Need help!! I forgot that I promised a smoked turkey for the office party in a couple of days and the only thawed ones I can find are "injected with a 3% solution of salt, sugar, and turkey broth." Should I dry brine with less salt or not at all? I was planning on using my own rub under the skin which has very little salt or injecting it with something like Cajun butter injection. The plan is to smoke it in the PBC using pecan and cherry with the turkey hanger. Again, thanks for all the advice!
The OmegaDog
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3% is not much, I would dry brine with half the normal amount of salt. I read here just the other day about someone with an 8% solution injected Turkey that dry brined. The comment he made was that it was not too salty.
My guess is it's not 3% by weight of bird, it's a 3% salt solution, meaning 3 grams of salt plus water to make a total of 100 grams of brine.
If that's the case, you really don't know how much salt that is per pound of turkey. Look for the nutrition label to see the milligrams (mg) sodium per serving and then you can back calculate the sodium in the bird.
Okay, here's a quick 'n dirty calculation to give some perspective --
Assuming a plain turkey with no added salt, Google tells me the natural sodium (Na) content is around 15 to 20 milligrams / ounce of meat. Assume the turkey contains 20 mg sodium / oz meat. The salt (NaCl) equivalent of this sodium content is 50 mg NaCl / oz in a fresh, no salt added turkey.
Kosher salt weighs about 3 grams / 1/2 tsp. Using the Meathead recommended dry brine of 1/2 tsp / pound of meat, that 1/2 tsp of salt adds 3 grams NaCl / pound of meat. A little math magic translates that to 190 mg NaCl / ounce of meat.
Combine the natural salt + salt from the dry brine = 50 + 190 = 240 mg NaCl / oz meat
Convert that answer back to a sodium (Na) basis to get about 95 mg sodium / oz meat for a dry-brined turkey per Meathead's guidelines.
Nutrition labels are based on a serving. See how many ounces of meat = 1 serving. It's often something like 3 to 4 ounces of meat. Find the sodium content per serving. Divide the sodium content per serving by the ounces of meat per serving.
If you get an answer somewhere around 95 mg sodium/oz or higher, there's probably plenty of salt in the turkey already. It might get too salty if you also dry brine.
If you get an answer that's something less than 95 mg sodium/oz, you could do a light dry brine.
If you get close to 20 mg sodium/oz, you could do a regular full-strength dry brine.
Did this kinda quick while goofing off at work. (I be da boss, so I think I'm safe.) I think my math and chemistry are okay, but if I'm in error, I'm sure y'all will let me know.
Last edited by IowaGirl; November 19, 2019, 11:09 AM.
Reason: edit for clarity
I'm a chemical/agricultural engineer and the unofficial chemistry professor for an online soap making forum. I often answer chemical-ish and mathy questions on the soap forum, so I thought I'd geek out a bit here too when the occasion seems right.
I have wondered about should a injected turkey be dry brined. I just read an article from America's Test Kitchen where they dry brined bone in skin on turkey breasts, used one teaspoon of salt per pound then timed how long it took for the brine to reach a 0.5% solution, which is what most testers preferred. their findings were the most even penetration took 48 hours to get thru the whole turkey. what they didn't say was whether or not the test was done on injected or non injected turkey breasts. 1 hour was worse than useless because it made the outer meat too salty to eat, 12 hours was not enough, 24 hours was acceptable but 48 hours was the best. so now we have something else to add to the list of questions on how to make the best turkey possible. I suspect but don't know at some point the meat will reach equilibrium and stop absorbing salt just not sure what that level will be. so dry brine that turkey and tell us how long it soaked and how did it turn out.
"...at some point the meat will reach equilibrium and stop absorbing salt just not sure what that level will be...."
One way meat can be preserved is to make the meat so salty that dangerous microorganisms can't survive. That's far, far beyond the amount of salt that you'd want in the meat for eating.
If you want edible food without having to desalinate first, then follow Meathead's recommendation of 1/2 tsp per pound for dry brining a no-salt-added bird. Tweak the amount to suit your own tastes, but 1/2 tsp per pound is a good place to start. Reduce or eliminate the dry brine for birds that have been injected with a salt solution to keep the total added salt within that limit.
I agree with IowaGirl and all her calculations from courses I have taken. The 1/2 teaspoon per pound dry brine will go through the skin over 24-36 hours. After this I do a Simon and Garfunkel rub mixed with butter. That I place under the skin and inside the cavity.
A quick note to thank all the responses. I ended up injecting the bird with Tony Cachere's Garlic and Herb Injection and rubbing a LIGHT coat of PBC rub under and on the skin. Allowed to sit in fridge overnight uncovered. I actually tried IowaGirl 's calculations based on a previous post of PBC rub being 50% SALT. Smoked in the PBC over cherry and pecan. No complaints of saltiness and entire bird gone in less than 30 minutes in spite of other hams and birds there (someone actually took the carcass to use in a soup!). Thanks to all. Pitmaster friends, YOU MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A PITMASTER EXPERT and again thanks!!
The OmegaDog
Last edited by OmegaDog12; November 24, 2019, 07:13 AM.
So my turkey says it is at 210 grams of sodium per 4 ounce serving. Also states it has been basted with an "up to 8% solution of turkey broth, sodium, and other stuff." So that means it has not been injected, right? It is a 14 pound Young Turkey from Kroger's. Am I correct in thinking I can do Meathead's full dry brining and then inject the turkey also?
I did a smoked turkey last year on my Spirit II gas grill. This will be my 1st time on my Masterbuilt XL 340G gas smoker. I plan to spatchcock it correctly this time. Did not put it all the way flat last year, it looked more like a pup tent, LOL!
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"Basted" might mean wet brined, SmokingSteve , who knows?
However they treated it, your bird has about 2 times more sodium per serving than a USDA turkey nutrition chart shows for a non-brined one. It depends on how much salt you want to eat per serving. A chicken hot dog has 600 mg sodium per serving, for example.
Huskee had a nice rule of thumb about brining/dry brining that he posted somewhere here on the site. Here's what he posted:
Look at the Nutrition label:
200-300mg sodium, brine as if it weren't salted at all
300-400mg sodium, brine lightly.
400+mg, maybe skip brining.
So I have a turkey breast with a label that states 200 mg of sodium per serving. So that means I can dry brine it as usual and not worry about oversalting?
Free range fresh turkeys have 75 to 100 mg sodium per 4 oz serving. Most people would dry brine that in a minute. Not that that answers your question. I have dry-brined turkey breasts with 200-300mg sodium with no problems, frailinryan . Short answer: yes.
My wife and I have a brining disagreement. I am about to brine a chicken to be roasted whole. She pulled out the wrapped chicken where it states on the package it has been injected with water and chicken broth. Up to 15 percent. I believe chicken broth is cheaper than chicken meat so my guess it has 15 percent water.
Having a bird with that much water, would brining help it? Maybe I should squeeze water out of it.
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