I'm planning on doing a brined turkey for Christmas this year, have never brined one before. Will be grilling it on charcoal... My question is about brining. There will be no room in the fridge for a 16 lbs turkey, is it fine to place the turkey in a clean cooler with the brine and ice for 1-2 days? Any tips on making sure that we keep it at a safe temperature? Any other brining tips for a big bird? Worth the effort? TIA!
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IMO, you should really forgo the wet brine and dry brine instead. If you must wet brine, then yes, a cooler and ice are fine. To monitor the temp, you can use meat probe thermometer. Just put the probe in the brine and sit the base station on top of the cooler. Ensure that your selected thermometer is accurate at those temps first. BTW - this should probably have been a new topic... :-) -
I would say yes it's fine, however I think 1-2days is way too long. I'd think it would only need a few hours. When I wet brine pork chops or chicken pieces I use 1 gallon water, 1 cup salt, and go 1hour, so 1:1:1. A whole chicken I give longer, say 2-3 hrs. I have never wet brined a whole turkey myself (pieces, yes), but I'd think maybe 5 or 6 hours is all you'd need. Of course this all depends on the strength of the brine, I'm speaking of the concentration of brine I'm familiar with.Comment
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I have wet brined several large whole turkeys. Overnight is fine. Any longer and the dark meat takes on a "hammy" flavor.
I have for the last several year gone to dry brining. https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/12/...dry-brine.html
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I wet brine my turkeys but only overnight from midnight to 8 or so in the morning then a thorough rince to get the salt off.
I use a Home Depot like paint pail to brine.
Luckily my garage stays cool enough to store outside overnight but you could put ice in bucket or the bucket in cooler with ice.
Huskee makes a great point on strength of brine. If you are using a commercially packaged turkey it will be partially brined, I typically use 1/4 to 1/3 the amount of kosher salt recipes or the gravy will be sea water.
A fresh turkey should not have been commercially brined so I am lead to understand.
Good luck.Comment
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Ive wet brined turkeys for decades (yea say it...old man). Agree overnight is good enough. Walmart and most grocery stores sell Hefty or Ziplock large storage bags, I think they are 10 gallon. They easily hold your bird and brine. Just place the sealed bag in a cooler and fill it with ice. Easily good for the 24 hour brine.
Good luck with that turkey !!!Comment
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Another vote for an overnight brine (i.e. 8 to 10 hours max).
I used a 48 quart cooler full of ice and live in south Louisiana where the temps are 60-70 deg. F.
One trick I found useful is to buy those large oven bags for turkeys they sell at Walmart/Target. I double bagged my turkey in two of those and poured brine over the bird, tied it off really good, and put it in a cooler full of ice. The oven bags are food safe.
That way I only had to make 1.5 gallons of brine.
Best turkey I've ever done. I would say 1 cup of kosher salt for 1 to 1.5 gallons of water.Attached FilesLast edited by Beefchop; December 5, 2019, 12:51 PM.Comment
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Wow, thanks for all the tips guys, super helpful!!!! I am leaning towards the wet brine, I did a turkey 2 years ago that I didn't brine and it was very good but, I want to kick things up a notch lol! I think that's how the folks in this group roll right? I love the idea of a short brine and the bags to put the turkey and brine in, then in the cooler of ice, that sounds like the perfect and safest solution.
Awesome, appreciate all the tips, will keep you posted on how it turns out :-)Comment
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I used Kosmos’ Turkey brine at Thanksgiving. The directions say 1 hour per pound for brining. I used a Ziplock Big Bag (X-Large Big Bag - 10 Gallon size) that I bought at Lowe’s. I used an ice chest also.
The turkey turned out really moist and tasty.Comment
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I never have fridge space for a turkey. So I always use the cooler. As long as there is ice you are good. Even if it is mostly water with just a little bit of ice it’s safe. But do open the cooler at least once a day and look. If you see ice your good. If the ice is thin drain the water and dump in more ice.
if brining I use a new trash bag. Turkey and brine goes in the trash bag, then it’s tied up and iced down. That way melting ice doesn’t mess with the brine.
this thanksgiving I used a pre-brined turkey. Injected at the processing plant. For that I just kept it on ice for a week. No bag. The ice melt served to "de-brine" it. The day before thanksgiving I drained the water, added another bag of ice, placed the turkey on top of the ice, patted the skin dry, then lightly sprinkled it with salt. Lightly.
came out great.Comment
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Have 12 turkey legs in a salt, brown sugar, tender quick, onion powder, black pepper brine right now. Will stay in it for 24 hours.Comment
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One thing no one has mentioned, and I know it will sound crazy but bear with me, don’t forget to "dance with the turkey". If in the brining process you pull the bird out & up & do a little dance with it on the counter it will keep the appendages limber. When you have a limber bird it is easier to carve after cookin. The drum sticks and even the wings won’t be stuck hard, they’ll move a little nimbler. I wouldn’t cook a turkey today with out doin it. 🕶Comment
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texastweeter , that might have been Martin Yan. It works, it really does. 😎 -
I told him if he would just let them flop after you whack off their head with the axe, that you can get the same effect...he looked mortified...
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All good advice but unless I missed it one other thing to consider if you like the skin crispy is once out of the brine and washed off, paper towel the bird and place back in a cold environment similar to when brining but exposed to the air. Do that for several hours and the skin will be amazing.Comment
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FYI: I have brining (spelling?) a turkey in a cooler the way Beefchop mentioned above probably for the last ten years. After I did it once my family insists I do it the same way every Thanksgiving. I have never had any problems or concerns. If you have concerns a cheap thermometer would let you know the cooler is being kept at a safe temperature.Comment
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Hello All
This is what i used for our Thanksgiving meal. 12# bird, completely frozen when i started. I put the bird in a Roaster cooking bag, the big bags used for large roasting pans. And wrapped a 2nd bag around the first and placed them into a large bowl and made sure the entire bird was covered in Brine. I found room in my fridge for this one, but as you can see below a cleaned cooler or 5 gallon bucket with ice can be used.
1+ cups of Kosher salt- my turkey was frozen and partially brined so i stayed at 1 cup for a 12# bird
3 boxes Chicken broth
Vegetable Boullion
Honey
Poultry seasoning
Water
I thaw the turkey in the brine. Mix the above together in a cooler and put the frozen turkey in. Cover the turkey with water and then 10 lbs of ice. Let the turkey sit in the brine for 4-5 days until thawed. I take it out of the brine the night before and lather it with butter and seasoning. I sometimes also inject it with a bottle of Creole butter (Green Bottle) then bake it. It is the juiciest turkey you will eat.
I decided to spatchcock the bird to speed things up a little and put a little smoke on it.
You can adjust accordingly to your liking.Comment
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