Brining a Turkey – Audio-Videos and Recipes

I found  a great free cooking school web site with recipes and how-to videos. Lynette Chandler with BlogEnergizer.com sends out a weekly email with links to special online deals and informative instructional web sites. Today’s email, “Money Saving Resources for the Holiday Season,” included a link to the online Rouxbe Cooking School.

The Rouxbe Cooking School has free online cooking lessons, recipes, and audio-videos for cooking a variety of foods.

With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays quickly arriving I was particularly interested in the turkey brining recipes and audio-videos. Choose “Continue To Topics Video” to see the audio-video and then choose “View Practice” for recipes.

There is an All-Purpose Brine and an Apple Cider Brine. The last recipe and lesson is “Roasted Turkey with Gravy.”  This is a step-by-step lesson for brining, preparing, roasting, and carving a turkey and making a delicious gravy.

I’ve brined a turkey for previous holidays but always had questions about exact brining ingredients and results. This cooking school web site covers everything.

Here is an All-Purpose Brine recipe from the web site.

All-Purpose Brine
Use this all-purpose brine to add flavor and juiciness to chicken, turkey and pork loin.

Makes1 liter/quart

Preparing the Brine
1 cup water
2 tbsp table salt (or 30 grams of any other salt)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 clove garlic
1 to 2 tsp juniper berries (optional)
1 tsp black peppercorns (or white)
1 bay leaf
5 to 6 stems fresh thyme
3 cups COLD water (or ice water)

To prepare the brine, place one cup of water into a small pot and bring to a simmer. Add the salt and sugar and stir to dissolve.

Smash the whole clove of garlic and add it to the pot. Press the juniper berries to release their aroma. Add the berries, peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and let steep for about 20-30 minutes.

Before using the brine, add the 3 remaining cups of cold water (including ice, if needed). For food safety, the brine must be very cold before the meat can be added.

Depending on the amount of meat you are brining, you will likely have to multiply this recipe.

Eleisia
www.watkinsonline.com/eleisiawhitney

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