Two of Ann’s recipes and more than two hundred others from her editing colleagues worldwide are now available in the compilation More Food for Thought, at CaféPress.com. Proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to the Grace Meredyth Lovegrove Scholarship at Christopher Newport University, in memory of the daughter of editing colleague Richard Lovegrove.

Turkey Brine

Alas for regular visitors here, the second half of 2009 turned out to be so busy with both editing and B&B guests that I never had the chance to update this recipe page with my summer and fall choices. I have some nice photos of the food that I planned to feature, and so hopefully, those recipes will be posted for your enjoyment in 2010.

At this point, we have even moved past the winter solstice, and so this recipe is also late, but at least I’m getting it onto the Web in advance of Christmas Day—which is good, because this is my recipe for brining a turkey.

Never brined a turkey before? Believe me, although I love corned beef (brined spiced brisket), brining any other type of meat would never have occurred to me had I not seen a feature on the technique in a women’s magazine more than 10 years ago. Although handling the container that holds the turkey and brine mixture requires some muscle, the process is otherwise not very onerous, and it produces wonderfully moist meat and pre-seasoned pan juices with which to create a magnificent gravy.

The first step is to find a non-reactive container sufficiently large to hold the turkey completely submerged in the brine. For a whole turkey in the 12- to 14-pound range, which is the average bird on the Canadian family table at Christmas or Thnksgiving, I can use my large ceramic canning pot. A fresh turkey breast from a bird of about that size will fit in my small canner. Both of those vessels will squeeze into my refrigerator for the overnight soaking. If you have a humongous bird in the 20-pound range, a well-scrubbed picnic cooler placed on the counter is your best bet. Just make sure to add some of your brining water in the form of ice so as to keep the bird and the brine well chilled overnight.

The brine recipe that follows works with my large canning pot and an average-sized turkey. For a turkey breast, I need only about half the brine in the smaller canner. Before you begin, you should figure out how many cups of water it takes to cover your turkey in your pot, and adjust the recipe accordingly.

Ingredients:

12- to 14-pound fresh turkey (or completely defrosted frozen)
2 L (8 cups) boiling water
Approx. 10 L (40 cups) very cold water
4 cups kosher salt
2 cups golden brown sugar
3 medium onions, grated
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/4 cup dried rosemary leaves
1/4 cup dried rubbed (not ground) sage
1/4 cup dried rubbed (not ground) thyme
2 tbsp whole allspice berries
12 small to medium bay leaves
Cheesecloth

Method:

The evening before you plan to cook the turkey, add the salt, sugar, and grated onion to your brining pot. Mix together the peppercorns, rosemary, sage, thyme, allspice, and bay leaves, and then use the cheesecloth to make one or more “teabags” to loosely hold the spices. Add the bagged spices to the pot. Pour the boiling water over the seasonings in the pot. Allow this “tea” to steep for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar and salt dissolve. Add 16 cups of the cold water to the pot. Stir well.

Remove the neck and giblets from the turkey (reserve them for making broth for gravy, if you like). Place the turkey into the pot breast down, and then continue adding the remaining cold water until the turkey is completely submerged. Using a little less or a little more than the 48 cups of water is fine. However, if you find that you need to add a lot of extra water, then add more sugar, salt, onion, and spices in proportion to the extra water.

Cover the pot, and transfer to the refrigerator for overnight soaking.

The next day, when you are ready to roast the bird, lift the turkey out of the brine, allowing the water to drain out of the cavity. Discard the brine. (If you drain the brine through a colander, you can compost the solids, including the cotton cheesecloth.)

Dry the turkey thoroughly inside and out, then roast as usual. I prefer to cook brined turkey unstuffed, because the juices that cook out would make a stuffing overly salty. Instead, I cook my turkey dressing in a separate casserole dish, which is, in any case, the current recommendation from a food safety and lower-fat perspective.

Use the herb-scented pan juices to make gravy, adding only low-salt or unsalted liquids (water from simmering the neck and giblets while the turkey roasts is a great addition), because the pan juices will already be very salty from the brine.

Enjoy, with our best wishes for a very happy holiday season!

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