Brining before cooking

[BA1125]

Has anyone ever messed with brining chickens or any other meats before you marinate or inject and then cook?

Also, how long can you let chicken quarters sit in the fridge before cooking? I bought some Sunday night and was wondering how long they could stay in the fridge before I had to cook.

Thanks,
Brad

[Shawn Braquet]

Buddy of mine brines all poultry over night before cookin, he uses a salt and sugar mixture, i think a cup of each then covers the meat with water in a ziploc bag

[eman]

I brine all poultry and sometimes pork loins and pork butts.
Here is the BEST brine i have found,
It's from an old hillbilly that goes by Tip .
Tip's slaughter house brine
11/2 gal water
2 cup kosher salt ( i cut this to 1 cup )
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp tony's
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp lemon pepper
bring the water to a boil add all ingrediants boil for 3 min . let cool .
i use a food grade 5 gal bucket . put the meat in and cover w/ brine. use a heavy plate or lg bowl to keep the meat submerged.

[slick143]

What is brining supose to do. I have never heard of that and now i'm curious

[outcast]

Brining is the way to go for sure. I brined my first turkey for christmas and put in on the smoker. the taste was unbelievable! Ill never do another bird without brining it first. I used a simple recipe, here it is

Brined for 24 hrs in:
1 gal apple juice
2 cups table salt
2 cups white sugar
6 T worchestershire sauce
1 cup honey
8 lbs. ice

Bring the apple juice to a boil. Add the salt, sugar, and worchestershire. Stir to dissolve salt and sugar. Turn off the heat and add the honey. Stir to dissolve. Add 8 lbs. of ice and stir until ice is melted.
i use a 5 gal bucket . put the turkey or chicken in and cover w/ brine. use a heavy plate or lg bowl to keep the meat submerged. put the lid on and put in the refrigerator for 24 hours. take the meat out and rinse off the brine and pat dry.

here is a little about the brining process from wikipedia:

Brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of Osmosis
In many foods the additional salt is also desirable as a Preservative.

[swamp snorkler]

Originally Posted by slick143

What is brining supose to do. I have never heard of that and now i'm curious

It simply breaks down the connective tissue in the meats and makes it more tender and juicy.........

MY BRINE

I Boil one gallon of water and add a cup of salt to it. let it cool and cover Poultry or Pork with it for 8 hours.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by eman

2 cup kosher salt ( i cut this to 1 cup )

I worked at a salt plant for many years. We packaged salt for almost any use....... Shimpers to help separated the catch, Oil drilling salt, Food industry and we even produced Pharmacentical grade salt [very high standards].

The salt was made from an evaproation process using salt water from under ground leaching process.

My point...... is that all the salt was basically the same. And yes......many of the 25 different bags we used to put the salt in had the "kosher" lable on them. The Ribi would come out each year and tour the plant [he did not know what he was looking at] and we paid some money to get a Kosher blessing.

Question..... why pay big $$$$ for a container of "kosher" salt?

Same goes for "Sea salt". Sea Salt is made in big ponds filled with water from the ocean. After the water evaporates..... you have salt. That is a simple explination....there is more to the process.

Is this salt ever "contaminate".......they tell all the birds to go somewhere else to "poop, and the bull dozers and trucks are 100% clean???? Was the sea water pure???

Sea salt is fairly cheap to produce..... why the high price in the store?

[eman]

Originally Posted by Gerald

I worked at a salt plant for many years. We packaged salt for almost any use....... Shimpers to help separated the catch, Oil drilling salt, Food industry and we even produced Pharmacentical grade salt [very high standards].

The salt was made from an evaproation process using salt water from under ground leaching process.

My point...... is that all the salt was basically the same. And yes......many of the 25 different bags we used to put the salt in had the "kosher" lable on them. The Ribi would come out each year and tour the plant [he did not know what he was looking at] and we paid some money to get a Kosher blessing.

Question..... why pay big $$$$ for a container of "kosher" salt?

Same goes for "Sea salt". Sea Salt is made in big ponds filled with water from the ocean. After the water evaporates..... you have salt. That is a simple explination....there is more to the process.

Is this salt ever "contaminate".......they tell all the birds to go somewhere else to "poop, and the bull dozers and trucks are 100% clean???? Was the sea water pure???

Sea salt is fairly cheap to produce..... why the high price in the store?

LOL I guess the guy who sent me the recipe is Jewish???
I like the size of the grains of kosher salt for seasoning as you can see how much you put on your food . But , in a brine i'm sure that any non -iodized salt would work.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by eman

LOL I guess the guy who sent me the recipe is Jewish???
I like the size of the grains of kosher salt for seasoning as you can see how much you put on your food . But , in a brine i'm sure that any non -iodized salt would work.

A little bit about making Iodized salt.............

Iodized salt was a lot of work to produce.

The "Iodized" chemical is really about 5 or 6 different chemicals added to the salt. When we first started making "Iodized" salt, it was only for a few customers. The chemicals were mixed in a mixer that would only hold ~ 75 lbs. Someone would have to measure each chemical and put it in the mixer and run the mixer for about 15 minutes. The chemicals were then put into several drums. Several batches would be needed to make up enough for one 18 wheeler truck load.

Then in the early days.....someone would have to measure a small scoop amount and put that into each empty 80 lb bag. When all the bags [570] were ready....we would fill up the bags with salt on the bagging line. The customer would then empty the bags and mix up the salt with the Iodized chemicals.

Later we got a much better mixer and a chemical feed system up on the second floor of the building. A chemical feeder was connected to a screw conveyor so that the Iodized chemicals would feed into the conveyor and be evenly mixed before the salt went into the bags