Brining a turkey in my boil kettle. issues?

[dawn_kiebawls]

If this is in the wrong forum I apologize but it seems fitting.

My wife and I are in charge of hosting our first thanksgiving for the families in our new house this year and I'm doing the turkey. I need to brine it (water, salt, sugar, veggies and herbs) but don't have a non brewing container large enough for a 23# bird. Does anyone see an issue with using a boil kettle? I'm mostly worried what the salt could possibly do to the SS since I would be able to just boil in it to kill off any leftover nasties from the bird.

My other options are my rubbermaid cooler mash tun (definitely not doing that), or possibly an old ale pail which would then definitely have to get retired from brewing. Thanks for your help!

 

[passedpawn]

You want to keep the bird cold for the overnight brine, so ideally you'd use a cooler of some kind. Add ice. I use a normal wheeled beverage cooler. If you don't have one, I'm sure your neighbor does.

The salt etc won't hurt your boil kettle at all though if you choose that. No matter what you use, when you're done brining and you clean it out, there shouldn't be any residual effect. Not sure why you'd have to "retire" anything.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Thanks for the quick reply! If you wouldn't be worried about an ale pail, thats the route I'll go with. I'm a germaphobe and my dad was a food scientist with a Masters in microbiology and pathology...he has made me overly paranoid about food born illness! Thats the only reason I was mentioning retirement. I'll give it a shot, thanks again!

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I started dry brining about 5 years ago, so much easier. Just rub a bunch of salt all over the skin tonight, the salt will draw liquid out of the skin, which will then be re-absorbed and the end result is similar to the messy brining process I used to do. Google dry brining and i'm sure you can find more info.

 

[Miraculix]

I started dry brining about 5 years ago, so much easier. Just rub a bunch of salt all over the skin tonight, the salt will draw liquid out of the skin, which will then be re-absorbed and the end result is similar to the messy brining process I used to do. Google dry brining and i'm sure you can find more info.

I tired both, but I am still not convinced that dry yields the same goodness as the wet version does. Both are certainly nice though, but I still prefer the wet version.

 

[estricklin]

I like to brine mine for several days so I use a cooler. In fact, I let mine thaw out in the brine. I'm sure your kettle would be fine afterwards but it isn't going to keep the bird cold obviously.

 

[agrazela]

Brining my bird in a boil kettle in my fermentation fridge right now. Been doing that for years.

A good scrubbing of the kettle and a spray bottle of diluted bleach for the fridge, and back to brewing.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I like to brine mine for several days so I use a cooler. In fact, I let mine thaw out in the brine.

Thawing in the brine is a great idea, I'll give it a try. I should have mentioned we're doing our dinner on Saturday so I should get a couple days of soaking time. Thanks!

Brining my bird in a boil kettle in my fermentation fridge right now. Been doing that for years.

A good scrubbing of the kettle and a spray bottle of diluted bleach for the fridge, and back to brewing.

Thats a great plan, looks like I can add racking my amber ale to keg for the list of things to do tomorrow!

 

[passedpawn]

I ended up putting the turkeys in home depot buckets and brining in the fermentation fridge.

 

[Queequeg]

The question is do you need to do a wet brine?

There is plenty of info out there that shows not much difference in terms of preserving moisture or the penetration of salt. Likewise aromatic molecules don't really penetrate the meat as they as too big.

If it were me and it will be at Christmas (but with a pork butt), i would dry brine with just salt and wrap in cling film and place in the fridge.

 

[passedpawn]

The question is do you need to do a wet brine?

There is plenty of info out there that shows not much difference in terms of preserving moisture or the penetration of salt. Likewise aromatic molecules don't really penetrate the meat as they as too big.

If it were me and it will be at Christmas (but with a pork butt), i would dry brine with just salt and wrap in cling film and place in the fridge.

I've never done it, but dry brine takes longer (days) according to interwebz. Maybe I'll do it next year. This year (and every year in the past), I didn't even think about Thanksgiving until the day before.

But if dumping a cup of salt into a bucket, then filling it with water seems like a lot of extra work, maybe I'm doing it wrong. Wet brine seems easier to me than dry, but that's my sitch. YMMV.

 

[Queequeg]

I always dry brine for 24 hours. Seems to work ok for food on the smoker. Its not the work that's the problem normally its the space. I can't fit a 30L vessel in my fridge.

 

[Ty Brackeen]

If this is in the wrong forum I apologize but it seems fitting.

My wife and I are in charge of hosting our first thanksgiving for the families in our new house this year and I'm doing the turkey. I need to brine it (water, salt, sugar, veggies and herbs) but don't have a non brewing container large enough for a 23# bird. Does anyone see an issue with using a boil kettle? I'm mostly worried what the salt could possibly do to the SS since I would be able to just boil in it to kill off any leftover nasties from the bird.

My other options are my rubbermaid cooler mash tun (definitely not doing that), or possibly an old ale pail which would then definitely have to get retired from brewing. Thanks for your help!

I brine as well. Everything fowl and corned beef brisket too. I always line the kettle with a plastic bag then twist and seal it. keeps the kettle clean as a whistle.