A lone wanderer wild turkey graced us with his presence all day today on Thanksgiving day right at our house. He was sadly thin and strangely alone. I tossed out some ripening tomatoes and zucchini from our garden in case he wanted it. On this day it seemed to be a message of gratitude for our health and the food we now are about to consume, on this, very commercialized day of over-consumption.
We see a lot of wildlife here on our farm, since we have many habitats that remain undisturbed by 'people-kind'. There are pheasants, wild turkeys (sometimes so many one must stop the car on our farm road to wait for them to cross), and lots of deer. Not to mention raccoons, foxes and owls. And the ever-mysterious sand piper, which makes her nest in the spring and squawks and shrieks when approached while pretending to be wounded-just to protect her stash of babies. Clever! Every spring when I spot them I actually worry if the bird is all right. Only to remember in the next instant that it's a ruse!
As an icy rain was predicted here today, I decided to bake some hearth breads
and brine my bird for the meal. I have brined turkey for years before it became a trend only because I am food-obsessed and always playing with different techniques of preparation-sort of like my cheese. Brining meat is simple.
Some Rules to Abide By:
Do not use kosher or saline-injected turkeys. They already have a salt solution in them and will not work well.
It must be fully submerged. An easy to remember guide is for every 1 gallon of water you use, combine 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of sweetener of your choice (be it honey, brown sugar, molasses, cane sugar etc), and herbs, spices, fruit...........then heat it all up in a stockpot so the salt and sweetener dissolves into solution and then chill down. After this add the meat and cool undisturbed (in a fridge or if meat is too large in an insulated cooler) for the required time.
The choices really are endless! It's so much fun to brine meat that once tried, the user never goes back. Sounds like an addiction to me! The real plus though is the most moist meat ever. For cuts known to get dry upon cooking, like chicken breasts, turkey breasts, pork chops and other thin cuts of meat. The rule of thumb is one hour for every pound of meat. For instance, a six pound turkey breast would be about 6 hours brined. For a quick dinner party of chicken breasts or pork chops the brine time dependent on weight could be as short as a half-hour. Visit www.foodnetwork.com for more info on brining meats......... Always rinse the meat after brining in several changes of water to prevent an overly salty taste. Any cooking method can be used after brining too: roasting, grilling, baking, even sauteeing.
The science behind it, I believe, is that osmotic pressure causes the moisture to come out of the meat and then with the sodium (from the salt) it must come to equilibrium and returns inside. I am no scientist, in fact, I even make cheese from my heart not from my mind. As Shirley O. Corriher states in her book Cookwise, "Brining makes meat juicier by increasing the amount of liquid inside the meat cells." Try it once and be convinced. And surely after eating it, you WILL be thankful for that which you eat. Happy Thanksgiving all!
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