New to brining

Been smoking for 10 yrs or so now, but never really got in to the brining of meats. Just starting to play around with it. Put a whole chicken and a pork spare rib rack in brine last night to smoke today. Looking for some good brine recipes. And some advise on brining. Thanks

Jrdlish said:

Been smoking for 10 yrs or so now, but never really got in to the brining of meats. Just starting to play around with it. Put a whole chicken and a pork spare rib rack in brine last night to smoke today. Looking for some good brine recipes. And some advise on brining. Thanks

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1 gal water, 1 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup sugar (your choice). Believe this gives you a 5% solution. Add whatever flavoring


agents you want. Simmer, stirring, 5 min. Cool to 60º.
Quicker, start with 1/2 gal of water, add ice to simmered mix to build to 1 gal.
Time in brine depends on your taste. Chix breast, fish fillets: 1 hr. Whole turkey: overnight.
You'll be amazed at how much better your results will be.

I have been smoking a couple turkeys every Nov to compete with my wifes traditional stuffed oven roast turkey for our 3 different Thanksgiving dinners every year, for quite a few now... 2 years ago I started brining my turkeys overnight in couple cups of kosher salt, couple cups of white sugar, couple gallons of water in a brew bucket. I keep my sugar/salt ratio at 1:1 and add water to cover the bird... anyway, these last 2 years I have DESTROYED her Turkey on people raving, coming back for more, commenting and generally cheesing her off about it. I never did brine before, I would put butter and herbs down the skin and what not... but brining made such a world of difference. Also, choosing a 'less' processed bird, or fresh if you can... huge difference in quality and taste when you brine a fresh bird.

I just spin my salt/sugar into cold water with my wine whip until pretty well dissolved... concentration gradient and all that. I don't mess with herbs or boiling or anything in my brine...then fridge it overnight...

Thank

I mixed up bout 1 lb salt, 1 cup sugar, gal water. Added in some pickling spice and garlic powder and soaked over night bout 12 hrs or so. And ribs an chicken was awesome. Smoked ribs bout 6 hrs an chicken bout 5. Tasted great.

Slaughterhouse brine is fantastic for fowl ... never felt the need to brine my pork

I've only brined turkeys.

1/2 gal Apple Juice
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp Worchester Sauce
1/2 cup pickling spice

Bring to a boil, add 1 cup honey and cut heat. Put in food grade bucket, add 8lbs of ice till dissolved. Throw in birds and let sit 24-48 hrs in my chest freezer (which is basically a fridge for carbing kegs/cold crashing, etc).

For whole chickens I use
1/2 cup salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 bay leaves
4 tbsp garlic salt
1/4 cup of whatever rub I'm using
1 gallon water

No need to brine anything but poultry. All other meats should be injected. You will want to use injections that contain phosphates to replace the phosphates lost when the animal was slaughtered. It really helps with moisture retention the same as a brine does with poultry.

I might have to try some of these brine recipes here...I have done some brining and have always used Morton Sugar Cure. I use 1 cup of cure to one gallon of warm water along with a tea spoon of salt peter (it comes with the cure) dissolve completely and add ice.

I inject my turkey with this (not through the skin...under if i can) and let it brine for at least 24 hrs - 2 days in the brine with ice in a cooler before smoking...Probably my top 10 meal of all time. The turkey is so damn juicy and looks like something off a turkey commercial....along with the smokey sweet flavor of the brine will leave you begging for more. Be careful who you feed this meal too...I have had to make 8 smoked turkeys one year for different family friends...its that addicting.

When I was going through culinary school we learned a basic brine recipe that you can adjust to however you want.
1 gallon of water, 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of vinegar usually cider. Hope this helps.