WFMW: Brining A Turkey How and Why

Thanksgiving time is here and that means for many of us serving turkey for dinner. I truly love turkey and the more flavorful it is the better I love it. One way to prepare a flavorful turkey is to brine your turkey. If you are not familiar with brining I have shared in this post one way to brine a turkey.

Brining a turkey will draw out the moisture originally in the Turkey. The brine will help to re-introduce flavored liquid into the turkey so that the turkey will not dry out during cooking. Brine also sweetens up the meat making a more flavorful turkey.

How to brine? You need to start with a fully defrosted turkey with the inner bag containing the neck, giblets, etc... Rinse the entire turkey in cold water in the sink. To brine the turkey use an ice chest that is more than large enough to completely cover the turkey with liquid. Fill the ice chest 2/3 with cold water from the tap. Mix in enough salt til the water tastes like salty sea water. Add 2-3 cups of sugar into the water Stir to dissolve The mix should now taste like sweet sea water. Place the turkey into the chest let the turkey "brine" overnight. Be sure to keep the water in the ice chest cold. This can be done by placing ice chest in cool place or by placing bags of ice into the ice chest. (importantly don't empty bags of ice -- this will dilute your mix) When ready to cook remove turkey from brine and cook as usual.
Shared on Works For Me Wednesday @ We Are That Family