Webster Ridge Farm Food Essay

Brining

Warning: you will not believe this until you try it.

The secret to the best poultry you have ever eaten (I'm very serious) is proper brining before cooking. No matter what you do after, brine it first. Fried, grilled, baked, roasted, potted - it doesn't matter. Brine. It. First.

If you are not brining, you have some explaining to do. Like why that turkey breast was so dry.

And why the fried chicken is chewy. I know - it sounds too simple. Brining takes no talent, almost no work and no adult supervision. It is not Rocket Science, it is Organic Chemistry. It will improve even my pasture grown birds, which most folks say are the best they've had and don't need improving.

Brining works for two reasons

First, salt breaks down proteins in the meat and, by doing so, tenderizes. You will notice the difference. Even in grocery store chickens.
Second, the liquid that gets loaded into the meat by osmosis makes the meat juicy. Seriously juicy - dry grilled chicken will be a thing of the past. The breast on the Thanksgiving turkey will actually be edible!

Formula for brine

¼ cup Kosher Salt and ¼ cup white sugar per quart of cold (as cold as possible without being stupid about it) water. I started with the Cook's Illustrated recipe which is twice as strong. It was a little too much salt for me, although it was ok to eat. But if you are used to more salt, try it.
Stir until completely dissolved. Make enough to cover the poultry completely in a comfortable but not over-large container (plastic or stainless steel is best). Brine is not marinade. You want chemical changes here, not fancy taste changes. It ain't brine if it has other stuff in it. You want the salt to do it's work, the water to get in to be there for cooking. So it is simple.
Kosher Salt is less dense than regular table salt. If all you have is table salt, halve the quantity (1/8 cup per quart of water). And buy Kosher Salt for next time. The sugar is there because it works. I don't know the scientific reason, but you won't taste it in the final product. Brine without it is not as good. It does help color the final product as well. Some brine recipes call for up to double the salt. We use so little salt in our diet that the bigger amount is too much for us. You might want more, but start off at the above amount.

Procedure for brining:

Do not try to brine partially frozen poultry. It does not work. We brine whole poultry because we cook whole poultry. If you like to cut yours up, do it after brining. Otherwise, you will need to reduce the time in the brine. We go an hour or so per pound (use the size of the largest piece) to a maximum of 8 hours, as taught by Cooks Magazine. Our monster chickens go about 6 hours. The turkeys go 8 hours. Put the brining poultry in the refrigerator so that you don't grow stuff that is unhealthy - unlikely unless it's warm - but prudence is the better part of survival. After brining, you can hold the drained bird in a plastic bag, marinate, cook immediately, whatever. Prepare for a radical difference. Don't believe me? Try it.

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