Thanksgiving Strut
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
1) I am tasked with bringing cornbread this year. I always make the recipe from the first moosewood cookbook. If you have a rodeo cornbread recipe that's straight forward with out chili peppers and anchovies and sea salt, please post up or suggest.
2) I am smoking a turkey this weekend. I have always brined my birds to great results. Now everyone is talking about dry brining. Who has an opinion about dry v wet brine?
3) I am thankful for my friends, including all you, those I have met, and those I haven't, those I fight with and those whose passions I share.
2) I am smoking a turkey this weekend. I have always brined my birds to great results. Now everyone is talking about dry brining. Who has an opinion about dry v wet brine?
3) I am thankful for my friends, including all you, those I have met, and those I haven't, those I fight with and those whose passions I share.
Comments
brining always involves water or another liquid. you may be confused with the terms "dry cure" "and "wet cure". a wet cure is basically a brine. while a dry cure is simply a matter of applying salt in addition to whatever other spices/flavorings are involved. over time the salt will eventually penetrate deep into the meat at the same time removing moisture...this is how hams and cured meats were/are traditionally made.
a brine can be considered a shortcut since the presence of sugar and water allows the salt and seasonings to penetrate the meat more rapidly. plus sugar allows for osmosis to occur through the cell walls so that the turkey (or whatever other protein) will actually gain moisture through brining as opposed to losing moisture through a dry cure.
So your brined turkey should be juicier plus have the added background flavor profile of whatever you had in your brine.
But, on the other hand with a dry cure, since moisture is being pulled out of the meat you are in effect concentrating the flavor of the turkey, and if cooked gently and slowly enough it should still be reasonably juicy. that's the advantage of a dry cure.
i'd brine the turkey if I were you since it's such a lean protein, and save dry cures for fatter cuts of meat like pork belly and whole brisket.
huh?
TAKES A MAN TO SAY SOME SHIT LIKE THAT! ADDRESS IT!
every year around this time i do take some time to actually go and volunteer somewhere, last Friday i worked at the foodbank for Feed NovaScotia, and at the end of the day, i felt a lot more thankful for the little things in life...and more grounded for sure..
I love Thanksgiving, its tied with Christmas, 3 King's Day, and Super Bowl Sunday as my favorite holiday.
I am thankful for love, health, family, friends, and single malt scotch.
Last year I used maple.
This year it's going to be cherry.
The first year I used mesquite. Very good, but the mesquite overpowers the meat and the dark meat could have easily been passed off as pork.
I think a sweet savory brine with the cherry will make for an outofsight bird.
I'm brining with liquid smoke in the brine ;)
Not a fan of liquid smoke. There is a German Smoked Beer that works great though.
I use this in my crock pot bbq and it adds a great smoked bacon flavor.
I am thankful for my wonderful wife, peace with God, my extended family, my friends, and music to relate to all my life situations.
sounds awesome, is it a take on gumbo? whats in it?
did this last year and turned it out awesome. i kept the carcass from the TG turkey to make the stock, and even mixed in some greens and cranberry sauce! everything else in the gumbo was done classic, got the roux even darker than i usually get it too.
Slight variation on chicken and sausage gumbo...where you use turkey meat instead of chicken and use the turkey carcass to make the stock.