Brining Question?

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dollarbill

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Ok, If you brine a chickin in 1 gallon of water, in a skinny container, will it brine the same as if you did it in a 3 gallon container with proportionate amounts of brine?
 
I'm curious about the "space involved"....

Does more water and more salt and sugar or whatever = more brining?

Or does a tight space with less water maybe "push" more brine into the bird some how? With = parts water and = parts salt and sugar / brine stuff?
 
Seems like the flesh reaches an equilibrium type relationship with the soaking liquid at some point. Think Alton Brown done a good segment in conjunction with imparting his OJ turkey brine recipe. Temp also plays a highly critical role in all this mess. Relearned that lesson yet again the hard way on the Jonas Brudder's favorite brine recipe with come out in People Magazine. It say soak two hour in warm water..it do not mean six hours. At 2 hours the chicken is still warm to the touch or maybe slightly chilled. At six hours is cold as a hoorers heart. The two hour version is much mo betta.

PS Edit: Yes you can vary the strength of a depending on how much time you got..whut you have in mind for the meat aka maybe long term storage etc. I dont believe the shape of the vessel matters much. I brine in garbage bags. Works well. Hope this helps a little.

bigwheel
 
bigwheel said:
Seems like the flesh reaches an equilibrium type relationship with the soaking liquid at some point. Think Alton Brown done a good segment in conjunction with imparting his OJ turkey brine recipe. Temp also plays a highly critical role in all this mess. Relearned that lesson yet again the hard way on the Jonas Brudder's favorite brine recipe with come out in People Magazine. It say soak two hour in warm water..it do not mean six hours. At 2 hours the chicken is still warm to the touch or maybe slightly chilled. At six hours is cold as a hoorers heart. The two hour version is much mo betta.

PS Edit: Yes you can vary the strength of a depending on how much time you got..whut you have in mind for the meat aka maybe long term storage etc. I dont believe the shape of the vessel matters much. I brine in garbage bags. Works well. Hope this helps a little.

bigwheel

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I’m confused. Wouldn't brining poultry in warm water breed a bacteria party???

I brine chicken in cold water in the fridge or ice chest at comps. 6 to 8 hours for pieces. 1 Gallon h2o, 1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar and lots of other herbs and spices. I simmer for about 20 minutes to open up the spices, than chill the brine. I don't think volume has anything to do with it. The chicken don't know it it's got 3 gallons around it or 1 gallon. It will balance the same either way.
 
Well the warm water brine was expressly designated for pork chops but should also work on chicken. The problematical area for bacteria is typically on the surface of a solid chunk of flesh (not counting ground or minced products or them who have the integrity breached from puncturing injecting etc). So whutever microbial critters you have inhabiting the flesh should be killed at normal cooking temps even if some of it do manage to work its way into the interior. I would also agree with Cappy that I dont think a salt and sugar laden soaking liquid would be a very hospitable environment for microbes regardless of the temps. Now will testify a standard "weak brine" of 1 cup salt per gallon o water will tend to make the finished product too salty if the chilled brine process isn't followed. Whereas the warm water brine only calls for 1/2 cup of salt per gallon so guess its the old time vs temp thing. Just thinking out loud here and if proven I will take it all back of course:)

bigwheel
 
Nick Prochilo said:
It won't suck up anymore brine. It's not like the bird is going to suck up all the brine in the 1 gallon mix


I wasn't concerned about it suckin it all up (no jokeS please :LOL: ) . I was just curiouse if one would make it better or worse.

BW Whats the story on 1/2 cup for warm water and a full cup for cold? Does it work out to be the same for some scientific reason? :?:
 
I just know for years I followed the regular old cold brine routine (1 cup salt to 1 cup sugar) till I stumbled over the warm water brine in a magazine. It calls for a gallon of warm tap water into which is mixed 1/2 cup of salt and 1/4 cup chili flakes (Whutever that is. I just use bbq rub) and allowed to brine for 2 hours in the ice box. Dont exceed the two hours. Dry it off well with paper towels and rub a little olive oyl on it or squirt it with PAM. Makes some excellent pork chops.

bigwheel
 
trust the folks who figure it out...it may have something to do with
temps affecting osmosis, but like BW, I'll retract anything if I'm proven
wrong. Print recipes usually have a lot more credibility than something
you read on the internet.
 
Captain Morgan said:
trust the folks who figure it out...it may have something to do with
temps affecting osmosis, but like BW, I'll retract anything if I'm proven
wrong. Print recipes usually have a lot more credibility than something
you read on the internet.


What if you print it off the internet? :roll:
 
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