Does anyone have personal experience preparing a turkey with Brine and do you have a recipe to share?

Yes - I brine mine every year...I made this one last year and it was so good I'm doing it again...this is actually one of Alton Browns recipes (nice try David), BUT it really is wonderful! lol!





1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey





For the brine:


1 cup kosher salt


1/2 cup light brown sugar


1 gallon vegetable stock


1 tablespoon black peppercorns


1/2 tablespoon allspice berries


1/2 tablespoon candied ginger


1 gallon iced water





For the aromatics:


1 red apple, sliced


1/2 onion, sliced


1 cinnamon stick


1 cup water


4 sprigs rosemary


6 leaves sage





Canola oil





Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a


boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature,


and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.





Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and


ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in


brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours.


Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.





A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple,


onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave


on high for 5 minutes.





Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.


Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels.


Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings


and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.





Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes.


Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe


thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing


temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161


degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of


roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.





Happy Holidays!Does anyone have personal experience preparing a turkey with Brine and do you have a recipe to share?
soak the animal carcass in brine-- salt %26amp; sugar water- for a day or so. makes it moist , just use imagination-- cannot go wrong for amts!!!!Does anyone have personal experience preparing a turkey with Brine and do you have a recipe to share?
You bet! I spent years trying to master cooking a turkey and for the past 5 years, I've had awesome success with brine.





What would a posting about turkey brine be without the Ultimate Turkey Brine Recipe:





1 cup salt (Kosher)


1/2 cup brown sugar (I don't think it matters what kind)


1 gallon vegetable stock (if store bought, check the ingredients and get something that isn't packed full of MSG and preservatives)


1 tablespoon black peppercorns (or mixed鈥搄ust put them in whole)


1/2 tablespoon allspice berries (because they're collecting dust in your cupboard anyway)


1/2 tablespoon candied ginger (not ginger candy鈥搕here's a difference)


1 gallon iced water





Start out at the stove top and combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring it to a boil.





Stir to dissolve solids. It only takes a little agitation.





Remove from heat.





Cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.





You DO NOT want to use this brine hot, or you will start to cook the turkey (poached turkey?) and you may interfere with the neat biology/chemistry effect this technique makes use of.





On the day of cooking, (or very late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a 5 gallon bucket (clean鈥搉ot the one you used to change the fish tank water).





Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine. The turkey will float in the brine so what I do is place a brick in a large zip lock bag and place that on top of the turkey.





Cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 6 hours.





Turn turkey over once, half way through brining鈥r not. If the turkey is totally under water, because of the brick, you should be fine.





The rest of the info is at the blog address below but that's the gist.
iv never made one but if you go on the martha stewart website she has at least one, i saw one on tv last week that she was doing and it looked soooo tasty
I brined my turkey for the first time this year. My husband doesn't really care for turkey, and honestly, if his employer hadn't given us one, he probably would have opted for ham.





I heard about brining through an AOL blurb and thought to research it more (I was nervous about the turkey, this is my first time handling the whole diner myself since his family has moved).





I found a variety of brining recipes varying from simple (just salt and water) to ones that had ingredients I'd never even heard off.





I finally decided to throw the dice and come up with my own, all or nothing, huh?!





The result, the turkey was wonderful! I used the juice to make my gravy (which was the first time I've ever successfully made gravy from scratch). I put in the mashed potatoes and even the corn and green beans. It was soooo tender and juicy, I will never cook a bird without brining again.





Here's the recipe that I created, it's great. For a container, I ended up using the top of a cake-taker container. I found about 1 c. salt per gallon of water works well.





2 c. canning %26amp; picking salt (any type would prob. work)


3/4 c. maple syrup


1/2 tsp. liquid smoke


1/2 tsp. bay leaves


1/4 tsp. dill weed


1/8 tsp. parsley


1/8 tsp. savory


1/8 tsp. rosemary


1/8 tsp. thyme


1/8 tsp. coriander


1/8 tsp. caraway seeds


1/8 tsp. paprika


1/16 tsp. ground sage


1/16 tsp. ground cloves


3 chicken bullion cubes





Boil the salt, maple syrup and seasonings/spices together. Add to cold or iced water to cover the turkey. Let sit for at least four hours, ideally overnight, no more than twelve hours.





Drain and rinse well, making sure all salt is removed. Prepare the turkey as usual from this point on. You can add some water if you'd like and drop in the bullion cubes. I didn't stuff my bird, but I cut up some celery and onions (I didn't have apples), and put inside the turkey.
The link below is the recipe we've been using for years. Always comes out perfect. The bird just falls apart.