Dry brine turkey in a bag?

[BBillFleet]

Pretty much what the title says. I would like to dry brine at least one of my turkeys for the holiday weekend, but do not have the luxury of much open space in any of my refrigerators.

I know it helps with crispy skin to have it dried a bit, but fridges are usually not dry environments, so it takes some extra time to achieve this.

But i was thinking that, at least for the brining part of this, it shouldn’t make much difference whether the brine is exposed to air or not, since it mostly works under the surface, once it’s drawn in.

I figure I could just brine it and wrap it for two days, then give it a good ‘airing out’ in my drying cabinet for half an hour before it goes in/on the heat. Or go at it with a cool hair dryer. Or something.

Any thoughts?

[CHNeal]

No worries with this at all. I dry brine my turkeys and rib roasts wrapped in the fridge every year without any negative effects.

[rickgregory]

That will work fine. However, fridges do tend to be pretty dry, actually, so I'd just uncover it the night before if you have the space.

[Jim White]

One more thing to note is that many turkeys are essentially "pre-brined" in that they have been injected. See the discussion here to see if you need more salt or not.

[realdocBBQ]

Yeah, nowadays it's almost 10% by weight of a brine solution - gotta pump up those profits!

[Bob K]

I wonder if the ‘leave uncovered in fridge to get extra dry for crispier skin’ thing may be a bit overblown. Perhaps with turkey the skin is marginally crispier but you’re also dehydrating the outer 1/4" or so of the meat, which can leave a dried-out band after cooking. (Particularly noticeable with roasts and steaks, which I cover when dry-brining.) I’ve started brining turkey and chicken in salty buttermilk a few years ago, which leaves an awesome crispy skin and very moist and tender meat. I think that dispels the uncovered dry-brine thing a bit (whole bird is wet when it goes on the cooker), but I’m not sure because the buttermilk proteins definitely play a part in the skin’s browning/crisping.

yeah this is way too long but I think dry brine in a bag would work well.

[McFlyfi]

I've done this every year for the past 10 or so. It is part of the LA Times recipe, aka "the Judy Bird.

[shify]

I dry brine for 2-3 days and only uncover it for the last 12-24 hours so you should be fine. The longer you have to let it sit uncovered the crispier the skin will get

[bbqLuv]

For chicken, it is open air for a few hours, and then maybe cover with a paper towel.
I assume that would apply for turkey also, too.