What is the best way to brine a turkey?

Question

What is the best way to brine a turkey? I have been looking online at a variety of online cooking sites and there are way too many methods to choose from

Answer 1

I found some great brine recipes on allrecipes.com.
You'll need to defrost your turkey about one day ahead of people who aren't roasting theirs.
Also, pick up a five gallon bucket from the grocery store bakery - these are clean and used to hold food, so they can hold food again.
Usually, the brine with have some water, salt and sugar in one or more forms. Some people add fruit juices and/or herbs and spices. Just pick one that appeals to you.
If you have an injector, use it. I usually put about 7 or 8 injections in each side of the breast, and 2 or three in each of the legs. Lots of it will leak out, but that's okay. Push the injector in pretty far, and pull it out slowly, injecting as you go.
Then, put the turkey, and the remaining brine in the bucket . It's good if it covers the turkey, but it doesn't have to, but it should reach at least halfway, so you can turn the turkey over midway.
Do the injecting the day before, dump the turkey in the bucket, add the remaining brine, and turn the turkey over before you go to bed at night. Make sure you cover the turkey and try to find a cold place to put it. Maybe even outside at your house.
When you are ready to bake it, put the turkey in the pan upside down for the first hour of baking. This causes the juices in the turkey to fall towards the breast side of the meat. Then, turn the turkey over, and continue baking till done.
Unless you smoke it, in which case you have to brine two days ahead, smoke the day before, and reheat the day of.
Good luck! You really can't go wrong with brining, unless you use too much salt. I'm not sure where we really went wrong, but we tried to brine and smoke a few pheasants this summer, I bought brine mix from a butcher, mixed it as the butcher told me to (till it made an egg float, which was a lot), and they made your lips pucker! We had to throw them all out. Even the dogs wouldn't eat them.

Answer 2

I use either a small ice chest OR our orange Igloo drink dispenser. Either will keep the turkey codl while brining, and both have a spigot to drain off the liquid before pulling the turkey out.

Try Alton Brown's recipe... very good, even on just a turkey breast!

ROASTED BRINED TURKEY

1 (14 to 16 pound) young turkey, fresh or thawed

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

--Alton Brown, Food Network

Answer 3

Well, "Sugar"'s recipe, above, sounds good to me. Before I read it I was going to tell you almost exactly the same thing. A friend of mine told me about it just a couple of days ago, and she's doing her turkey that way this week.