Source: www.bbq.about.com

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the best way to get flavorful poultry, regardless of how it is prepared, is to start with a brine. Brining adds moisture and flavor to poultry and helps to keep it from drying out. A turkey can be a serious investment in time so you want to make sure it is perfect, especially if you’re entertaining. Whether you grill, smoke, fry, or roast your turkey, you should use a brined bird.

Supplies:

To properly brine a turkey you need to start the night before you plan to cook. You will need at least 10 to 12 hours (plan on 1 hour per pound of turkey), a container large enough to hold your turkey and enough brine to cover it. You’ll also need salt, water, sugar, seasonings, and enough room to refrigerate it. A large stainless steel stock pot or even a 5 gallon clean plastic bucket would make excellent containers. Whatever container you choose the turkey needs to have enough room to be turned so it should be big. Both Reynolds (Oven Roasting Bag for Turkeys) and Ziploc (XL Storage Bag) make very large food safe sealable bags that are great for brining.

Turkey:

Now let’s get to the turkey. The turkey should be cleaned out, completely thawed, and should not be a self-basting or Kosher turkey. Self-basting and Kosher turkeys have a salty stock added that will make your brined turkey too salty. Make sure you check the ingredients on the turkey before you decide to brine. A fresh, “natural” turkey works best, but a completely thawed, previously frozen turkey will work just as well.

Brine Ingredients:

To make the brine, mix 1 cup of table salt in 1 gallon of water. You will need more than 1 gallon of water but thats the ratio to aim for. One way of telling if you have enough salt in your brine is that a raw egg will float in it. Make sure that the salt is completely dissolved before adding the seasonings you like, making sure not to add anything that contains salt. Brines can be spicy hot with peppers and cayenne, savory with herbs and garlic, or sweet with molasses, honey and brown sugar. Whatever your tastes are, you can find a large number of brine recipes on my site.

Sweetening the Brine:

Sugar is optional to any brine, but works to counteract the flavor of the salt. While you may choose a brine without sugar, I do recommend that you add sugar (any kind of “sweet” will do) to maintain the flavor of the turkey. Add up to 1 cup of sugar per gallon of brine. Like the salt you need to make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved.

Set-up:

Place the turkey in a container and pour in enough brine to completely cover the turkey with an inch or two to spare. You do not want any part of the turkey above the surface of the brine. Now you put the whole thing in the refrigerator. If you are like me, making enough room in the fridge is the hardest part of this project. The turkey should sit in the brine for about 1 hour per pound of turkey. Brining too long is much worse than not brining enough so watch the time.

Keep it Cool!:

Don’t have room in the refrigerator? Try a cooler. A cooler big enough to hold your turkey makes a good container for your turkey and brine. The cooler will help keep it cool and allow you to brine your turkey without taking up precious refrigerator space. If the weather is cool, but not freezing you can put the whole thing outside until you need the turkey. If the weather is warm fill a a zip top bag with ice. Place this in the cooler with the turkey and brine and it will hold down the temperature during the brining process.

Rinsing:

When you are ready to start cooking your turkey, remove it from the brine and rinse it off thoroughly in the sink with cold water until all traces of salt are off the surface inside and out. This is the single, most important step. If you don’t get the brine rinsed of thoroughly you could get a very salty bird. Safely discard the brine and cook your turkey as normal. You will notice the second you start to carve your turkey that the brining has helped it retain moisture. The first bite will sell you on brining turkeys forever, and after you’ve tried this you will want to brine all your poultry.

Cooking

Now it’s time to Bake, Grill or Deep Fry that bird! >> Deep Fried Turkey Instructions

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Source: www.sizzleonthegrill.com

Heres a basic brine for pork shoulders, butts and even poultry like turkey that is recommended by my friend and go-to expert on outdoor cooking, Mr. Jig. He originally posted a version of this recipe on the Users Forums in a conversation thread about brines for pork shoulder vs. pork butts.

Try the following brine recipe as a start:

1 gallon water.
3/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar of choice, brown,white or turbinado.
Palm full of garlic powder -OR- couple three Tbsp of minced garlic. (from a jar is fine)

Brine Recipe Notes:

• Note that this can easily be mixed cold, add garlic powder after you see that stirring has dissolved the sugar and salt.
• Depending on the vessel you use you may need more brine but keep the proportions the same.
• A butt is easier to cover with brine due to its shape and a pasta pot will do.
• For a larger cut of pork or a turkey I use a big white plastic pail in an xtra refer.
• I brine 12-24 hours and then smoke/cook at 180F to 250F degrees till the pork is 200F degrees (internal temperature) tested at several spots. NOT 180F degree NOT 190F GO, to 200F degrees internal temperature for pulled pork!
• I see no difference with pork roasts brined between 12 and 24 hours.
• Cooking temp is not critical either and the range I suggest can be used to suit your timing.
• (When the pork roast hits the critical 200F degree internal temperature) I then foil the roast whole and put it in a small cooler (no ice!) with towels for additional insulation.
• The meat will remain hot and safe for hours if you need to hold it a while before pulling and serving.

Trying to infuse big pork chunks with subtle flavors thru a brine is not cost effective, nor likely to achieve the desired result. After resting in the cooler, when you pull your pork, THEN you can mix in whatever flavors you want.

Happy Grilling!

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