How To Dry Brine A Turkey - The Best One Ever!
Let's start with some definitions:
A brine is defined as a "Water impregnated or highly saturated with salt". Salt water is briny (think shrimp), and water impregnated with salt is a brine.
Brining is the action of soaking meat in a salt water solution. Spices and other flavorings can be added, but the salt is what makes it a brine.
Brining works because of diffusion (salt pulling moisture out of the meat, and then back in) and due to denaturation of proteins (cells in meat will hold onto more moisture). The end result is a juicer, firmer, more flavorful piece of meat.
There are two main methods to brine; Wet & Dry.
Wet Brine:
This is the traditional method and involves adding salt and flavorings (aromatics, etc) to water so that the salt is dissolved into the water and then the meat is soaked in the salt water brine.Dry Brine:
The Dry Brine method was popularized by Chef Judy Rodgers of San Fransisco's Zuni Cafe in the 1980's. You still use salt and other flavorings (herbs and spices), but instead of soaking the meat in a salt water solution, the salt is applied directly to the meat and the meat then sits with this salt coating on it. Since a traditional "brine" is a salt water solution, technically dry brining is not really a "brine", but rather a method of using salt to pull the natural moisture from the meat you are working with. Once the moisture has been pulled to the exterior of the meat, it does now mix with the salt on the surface and the salt will dissolve into that moisture, which in turn does make a brine solution that gets pulled back into the meat. Because this method brines and seasons the meat without additional moisture it can produce a firmer, more intensely flavored product.
Either method you choose will produce excellent results, however for the purpose of this article we are going to focus on the Dry Brine method.
So we have defined a Wet Brine Vs a Dry Brine, so let’s get to brining!
With a typical Wet Brine, you prepare the turkey (remove giblets, neck, etc) and you soak it in salt water solution (brine) for ~1 hour per pound. With a Dry Brine, the prep is the same, the difference is instead of soaking in a tub of salt water, we apply a dry brine to the exterior of the bird, wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours per pound.
Harvest brine
When we started experimenting with dry brines back in 2015, we quickly came to realize that there was not any commercial available dry brines. Once we had come up with what worked well for us, we decided to put it on the market and Harvest Brine was born.
Brining the bird
Once your turkey is prepped (see above), you want to apply the dry brine. I recommend 1.5 tsp per pound of Turkey. When you apply it to the turkey, some will fall off, be sure to add that amount back to the turkey so it gets the coverage of 1.5 tsp per pound.
The next step is to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. This will help keep the moisture pulled from the turkey, close to the skin.
Put wrapped in fridge for 2-3 hours per pound. For a breast, overnight will be fine. For a whole Turkey, I normally go 48 hours (for a 16lb turkey) or 72 hours for a larger one.
Once wrapped, stick it in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours per pound and up to 3 days.
Remove it from the fridge and upward a couple of hours before you’re going to cook it, and put back in the fridge. This will help to air dry the skin.
I like to spread the paste that remains from the dry brine across the turkey evenly, this helps to make it look better when it’s done.
Cook at 325F for 12-15 min per pound, remove when breast hits 150F and thigh is 165F+.
This is the one I did last week.
Be one of our customers that rave about our Harvest Brine:
“Our turkey breast rubbed with Naturiffic’s ‘Harvest Brine’ was outrageously delicious. Best we’ve ever made: juicy, great flavor and super moist. We just found a new friend”
-Rick R.
Get yours here: Harvest Brine
Bonus!!: Watch my YouTube video on dry brining.