Today is National Turkey Lovers' Day! If you're posting on social media, be sure to tag either #NationalTurkeyLoversDay, #TurkeyLoversDay, or both!
Thanksgiving is a loooong way off (158 days, to be exact), but on this day you can share some simple turkey brining tips that will make juicy, flavorful birds perfect for spatchcocking and roasting on an outdoor smoker!
Turkey Brining
There is a lot of information out there on brining. There are wet brines, dry brines, brines with sugar and spices, brines with acids, the list goes on. For customers brining for the first time, I recommend a very simple wet brine of just salt and water. It doesn't involve a raw, uncovered turkey sitting in the fridge, and it delivers a consistent and delicious result.
To make a simple wet brine for a 12-16 pound turkey, stir 340 grams of kosher salt into 1.5 gallons of cold water until completely dissolved. A 16 gallon stockpot works perfectly for this purpose. The turkey needs to sit completely submerged in the brine for 12 to 18 hours before it goes on the smoker (or roasts in the oven). This brining method still takes up a lot of room in the fridge, but there's much less risk of cross contamination compared to a dry brine.
Tips for success
It's important to make this brine by salt weight per water volume (225 g kosher salt per gallon of water) rather than salt volume per water volume because of the differences in grain size between the various salts.
The water component of the wet brine should be below 40 deg F before the turkey goes in. This is another benefit of a wet brine created with only salt and cold water. Unlike brines that contain sugar and spices, which typically need to be to be heated then cooled, a water and salt brine is much faster to prepare.
Lastly, make sure the salt is completely and thoroughly dissolved in the water. Salt crystals sitting on the bottom of a stainless steel pot can cause pitting and corrosion.
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