Everything. Salt,pepper,garlic cloves,rosemary,thyme,jalapeños,oranges,and anything else I find. Put it to brine Sunday or Monday. No later. My turkeys are always a hit.
I like allspice berries and fresh squeezed orange in turkey brine. Orange tree wood is a good wood to smoke a turkey. Produces a golden brown color on the skin. Cherry wood smoke makes for a darker colored skin. Cherry wood smoke produces a bolder flavor than orange tree wood.
The main ingredient in a brine is salt. Salt = flavor. Sugar penetrates well also. You can add herbs and other spices but it takes a lot of it to penetrate poulty.
It looks like Home Goods around here is more of a furnishing type store,, didn't see any brine. I'll just make my own, already have all the ingredients.
I think this is the best option for you. The brine recipe BigFish posted above is a standard brine. One thing to keep in mind not all salt is the same. Kosher salt has larger granules that iodized (or table) salt therefore a cup of Kosher won't be as salty as a cup of Iodized. I recommend using 1 cup Kosher salt to 1 gallon of water. I've used 1 cup iodized salt before and it was more salty for sure. Poultry can take a lot of salt but either go with Kosher or scale back to 3/4 cup if you use Iodized salt.
1 cup of sugar is a lot. It will make your turkey sweet. If that's what you like go with a full cup. I don't use sugar at all in my turkey brine. I do for chicken but not for turkey.
Also acidic or citric based liquids can make your meat firm up. Be careful how much of this you use.
Thanks Jerry. I knew about the Kosher salt,, use in everything from pickles to jerky. What I did not know is that the citrus firms the meat. On the sugar, I was planning on less than a half cup or dark brown sugar. I will know more when I make the brine, can always adjust
BTW. Turkey turned out beautiful,, didn't even have any leftovers. Only had 5 people over.
From now on, I will only brine turkeys
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