Dry Brine Turkey

[Hub]

This is an interesting approach.  Has anyone ever tried it?  How'd it work?

Hub

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/genius-dry-brined-turkey-221200212.html

[HighOnSmoke]

I haven't tried it on a turkey yet Hub, but right now I have a whole chicken that has been
in a dry brine since yesterday.  I am using the baking powder technique I talked about
in this post. I plan on cooking it today on my WSM and will post results this evening.
If it works out then I will use it for the two turkeys I am doing for Thanksgiving.

[Pam Gould]

Makes sense..I have done this with chicken and pork, but never a turkey.  Hmmmmm. Good article..will definatley try it this year. Thanks for the idea.  Pam   .☆´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ

[muebe]

I imagine it works well. I like this technique with whole chicken. It really makes the skin taste better.

By pulling the moisture from the skin you get a crispier skin and the salt makes it's way into the skin for flavor.

The salt will really only pull the moisture out of the very surface of the meat while adding some flavor. This dry barrier will aid in moisture retention by restricting the movement of the moisture out to the surface.

Now this is not scientifically proven. It is just my opinion and I might be entirely wrong

[teesquare]

I tend to agree with muebe….with an added "I don't think it will make much/if any difference to the turkey flesh". I think it will help the skin - but unless you can get a true"fresh" turkey that has not been ingested, or pressure brined already.

[deestafford]

If y'all remember a while back there was an article on preparing and cooking steaks.  One of the things done was to salt the steak early on and let the salt pull the moisture out, mix with the juices and send them back in the steak resulting in a juicy chunk of meat.  I don't see why this wouldn't work with a turkey. 
So as I understand this you can take a frozen turkey and put one tablespoon of salt per five pounds on it and let it sit in a bag for three days.  Then do you rinse it well?  I've never took a close look at a frozen turkey but ain't the cavity sort of frozen shut?

Dee

[Pam Gould]

Dee...I'm not sure about your measurements..in the article it said 1 tbs salt for every 5 lbs.  Not sure about a frozen one, if it's different or what. Did you ask Brad about it? I'm sure he will know.. Anyway, let us know..and thanks.  Pam   .☆´¯`•.¸¸. ི♥ྀ

[muebe]

Anyone ever cook beef at high temp in a bed of rock salt?

Had a friend do this with a Tri-tip at 500F in the oven. It was fantastic! I remember he let the salt come up to temp first and then put the Tri-tip in submerged in hot salt. I don't remember how long it cooked for however. It did come out medium rare and delicious.

Sorry to derail the thread a bit but Dee reminded me of this with his post.

Ok back to Turkey

[deestafford]

Pam,  I corrected the Salt/pound mistake...brain engaged, fingers weren't.  Have not talked with Brad about it  yet.  Will let you know what he says.

Mike, Years ago Southern Living Magazine had an article on how to cook the perfect prime rib and its method was to totally encase the meat in a thick coating of salt and then moisten it so that it was encrusted in a shell of salt.  Then cook it at 500* for a period of time.  Then break it open with a hammer.

Didn't the article say you could do this with a frozen bird?  I may have misread it and will have to go back and read it again.

Dee

[Pappymn]

Great post Hub. I have not tried the dry brine before, but always wet brine

Muebe, I went to a cooking class 20 years ago where we did prime rib encased in salt at high heat. It turned out crazy good

[veryolddog]

That is a very interesting way to retain the juices in the turkey. Thank you for sharing that information.

Ed