I wouldn't worry about it. If you made your own vegetable stock, it would be "low-sodium".

In any case, two gallons of liquid (1 of water and 1 of stock) and 1 cup of salt is about a 3.5 percent solution, which is what you want for a 14 hour brine.

I brined my turkey last night with 1 cup of salt for two gallons of water.

Hi,

In the article A more flavorful dry-brined turkey I linked to above, they offered their opinion of the dry-brine vs wet-brine:

Dry-brined turkey is, if anything, even more remarkable. While turkey sometimes can be dry and bland, after dry-brining, the meat is moist and flavorful. And in an improvement over wet-brining (which I enthusiastically practiced for several years), the texture of the meat stays firm and muscular, with none of the sponginess that can result from added moisture.

I did wet brine the already injected (you could see needle marks in the breast) Jennie-O turkey I bought at Jewel. When I opened it up on Wednesday morning, it was still pretty icy and the legs quite stiff from cold. I knew the brine would finish the defrosting, which otherwise would not have been finished by Thursday morning on its own. Butterball answer lady on the radio said, "A day to defrost every four pounds of turkey."

I used the Chez Panisse brine, which has a cup of sugar and two cups of salt. I cut back the salt by a third. I put the bird in and left there until almost 8 AM Thursday morning. I let it air dry in the refrigerator, while I collected guests.

Just before 10:30 it was in the oven stuffed with microwave heated stuffing, buttered back side up at 425 degree for an hour. After an hour, it was flipped breast side up and returned to a 325 degree until 2 PM. At one point, I thought the breast was dark enough and tented it with foil. I never once basted the bird.

Picture perfect bird, crisp skin and very good not-too-salty gravy.

I'm looking forward to Bruce's comments. I will dry brine a chicken soon to get a sense of this technique. I might have tried it this time, if I had bought the bird earlier. I really needed the wet brine to finish defrosting this time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:I'm looking forward to Bruce's comments. I will dry brine a chicken soon to get a sense of this technique. I might have tried it this time, if I had bought the bird earlier.

Not sure of Bruce's exact method, but sounds similar to the Zuni Cafe method, popularized, but certainly not invented by, Judy Rodgers. Here's a little more info on the method as it applies to turkey.

I've both had the dry brine* chicken at Zuni and made it myself, very delicious.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Dry brine seems a contradiction in terms, at least to me.

Gary,

I'm using the dry brine method from the Zuni cafe. I should have a report tomorrow which is the scheduled day of cooking

I used Dan Gill's buttermilk brine for a turkey yesterday seasoned with a Chicken Vesuvio seasoning I recently purchased. Turned out great, moist, tender, and flavorful. The in-laws enjoyed it.

The larger turkey was buttermilk brined and natural. The smaller turkey is a Butterball and was not brined.

Smoked a dry brined turkey ala the links posted above on Saturday. An excellent turkey. Well worth the time and not near as much of a hassle as wet brining. I doubt if I will ever wet brine turkey again. I don't have any pictures but the turkey looked good.

Hi,

I have been dry-brining for three years using Joyce Roger's Zuni Cafe method with wonderful success. There was a nice article about this in the LA Times.

A more flavorful dry-brined turkey

This year I also dusted the breast skin with a salt/baking soda mix for extra crisp skin.

Tim

I also used a version of this method, as shown here on epicurious. I was in a hurry; didn't get anywhere near to an hour per pound; I did it right after I dismembered the beast in the morning, so it probably sat for four or five hours. I was very happy with the result; the turkey was very flavorful without being salty (except for where I got some salt under the skin when I stuffed the extra fat under there.) It did, indeed, pick up some of the herbal flavors as well as the salt. I think having it in the refrigerator uncovered helped dry the skin and make it take the flavor better.

I'm a bit late in posting, but better late than never.

My father-in-law bought a behemouth of a turkey - close to 23 pounds. The hubster wanted to smoke it this year in his new WSM. We've been following GWiv's Low and Slow cookbook and have made quite a few chickens, so we thought we could try the turkey. (I hope this doesn't get us kicked out of the program.)

My father-in-law and sister-in-law were in charge of brining the bird. They used a brine from Chef's Catalog. We came the next day, took the bird out of its bath, rinsed her down and put her in the fridge to dry. Up bright and early on Thanksgiving day, I took the back bone out of the bird, cracked the breast bone gave the legs a yank. The bird was on by 7:00 a.m. Five and half hours later we took this lovely speciman off of the smoker:



After a sufficient resting time, the hubster took to carving the bird. Here's a look at the white meat and some of the leg:



Well the bird was a big hit with the family. Thanks Gary for your mentoring. We couldn't have done it without you.

Ms. Ingie

Ms. Ingie wrote:I'm a bit late in posting, but better late than never.

Turkey looks terrific, I'm glad you posted.

Ingie,

Your turkey does look terrific!

***

One of my family members decided to make a turkey after Thanksgiving for the additional leftovers. When my turkey came out of the brine, then hers went in. Instead of collecting the bird the very next day, she came by on Sunday.

I personally did not eat this bird. I heard from someone who did this turkey's meat was very, very mushy. I assume it was too much brining time.

Regards,

Or are you all just using the standard sugar salt combo?

Looking to spice up the brine with some fun stuff and am curious what all you add?

Was thinking a couple of handfuls of some herbs.

What do you put in yours?

jpeac2 wrote:Or are you all just using the standard sugar salt combo?

Looking to spice up the brine with some fun stuff and am curious what all you add?

Was thinking a couple of handfuls of some herbs.

