I’ve heard so many raves about brining turkey that I’ve decided to try it this year. The easiest brine recipe I’ve seen is just water, salt, and brown sugar, but I’d like something a little more exciting. Let’s see your favorite brine mixtures.
The (other) Master Speaks.
I’ve used Alton Brown’s brining recipe for a couple of years now and it’s delicious.
I don’t use the same aromatics that he does, though. I go with rosemary and onion, and a little fresh garlic.
I use sage and beer. Oh man.
I used this one last Thanksgiving, to my MIL’s horror. Soaking the turkey in salt water! Broiling it for 30 minutes at 500 degrees! :eek:
It was the juiciest bird I ever made. Hardly anyone talked during dinner…they were too busy stuffing their faces. 
Darn you to heck, Biblio! May you get the short end of the wishbone at Thanksgiving!!!
at ivylass.
Great minds think alike, huh?
But of course! 
I do an Apple Cider brine, that I got from the Washington Post website 3 years ago. It was excerpted from “The Thanksgiving Table” by Diane Morgan (Chronicle, 2001). I wasn’t sure if it was OK to post the detailed recipe here due to copyright considerations but you could certainly find a copy at the library or a bookstore.
It is, far and away, the yummiest, moistest turkey I’ve ever made. The brine mixture involves apple juice, and equal parts salt/sugar, plus ginger, cloves, allspice and one or two other ingredients that escape me right now.
I roast the turkey unstuffed, figuring the stuffing would add too much salt to the mixture. I don’t do a high-temp roast though, just not experienced enough to try it.
The one odd thing is that the drippings (and consequently the gravy) are very dark brown. Presumably due to the sugars caramelizing during baking. Very very yummo though!!
I’m starting on one tonight in fact - I thought I was going to have to make one for my kid’s Thanksgiving event at school. Turns out, our turkey is not needed, so we get to eat it all ourselves… mmmmmmmm…
My turkey brine receipe is simple: I clean out my refrig by dumping in all half open bottles and jars of salad dressing, condiments, & sauces that haven’t turn bad. This includes that awful bottle of port my brother gave me.
Where does one get a gallon of “vegetable stock”?
As I said, I use rosemary for the aromatics in cooking my bird. A big old handful stuffed in the cavity does the trick, and it flavors the gravy quite nicely, too. My family raves about my gravy.
Has anyone tried Master Alton’s recipe with a stuffed bird? (Obviously, the aromatics would be out.) He finally admitted this week that Stuffing Is **Not **Evil, but I’m not sure how to adjust my cooking time/temp for stuffing. Should I just yank the bird at 161 and destuff - putting the stuffing back in the oven until 180 if it isn’t there yet?
Or do the aromatics really add enough goodness to risk the wrath of my family and cook the stuffing in a baking dish on the side?
The Stuffing Is Not Evil show was from last year or maybe even the year before, I think.
I’m still firmly on the side of Aromatics Are Better. I use rosemary, onions, garlic, fresh cracked black pepper, butter and celery. Chop the celery and onions coasley and stuff them inside the bird. Add a bunch of fresh rosemary, some fresh minced garlic and cracked pepper and some butter. Just stuff it all in there, but not packed too tightly. Be sure to add the leafy celery tops.
JFTR, I use those cooking bags, the Reynolds brand. You can cook a 20-pound turkey in about 2 hours. I brine it, then cook it in the bag. You add a tablespoon of flour to the bag, then lay some chopped celery and onions in the bag, then put the turkey in the bag. Rub some butter on the skin, add the aromatics, tie it shut and you’re ready to go. Be sure to cut a few slits in the bag.
I make the stuffing separately (technically it’s dressing in that case). The bird cooks faster, IMO.
I got mine at the supermarket, in the same aisle with the chicken and beef bullion.
I’ve never done a turkey, but I’ve brined small poultry (the pseudo “game hens” available at upscale markets) in a mix of apple juice, ginger, and lots of salt, and they come out wonderfully.