intersting brinning info

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

werdwolf

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
★ Lifetime Premier ★
May 24, 2008
1,593
16
Northern Ohio
I stumbled across this from Cooksillustrated.com. Since there have been many threads and questions about brining things I thought I'd post it.

Published September 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated.
Why should I take the time to brine my food?
We find that soaking many types of delicate white meat—from turkey to chicken, pork, and shrimp—in a saltwater solution before cooking protects it from the ravages of heat and guarantees tender, flavorful meat from the surface all the way to the bone. Brining also gives sometimes mushy poultry a meatier, firmer consistency.


How Does Brining Work?


Brining promotes a change in the structure of the proteins in the muscle. Many have attributed the added juiciness of brined chicken to osmosis—the flow of water across a barrier from a place with a higher water concentration (the brine) to a place with a lower one (the chicken). We decided to test this explanation. If osmosis is in fact the source of the added juiciness of brined meat, we reasoned, then a bucket of pure unsalted water should add moisture at least as well as a brine, because water alone has the highest water concentration possible: 100 percent. After soaking one chicken in brine and another in water for the same amount of time, we found that both had gained moisture, about 6 percent by weight. Satisfied that osmosis was indeed the force driving the addition of moisture to meat during brining, we roasted the two birds, along with a third straight out of the package. We would soon discover that osmosis was not the only reason why brined meat cooked up juicy.

During roasting, the chicken taken straight from the package lost 18 percent of its original weight, and the chicken soaked in water lost 12 percent of its presoak weight. Remarkably, the brined bird shed only a mere 7 percent of its starting weight. Looking at our test results, we realized that the benefit of brining could not be explained by osmosis alone. Salt, too, was playing a crucial role by aiding in the retention of water.

Table salt is made up of two ions, sodium and chloride, that are oppositely charged. Proteins, such as those in meat, are large molecules that contain a mosaic of charges, negative and positive. When proteins are placed in a solution containing salt, they readjust their shape to accommodate the opposing charges. This rearrangement of the protein molecules compromises the structural integrity of the meat, reducing its overall toughness. It also creates gaps that fill up with water. The added salt makes the water less likely to evaporate during cooking, and the result is meat that is both juicy and tender.

Brining Guidelines


This chart can be used for general guidelines; however, in some cases recipes will specify different formulas and times:
CHICKENCold WaterTable SaltSugarTime
1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)2 quarts1/2 cup1/2 cup1/2 to 1 hour2 whole chickens (3 1/2 to 4 pounds each)2 quarts1 cup1 cup1/2 to 1 hour4 pounds bone-in chicken pieces (whole breasts, split breasts, whole legs, thighs, and/ordrumsticks2 quarts1/2 cup1/2 cup1/2 to 1 hour4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)2 quarts1/4 cup1/4 cup1/2 to 1 hourTURKEY
1 turkey (12 to 17 pounds)2 gallons1 cup*6 to 12 hours1 turkey (18 to 24 pounds)3 gallons1 1/2 cups*6 to 12 hours1 bone-in turkey breast (6 to 8 pounds)1 gallon1/2 cup*3 to 6 hoursPORK
4 bone-in rib loin pork chops (12 ounces each), 1 1/2 inches thick1 1/2 quarts3 tablespoons3 tablespoons1 hour1 pork roast (3 to 6 pounds)2 quarts1/4 cup1/4 cup1 1/2 to 2 hours

*Because turkey must roast for an extended amount of time, the sugar in the brine will cause overbrowning. Therefore, we omit the sugar in the brine for turkeys.
**These formulas are given for table salt. If using kosher salt, our rule of thumb is to use twice as much Diamond Crystal kosher salt as table salt and 1 1/2 times Morton's kosher salt as table salt.

Brining Meat While Defrosting


If you freeze small cuts of meat, submerging it in a bucket of cold water on the counter speeds up the defrosting process. For recipes where the first step is a brine, we wondered if we could combine two steps into one by defrosting the meat directly in the brine. We partially thawed frozen chicken parts in fresh water, then completed the last half hour of thawing in the brine solution called for in the pan-roasted chicken recipe we were following. When cooked, the chicken was as well-seasoned and juicy as chicken that had been fully defrosted before brining.

Further testing showed that the same method can be used for any recipe that calls for brining small- to medium-sized pieces of meat. Simply cut the defrosting time by the amount of brining time the recipe calls for. For example, if your pork chops need to thaw for an hour and your recipe calls for a 45-minute brine, thaw the chops in fresh water for 15 minutes, then brine for 45 minutes.

Salt Quantity Absorbed


We were also interested in finding out how much sodium penetrates during the process. To answer the question, we brined natural pork chops and boneless, skinless chicken breasts in standard quick-brine solutions of 1/2 cup table salt dissolved in 2 quarts of cold water. After 30 minutes, we removed the pork and chicken, patted them dry, and cooked them in different skillets. We also cooked an “enhanced” pork chop (injected with a saltwater solution) and a kosher chicken breast that had been salted during processing.

We sent the samples to a food lab to measure sodium content. The brined pork chops had a sodium content of 245 milligrams per 100 grams of meat (just under 1/8 teaspoon per serving); the enhanced pork had a bit more, with 268 milligrams. The kosher chicken breast weighed in at 252 milligrams of sodium. The brined chicken came in with the most sodium of all, at 353 milligrams (just over 1/8 teaspoon per serving). The USDA recommends limiting your daily sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams, about 1 teaspoon.

Why did the chicken absorb more salt during brining than the pork? The loose white muscle fibers in chicken absorb salt water more quickly than the tighter muscle fibers in pork.
 
Great information.

points.gif
for the research and for all the help
icon_wink.gif
 
Good reading, thanks for sharing.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky