
Chicken or turkey stock, 2-4 cups


What you will do –

Thaw.  We will remove our turkey (15-20lbs range) from our freezer on Monday afternoon and place in the fridge to thaw. Smaller turkeys can be done Monday night, larger ones Monday morning.
Once thawed, we will remove the organs/giblets/innards and reserve.

Brine.  On Tuesday night, we will make the brine and add the turkey.
Dissolve the salt in warm water. In the large stock pot, add the brine (salt-water), spices, and turkey to the pot. Add water until the turkey is covered (or, if the turkey is too big for your pot, just rotate the bird every 6 hours or so).  For the spices, we enjoy using garlic, onion, thyme, rosemary, sage, and pepper, but the options are endless.

For a 2 gallon stock pot we use a teaspoon to a tablespoon or so of each spice, but feel free to experiment.

Place the pot in the fridge (or outside if the weather is cold enough, but not below freezing) and allow the turkey to brine for 24 to 36 hours.
The larger the turkey the longer you want it to sit in the brine.

Cook.  About 3 hours before you want to eat, remove the turkey from the brining mixture so that the bird’s exterior dries before cooking.

Reserve at least half a gallon of the brining liquid or more.

Rub the turkey with oil, rosemary, and sage (use coconut ghee, ghee, lard, palm shortening, or another good quality cooking fat) and set it into a roasting pan, large cast iron skillet, or whatever else you use to cook your turkey on or in.

Bake at 325 degrees – brined turkeys cook much faster than their unbrined counterparts but stay far more moist and tender.

Cook the bird until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.



Optional ROASTED VEGETABLES

If desired, you can cut up various vegetables (green beans, carrots, onions, mushrooms, peppers), coat and mix with oil, and place these down around the turkey along with a cup to two cups of the brining mixture.
While the turkey is cooking, occasionally stir the vegetables.

Optional REDUCTION SAUCE/GRAVY
About an hour before your meal, remove the roasting pan from the oven. Either transfer the turkey to another roasting pan along with the vegetables or otherwise remove all the drippings from around the vegetables and turkey.  Place the turkey and vegetables back into the oven to finish cooking.

On the stove top, take the drippings from the turkey and vegetables and combine with 1-2 cups of the brine and 2 cups of turkey or chicken stock.

Reduce over high heat until a thick sauce forms. If necessary or desired, you can add some good quality gelatin or other thickener.  At first, stir occasionally. As the sauce reduces, stir more and more often.
Near the end, you will need to stir often, almost continuously, but only for 1-2 minutes as the sauce finishes and thickens. *Be careful near the end of the reduction not to burn the sauce to the pan.

We hope each of you has a thankful, restful, and joyful Thanksgiving.



Resources
http://alcsgreenwashing2.wikispaces.com/jdodge
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/185431/20110722/brine-injected-meat-labeled-usda.htm
 Love,
Anna