Brining Turkey?

At 10:00 PM, the night prior to Thanksgiving Day, as Matt was en route to the farm; he called and asked if we had ever tried to brine our turkey.  Brine a turkey?  I never heard of such a thing.

 

Matt picked up that turkey trick on Nova along with the scientific reasoning behind why brining results in a moister turkey.  I did not need to know the scientific specifics.

 

So, at 10:30 PM, Glenn and I retrieved the turkey from the basement refrigerator, made up a batch of brine (salt and water), plopped the turkey into the stock pot of brine, and put it back into the basement refrigerator.

 

I was a bit doubtful.  The recipe I garnered from the Internet called for putting two cups salt into two gallons of water.  We started with the two cups of salt, but one gallon of water filled the turkey-stuffed stock pot.  Glenn and I were too tired to remove the turkey and remix the brine; two cups salt to one gallon of water would have to do.

 

The next day, Thanksgiving, I roasted the turkey as normal; simply stuffed and placed in an open roasting pan.  Four hours later….

 

the turkey looked magnificent, perfectly browned - I only  basted once, and tasted AMAZING!  Even the white meat, which I normally shy away from due to its inherent dryness, was moist and juicy.

 

Brining a turkey….a definite do again!