It's that time of year again and the wet brine solutions are all over the map.
I saw one video that I turned off due to the massive amount of salt they used for the amount of water.
It would have been way too salty in any situation.
The on line Butterball was pretty good.
One called for cups of water instead of quarts or gallons.
Others called for kosher salt instead of canning salt but it was in volume instead of weight.
Nothing scientific at all.
Basically old wives tales.
I think the butterball one called for salt and soy sauce.
But they had a brand Kikkoman regular at 10 ounces per 3 quarts.
It also had a good amount of sugar and salt plus herbs and spices.
Not a lot of fractions to deal with either.
It calls for 3 quarts of water.
The fractions can be easily divided or multiplied.
The salt and sugar are what really counts.
It calls for half cups of salt and sugar for 3 quarts of water leaving a quart quart back to heat up and dissolve the solution.
That would mean an extra quarter cup of salt and sugar for a gallon.
Spices and herbs could be just about anything.
I've made so many brine solutions I can taste what needs to be done.
It isn't that important to have a really salty brine because your not preserving meat.
I think it is a misunderstanding some of these do called YouTube chefs make.
I don't consider the term dry brine a real thing for obvious reasons.
A brine is a liquid solution so it would be a salt rub.
I also make these solutions and use what I need and toss the rest.
No need to figure out exact amounts for a certain size bird.
Here's the Butterball recipe but I'm going to modify it due to I have soy sauce but not Kikkoman's.
I'll probably use less soy sauce.
That and I'm adding more sugar.
No idea what herbs and spices.

https://www.butterball.com/recipes/savory-brined-turkey

I don't recall seeing any recipes for brine that used sugar.
It seems odd to me!

bower wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 3:11 pm I don't recall seeing any recipes for brine that used sugar.
It seems odd to me!

I always use sugar in my curing solutions.
Sugar and salt go hand in hand.
I absolutely love sweet salty kettle corn popcorn with dollops of butter in it.
I made a kettle the other day I haven't had any in years.

I’m foregoing the brine this year as my turkey is “pre-brined”

I will do a dry brine next time around. Sugar is part of most recipes I have seen.

I tried a brine with sugar once. I went back to just salt.

Vanman wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 4:47 pm I tried a brine with sugar once. I went back to just salt.

Well it's too late for me.
I adjusted the butterball recipe.
I only added 8 ounces of soy sauce.
My Herb spice mixture was.
Allspice.
Lots of sage.
Mace.
Freshly grated nutmeg a half a seed.
Black pepper.
And instead of the called for half cup of sugar it was 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar.
It's cooling as we speak and will sit in the garage until I'm ready for it Wednesday morning.
It's not going to spoil.
That'll give me appropriately 24 hours of soaking in the brine.
I've in the past brined them too long.

We often use a sweetener in marinades or dressings for roast meats - brown sugar, honey, even balsamic vinegar is quite sweet, and it certainly works and is a key ingredient for that, granted in smaller amounts than you'd use for a brine.
But I googled and did see lots of recipes that use it.
Here I am trying to imagine the taste of turkey meat that is sweetened... IDK, I can't quite picture it.
Not that we don't serve it with cranberry or partridgeberry sweet sauce.
Looking forward to see how it turns out.

@bower I prefer a dry brine with kosher salt, pepper, various herbs and a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, working it under the skin and leaving it in the refrigerator for a couple of days prior to Thanksgiving. Gravy made from the dripping tastes great as well.

pondgardener wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 6:34 pm @bower I prefer a dry brine with kosher salt, pepper, various herbs and a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, working it under the skin and leaving it in the refrigerator for a couple of days prior to Thanksgiving. Gravy made from the dripping tastes great as well.

I will definitely try this, if I ever find another turkey to brine.

karstopography wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 4:38 pm I’m foregoing the brine this year as my turkey is “pre-brined”

I will do a dry brine next time around. Sugar is part of most recipes I have seen.

I had to go and make for sure my turkey bread and thighs weren't pre brined.
They aren't no added anything.
Also the thighs need to get to 180 degrees for the collagen to break down.
They will cook in a separate container so I can cook the breast to 150F.
The charts show that it takes 3.7 minutes at 150f to kill all bacteria.
I've been doing this for many years and eat the breast slightly pink.

For a better understanding of how much salt to use besides cups is weighing.
The so called recipe I used was close to a 6% solution.
That would be 7.68 ounces or 217.4 grams of salt per gallon of water.
I had to do a little math for the 3 quarts of water.
And I came out a little under what it called for.

Every turkey I've seen for a year or more is pre-brined or treated in some way.
Inject butter, or inject salty water and then freeze and sell by weight.
The next turkey I buy will be local and fresh, but I need an event for that to motivate all the work