Beginner's Question on Brining

[abraxasil]

I've been reading around on the forum on brining turkey and other meats. So now I have a question: when you brine meat before smoking doesn't the meat pick up a lot of salt that you wind up tasting in the final product?

 

[up in smoke]

Not really, the solution is …taste your brine ahead of time, if it tastes too salty, it probably is! (I learned that from Dutch!) When you brine your meat you are exposing the meat to a chemical action called osmosis (where the salts attempt to equalize themselves in and out of the meat. The trick is while this is happening other flavors, i.e. honey, spices and the like travel with the salt and get trapped in the cells of the meat and remain there for your eating pleasure!

 

[abraxasil]

Thanks a lot, Carl. I was wondering about it getting too salty - I never thought about tast esting the brine, DUH! :oops: Oh well, you never learn unless you ask.

 

[icemn62]

Don't feel bad, I don't think I ever thought of it either. And I have been doing it for a LONG time.