Turkey Magic!
My Gran insisted on soaking her Christmas turkey in brine (or ‘broin’ as she used to call it, being a Birmingham girl). I never really understood why until I tried it for myself.
You need 750g salt for a large turkey. Use a large watertight plastic box and dissolve the salt in 4 pints/2 litres of boiling water. Add 9 pints/5.5 litres of cold water and leave to cool. Immerse the turkey in the brine, breast side down. Cover with a lid and put in a cool place like the garage for 24 hours. You might want to seal the lid or weight it down to prevent mice from gaining access! The next day empty the brine and pat the turkey dry and refrigerate overnight. Remove the bird a couple of hours before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature, and prepare in your usual way.
So why go to this trouble? Here comes the science bit! Roasted turkey can be dry and tough because it’s lean and we tend to err on the side of caution with cooking times, (no-one wants to serve up a plate of festive salmonella right?). Moisture loss is inevitable when you cook any type of muscle fi bre. Heat causes individual coiled proteins in the fi bres to unwind (the technical term is denature), then join together with one another, resulting in shrinkage and moisture loss. Meat loses about 30 percent of its weight during cooking but by brining fi rst, you can reduce this moisture loss to as little as 15 percent. The main reason for this is because the dissolved salt causes some of the proteins in muscle fi bres to pre-unwind and swell. As they unwind, the bonds that held the protein unit together as a bundle break. Water from the brine binds directly to the proteins, and then gets trapped between them when the meat cooks and the unwound proteins bind together. As long as you don’t overcook the meat, the natural juices will be retained.
All this ensures moister, juicier results. But what if you don’t have the container or the inclination to soak your bird? Is there an easier way? Yes, you can ‘dry-brine’, that is pre-salt the turkey. This seasons the meat like the wet brine, but does not use any water. Instead, it involves rubbing salt and seasonings directly onto the meat and / or skin, and then letting the meat rest in the refrigerator before cooking. For a 15lb /7Kg turkey you need about 3 tablespoons of salt, ¾ teaspoon of ground black pepper and herbs of your choice. Pat the turkey dry and then rub the salt mixture liberally over the surface. I like to rub about a third of it under the skin but if you don’t want to go to the bother of separating the skin from the meat it’s fi ne to just rub it over the skin. You need to allow time for the salt to penetrate the meat so allow a day’s brining time per 5lb /2 1/4 Kg of turkey. Dry brining has the advantage of producing extremely crispy skin, and we all know that’s the best bit!
Final tip: Make sure you use an unseasoned turkey. Avoid pre-prepared or self-basting turkeys as they have been injected with brine.
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