looking for a simple but good brine

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

• 2 Gal Water
• 2 Cups Kosher Salt
• 2 Cups Sugar (1 Cup white + 1 Cup Brown)
• 4 TBS Black Pepper
• 1 TBS Dried Rosemary (Omitted recently because one of my daughters despise it) replaced with poultry seasoning
• 1 TBS Thyme
• 1/4 Cup White Wine or dry vermouth. (not Cooking Wine)

• 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1 Tablespoon Rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon Minced Onion
• 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Old Bay
• 1 Teaspoon basil
• 1 Teaspoon Thyme
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cracked Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Celery Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning

Damon555 said:

This might sound like sacrilege but I've noticed something about turkey (or chicken) brines.....I have tried many different combinations of herbs, spices, juices and various vegetables in my brines. I've boiled them, mixed them up cold and tried everything in between. Unless there is a large quantity of a certain ingredient the tastes is very subtle, almost undetectable, where that flavor is concerned. Having tried many different concoctions I've settled on 3 or 4 ingredients....Water, salt, brown sugar and granulated garlic. This has simplified the brining process and the amount of money I spend on spices for my brines.

The very simple brine that I use the most is this.....(for one 12-14lb fresh, unprocessed turkey)

2 gallons of water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt (3/4 cup per gallon of water)
1/2 cup of brown sugar (1/4 cup per gallon of water)
and if I feel like it 4 tablespoons of granulated garlic.

Obviously the salt is the main player here....it is what provides us with about 95% of the flavor that we are looking for and I've adjusted the quantity to my families taste. There is some trial and error involved. It really doesn't get much easier than this.......

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