What do you put in yours?

been using this mix for years--works great



2 gallons water
2 cups Kosher salt
3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
Juice of 3 oranges
" " " limes
" " " lemons
rinds from same
1 sliced white onion
! head of garlic, crushed
most of a bunch of cilantro, chopped
Serranos to taste, minimum 4
Rough ground cumin and coriander 2 T ea.
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chili powder or any ground chile you prefer
[1/4 cup onion powder] optional
[1/4 cup garlic powder] optional

Either way, soak bird for at least a day as much as 3. I use a Gott 5 gal
bev cooler. Use an 8 lb bag of ice in place of 1 gal water.

Place only aromatics in cavity...bay leaves, garlic heads, apples, citrus,
rosemary stems. I like to place orange slices between skin and meat.

Smoke ass end towards fire for 45 minutes/lb @ 225. You can rotate as
charring necessitates. This will result in inedible skin. If you like skin,
cook @ 300ish. A bigger bird is a higher bird which means the top of the
bird will cook at a higher temp. Keep this in mind. Your first bird should
be a 14 lber.

-Cuchulain Libby AKA Hound(deceased)
ICQ 83719527

I personally endorse Hound's brine for smoking. Sorry to say
I have made a version of the brine using
only bottled citrus. Big mistake. It's seriously inferior to Hound's
version made from fresh citrus.
--

jpeac2 wrote:Or are you all just using the standard sugar salt combo?

Looking to spice up the brine with some fun stuff and am curious what all you add?

Was thinking a couple of handfuls of some herbs.

What do you put in yours?

A couple flavors I always love are maple syrup and sage, so they're usually part of my turkey brine. Just make sure to use a really dark, grade b maple syrup if you go this route. Thyme is always nice . . . rosemary adds a more woodsy flavor although I know it has its detractors.

2 gallons water
2 cups Kosher salt
3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
Juice of 3 oranges
" " " limes
" " " lemons
rinds from same
1 sliced white onion
! head of garlic, crushed
most of a bunch of cilantro, chopped
Serranos to taste, minimum 4
Rough ground cumin and coriander 2 T ea.
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chili powder or any ground chile you prefer
[1/4 cup onion powder] optional
[1/4 cup garlic powder] optional

Either way, soak bird for at least a day as much as 3. I use a Gott 5 gal
bev cooler. Use an 8 lb bag of ice in place of 1 gal water.

Place only aromatics in cavity...bay leaves, garlic heads, apples, citrus,
rosemary stems. I like to place orange slices between skin and meat.

Smoke ass end towards fire for 45 minutes/lb @ 225. You can rotate as
charring necessitates. This will result in inedible skin. If you like skin,
cook @ 300ish. A bigger bird is a higher bird which means the top of the
bird will cook at a higher temp. Keep this in mind. Your first bird should
be a 14 lber.

-Cuchulain Libby AKA Hound(deceased)
ICQ 83719527

I personally endorse Hound's brine for smoking. Sorry to say
I have made a version of the brine using
only bottled citrus. Big mistake. It's seriously inferior to Hound's
version made from fresh citrus.
--

[/color][/quote]

this sounds great buzz ,i will have to try it

I'm glad this thread came back up. I'm picking up a fresh turkey this morning. I have to come to Chicago to pick up my father at the airport immediately afterward so the turkey is taking the trip too. I was going to use the buttermilk brine but after seeing what I posted last year my memory has been jogged and I'm going to do the dry brine method for 2 days which should work out perfectly. I am going to quarter it for the WSM.

I just got back and rubbed turkey with a dry brine of salt, pepper, and various herbs. I did quarter it first. I also bought an extra dark meat quarter and 4 turkey necks which were rubbed to use for roasting and making gravy.

I'm not opposed to roasting the necks, etc. on Thursday but would really like to roast them Wednesday night and save the drippings to make the gravy on Thursday. Anyone ever tried something like this or do the drippings need to be fresh. I was thinking of pouring everything into a jar and then deglazing the pan and add to the drippings or should I save them separately.

Bruce wrote: Anyone ever tried something like this or do the drippings need to be fresh. I was thinking of pouring everything into a jar and then deglazing the pan and add to the drippings or should I save them separately.

My stock is already made from roasted turkey parts--deglazed pan and saved the all the good tasting stuff to make the gravy Thurs--anything that can be done ahead of time is good

I saw somewhere recently a recommendation from Harold McGhee not to bother with anything but water and salt in a poultry brine. Sodium chloride is a small molecule and will penetrate the skin and flesh. Neither sugar nor any of those other things in all those brine recipes is a small enough molecule to do the same.

I have a few questions about dry brining (I am dry brining the turkey for the first time--I usually use a wet brine).
1. If I rinse the salt off the turkey before cooking will I be able to use the pan drippings for gravy or will it still be too salty?
2. Should I rinse off the salt tonight and let dry overnight for crispier skin or will it be enough to rinse/dry before cooking it tomorrow?
Thanks in advance,
Becca

1. Yes, but I would use low or no salt stock and salt at end.
2. I am doing it a few hours before.

Big fan of the dry brine. I used the Cooks Illustrated technique for 'salted roast turkey' for yesterdays bird (as well as Susana Trilling's pasilla chile rub from Saveur) and the turkey came out great. As mention upthread, you salt the turkey a couple days in advance, then pack the breast in ice for an hour after before cooking it so it takes longer to come up to temperature. The turkey breast was really moist, the dark meat cooked perfectly. My uncle proclaimed it 'the best turkey [he's] ever had' (he was probably just stroking my ego so I'll continue hosting, but still nice to hear). I will definitely be doing this the next time I get conned into hosting TG.

Edited to add that the drippings weren't too salty to use with homemade, unsalted broth (thanks Bruce)