The Time to Brine is Now

We have our home grown bird harvested, plucked and ready to be cooked, it weighs 23 pounds. Last year our bird was good but a tad dry. This year thinking ahead, not by much but ahead none the less, I decided to brine it. I consulted the official word (twitter) to make sure I still had enough time and to get ideas. Turns out I did indeed have enough time left but I needed to get a move on. You need about 24 hours for 12 pounds of meat. I put it in this morning and I'll pull it tomorrow night, not quite as long as needed but it's better than nothing.


I got the general rule of thumb being 1 cup salt to one gallon water, with 1 cup sugar per gallon optional. Spices, fruits and flavors were all recommended too. I used a cooler we use when  harvesting birds, sterilized of course, to put the turkey and brine in.

Turkey Brine
1 gallon water
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar-more, less or none
herbs-sage and rosemary
lemon-no lemon I used cuties-all I had!
bay leaves

mix the salt and sugar with the water until dissolved
pour over turkey
make enough brine to cover the bird by 1-2 inches
let soak for 24 hours per 12 pounds of bird
pat dry and let sit to air dry before roasting

In the picture below my bird is waiting for more brine, but I wanted to get a shot of it before it was submerged. I used brown sugar for a sweet twist and cutie oranges because I didn't have lemons. I will be turning him over and over in the brine to make sure he is evenly brined.

Happy Brining!

Peace and Love--