I'm glad I half brined as these have been soaking for 4 days now. Just doped em up with MMD. Going on at 3:00am for what I hope to be a full no crutch cook. Weathers not looking the best. Man I love this. #totallystoked
Dinner at 5:00 or 7:00.
edit: I know, I know I should split em...
Last edited by Jon Solberg; January 3, 2015, 08:51 PM.
Wish I had those kind of muscles! Baking soda will enhance the smoke ring, help chicken skin dry out and crisp (great on wings) and speeds up the browning reaction between protein and sugars. Visibly deepens bread and bagels crusts, so they look perfect without drying out. On a long smoke run, not much of a browning difference and the smoke obscures the effect. Does help with a pork tenderloin, which is cooked to a lower temp for a shorter period of time. Since the Maillard reaction (browning) requires protein and sugar, you can actually shake a bit of powdered sugar on a turkey (again, something like an 1/8 tsp lb). Won't taste sweet, but will brown faster. This is why people add sugar to their wet turkey brines.
Happy New Year!
Last edited by docblonder; December 31, 2014, 01:22 PM.
Did this a couple weeks ago, but on an overnight cook so I couldn't see anything but flash on smoke to see if one browned faster than the other. They both looked the same in the end. I will be interested to see if it actually does make it brown faster.
I also tried this with 2 turkeys last week and though it was just a sample of 1, the soda turkey seemed a little darker. Curiously the skin mostly came off while slicing the regular bird, but all stayed in tact with the soda bird. Would like to try that a few more times.
Looking at the pork shoulder after slapping it hard around the counter a few times, I look up at my partner and say, "He ain't talkin', give 'em the Full Blonder!"
Been reading a bit on Dr. Blonder's site after see the post about adding a touch of baking soda to the salt. Doing 1/4tsp salt to 1/16 tsp baking soda just to see what happens. [I always brine at half rate for some reason] Cant wait till Saturday!
Last edited by Jon Solberg; January 3, 2015, 08:51 PM.
Last edited by Jon Solberg; December 31, 2014, 08:28 AM.
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