To Brine or Not To Brine

About author / Lauren Braun Costello

The competent cook; food stylist; cooking instructor; graduate French Culinary Institute. To die for dish? Maple glazed bacon wrapped roast turkey. Yep, bacon wrapped.

The Thanksgiving turkey is perhaps the greatest source of insecurity and anxiety for America's home cooks. The competition, it seems, is not for the moistest turkey, but unfortunately for being able to make the bird moist in the first place. Every year, people ask me whether they should brine their holiday bird. "I hear that if you don't brine it, the turkey will be dry. Is that true?" I am thrilled to set the record straight, and hopefully to make you a more competent--and confident--Thanksgiving Day cook.

No! It is not at all true that you must brine to have a moist turkey. That being said, brining is an excellent technique that helps to produce a moist and tasty turkey. But it is not a requisite. Personally, I do not brine my turkey. I have alternative techniques to moisten and flavor my bird (see below) without adding this additional step. But that is an individual choice, and there are literally hundreds of delicious and technically sound ways to roast a turkey. Before you decide whether you want to brine, learn more about the technique and all your options.

What is Brining?
Brining is placing food in a strong solution of water and salt (a brine) in order to pickle or preserve it. Other ingredients can be added to this solution for flavor or color, such as sugar or molasses. Specifically, brining a turkey helps the bird to retain moisture and impart flavor throughout the meat.

Brining can take anywhere from 4 hours to overnight, depending on your schedule and needs. The longer you plan on brining the turkey, however, the less salt you should use. For example, if you have a 15 pound turkey and you plan to brine it in 2 gallons of water for 4-6 hours, use up to 4 cups of kosher salt. If you will eat an early dinner Thanksgiving day and wish to begin brining the night before, use only 2 cups of kosher salt. You may use table salt, but you will need to use even more of it since it is less potent in flavor. To that end, kosher salt is ideal.

When the bird is removed from the brine to be put in the oven, it first must be rinsed thoroughly inside and out, and then pat dry inside and out. These are two critical steps to ensure that the turkey is neither unpleasantly salty nor damp before being cooked.

That is the Question. . .
So, to brine or not to brine. At this point you may be wondering what your other options are, if not to brine. One way to achieve moisture and impart a salty, seasoned flavor is to wrap the turkey in bacon. This is undoubtedly my favorite roast turkey preparation. The bacon is cured and fatty, so it can impart lots of flavor and moisture from salt and fat. Coating the turkey breast and legs with bacon literally acts as a shield, creating a layer between the turkey and direct heat. The bacon itself tastes like no other bacon you have ever had.

Another useful method is to rub the outside of the bird with lots of butter, in the same manner as Julia Child's legendary roast chicken. Butter is pure fat and flavor, so it certainly can provide moisture and taste. Roasting the turkey breast-side down is also a fool-proof method for retaining, at the very least, moisture. At the last stage of cooking, the turkey is turned breast-side up to brown and crisp.

There are other ways to keep a turkey moist, such a cooking it in one of those large plastic bags or tenting it with foil (both serve as protective shields from direct heat). People swear by deep fried turkey, and I imagine a bird cooked in a cauldron of hot grease could not possibly lack flavor or moisture. You do have many options after all, brine or not.

Top Turkey Tips
Whether you decide to brine your bird or not, there are a few additional things to keep in mind. Many people overcook their birds, I think, because when they check the legs for the juice to run clear, they see that the leg flesh looks pink, and they consider that color to be unsafe for consumption. Remember that turkey legs are dark meat and the color is most definitely pinkish. If the juices have run clear and the internal temperature has reached 180F in the thigh or 170F in the breast, your turkey is ready to be served. Along those lines, let the turkey rest. If the turkey is carved right away without having rested, the juices will simply run from the bird, leaving the meat potentially dry. Allow the turkey time to redistribute its own internal moisture. Not only will the bird hold onto all those juices that it produced during the cooking process, but you will have an easier and safer experience carving the turkey.

There are a few other common mistakes that people tend to make. We all focus on seasoning the outside of the turkey, but often neglect the cavity. The inside of the bird must be seasoned just as much as the outside, if not more so. The flavors can infuse from within during cooking. Rub the cavity with lots of salt and pepper, then fill part of it with onions, apples, carrots, celery or any other aromatics that appeal to you.

What about the stuffing? Even though a stuffed turkey is the visual representation of our national day of thanks, it is not really a safe or particularly good preparation. There is the potential for the stuffing to fail to reach a food-safe temperature, which is problematic when stuffing is made with raw meats and eggs. Also, the stuffing stays wet, absorbing moisture from the bird, since very little of it is exposed to the heat directly to become browned and develop a crust. More to the point of this article, the stuffing prolongs the cooking of the turkey, since air and heat cannot get to the cavity and circulate within the bird. The part of the turkey that suffers the most is, of course, the breast.

If you are used to stuffing your bird and have had dry results, consider "undressing" the turkey this year (stuffing, when cooked in a casserole on its own, is called dressing). Try one of my three recipes for a moist, tasty turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving, Competent Cooks!

Serves/Makes: 8

• 14 pounds whole turkey
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 bunch fresh sage
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 1 bunch fresh savory
• 1 medium carrot, cut in chunks
• 1 medium celery stalk, cut in chunks
• 1 small onion, cut in chunks
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves/Makes: 8

• 14 pounds whole turkey
• 2 large lemons
• 2 large limes
• 1 large juicing orange
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (dark or light)
• 1/4 cup dry white wine or apple juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
• 1/4 cup oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves/Makes: 12

• 14 pounds whole turkey
• 2 pounds sliced bacon
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1 large tart apple, quartered
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• salt and freshly ground black pepper