Stupid Brining Question

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons: Stupid Brining QuestionWhat salt/water ratio for a modestly-sized chicken? Add sugar, too?
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Ian, A bit less than 1/4 cup of kosher salt plus a bit less sugar in enough water for brining the bird. Not more than an hour!

. . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons: Stupid Brining QuestionWhat salt/water ratio for a modestly-sized chicken? Add sugar, too?
Click to expand...

Ian, A bit less than 1/4 cup of kosher salt plus a bit less sugar in enough water for brining the bird. Not more than an hour!
Click to expand...

At least for turkey, we find the brining process much enhanced with the addition of several sprigs of rosemary and a few cloves of crushed garlic.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons: Stupid Brining QuestionWhat salt/water ratio for a modestly-sized chicken? Add sugar, too?
Click to expand...

Ian, A bit less than 1/4 cup of kosher salt plus a bit less sugar in enough water for brining the bird. Not more than an hour!

. . . . . Pete
Click to expand...

Super, thanks!
 
If planning to make any kind of gravy from drippings I avoid the sugar, as it causes the drippings to over-caramelize/burn. Herbs are good though!
 
Ruhlman calls for 1:20 salt:water in his Ratio book, and it worked pretty well for a bunch of Christmas dinner turkeys I did. Like Christian mentioned, it's nice to throw other stuff in, too - I basically made a really rough stock with onions, celery, carrots, and a few herbs, and threw most of my salt in the pot because it dissolves much easier.

If you do it by weight you can also use ice in place of some of the water just to cool things down a little faster.
 
The book I've been checking with recommends lower concentrations and longer soak times for bigger birds, which fits your experience, John. Unfortunately, after explaining the theory, my book goes walkabout on the simple details - e.g., concentration, soak time, etc. so I should chase down your book, Robert.
 
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
if it's a good quality bird, like d'artagnan or from a local farm, why brine at all?
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It's a good bird, but we've been dry brining for a while and because of improved moisture retention and texture, even in good meat. My wife now finds the dry-brined bird too salty, so I'm doing some trial-and-error with other techniques.
 
just wondering. i have pretty much given up on brining because the pan drippings were too salty and i just never noticed much of a flavor improvement or enhancement.
 
We simple country folk are often satisfied with tasty meat and no gravy. Skin's off the menu these days, too. Old age (well, middle age) is a shipwreck.
 
I've only brined the one time with the turkeys, but I found that it left me a lot more margin of error. A few of the birds ended up quite a bit hotter than I was shooting for and the meat was still very good.

McGee says 3-6% salt by weight for brines, which would fit with Ruhlman. 3% "dissolves parts of the protein structure that supports the contracting filaments" and 5.5% "partly dissolves the filaments themselves."

Shame about the skin...
 
Theory as I'm taking it in it says the salt denatures the muscle proteins, straightening them out from their naturally curly shapes, so that they form networks of strands that retain water molecules in the flesh - ergo, juicier chicken. I have no idea if this is accurate. So I guess McGee is saying higher concentrations begins to degrade the molecular structure that retains a strand-like structure in the denatured proteins. Interesting. I'm trying to relate these explanations to my observations of eggs under various frying conditions.

I take it the percentages are by weight, so about 30-40 grams of salt per liter of water should be right.
 
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