Food/prep people ahoy!

[mousme]

I've been hearing confusing things about brining one's food, especially poultry (something about conserving moisture in chicken).

Is this advisable? When should one brine one's food, if ever? What does it do? Stupid question of the day: doesn't it make the food taste awfully salty?

Buh?

Anyone? Bueller?

Comments

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

I love brining. I do it both dry and wet. The idea behind it is that it helps keep the moisture locked in the meat, resulting in a more tender/moist cooked item. If you flavour the brine you get the added flavouring too. (Duh.)

Dry brining is the easiest thing ever. Take kosher salt, rub it all over your rinsed and patted-dry poultry. Refrigerate for a few hours. Rinse it off, pat dry again. Roast. To die for.

The wet brine is something I tend to use on cuts of meat as opposed to whole birdies. I usually use a brine of water, salt, brown sugar, and as many herbs as I can find hanging dry on my pot rack, plus a bay leaf or two. Heat the brine for a while, then pour it into a container and let it cool before dumping in your cut of meat. Refrigerate for as many hours as you like. I've done chicken breasts as well as pork tenderloin this way.

There are more coherent recipes out there, but these will be the basics of each. The salt doesn't really make it taste salty; like curtana says it adds flavour more than anything else.

I is buying youse my favourite cookbook for Formerly Christian Recycled Pagan Neo-Consumerist Winter Holiday Retail Festival.