Turkey Brine

1/2 cup salt per gallon cold water
1/2 cup brown sugar per gallon cold water

That's about it really... you can add whatever else you like... rosemary, thyme, soy sauce... I usually do, but it really doesn't add much flavor. This is all about adding moisture so the bird doesn't get dry when you cook it. Make sure the water covers the bird. I've heard you can get an overly salty bird if you brine it too long, but that's never happened to me. Just to be safe, don't brine for longer than 24 hours.

I use my 5 gallon wort kettle to brine in for a 10-15lb. bird and then take a shelf out of the fridge to make room. If you don't have one, or if you don't have room in the fridge, you can use a cooler with ice water like my buddy Jeff from OneCoolTuna ( http://www.onecooltuna.com ) did. I posted some photos of his technique.

Tips for cooking:

Thawing the bird completely is very important. Buy it 2-3 days ahead of time... even the ones marked as "never frozen" usually are a bit frozen in the middle. Brining will help with that.

Make a cooking grate with celery and carrots. Put in oven breast side down and don't baste... (avoid opening the oven door as much as possible) Rule of thumb is 325 for 15 minutes per pound. It's done when the wings or drumsticks easily separate from the rest of the bird and there's clear juices running out. Mmmm...golden turkey.

Submitted by: Pete on November 27, 2013, 2:43 am

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