How to Brine a Turkey

Directions

• Roughly crack the black peppercorns in a pestle & mortar, then weigh out and gather all your dry ingredients.

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• Measure out the water, and add it to a large pan, along with the salt, sugar and your aromatics.
  Add the pan to a high heat.

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• Once the salt and sugar have totally dissolved and the water has begun to boil, remove from the heat, and let steep for 15-30 minutes.
  While the brine is steeping, measure out your ice & water. To do this, fill a measuring jug with ice, and then top it up to your mark with cold water. This way you’ll end up with the correct salt to liquid ratio, in this case 5.5%.

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• Now that your aromatics have had time to infuse into the brine, it’s time to cool it down.
  THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP!
  Cooling the brine properly is very important because putting raw poultry into a warm brine can encourage the growth of very nasty bacteria, which can make you and others very ill.
  There are 2 ways to cool the brine, either to let it cool to room temperature before placing into the fridge (the slow way), or, as we’re doing here, adding ice to the warm brine to cool it quickly.
  The brine must be at or below 4°C/40°F before adding the turkey. If it’s not, put it in the fridge and check every half hour or so with an instant read thermometer.

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• Now, this is my trick that I’ve been using for many years to wet brine turkey. This method keeps everything clean and tidy, and uses a lot less brine than bucket brining.
  Turkey Roasting Bags, I’ve never roasted a turkey in a bag in my life, lol. But these big turkey sized bags are perfect for brining.
  You need to find yourself a large container, large enough to hold your turkey. I’ve got a fairly small turkey here, that fits in a large stock pot, but you can use anything from a waste paper basket to a cardboard box. In fact, when I’ve brined bigger birds, I’ve used the box that the turkey came in from the butchers, which is always the perfect size.
  What ever container you find, place one of the turkey roasting bags inside another, and line your container with them.

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• When your brine has cooled to at or below 4°C/40°F, carefully place the turkey into the bags and pore in the brine.
  Bring the top of the bags together, push out the air, and twist. Fasten using the included tie (if it has one), or tie using some butchers twine.
  The brine should be covering every part of the bird. If it’s not, first try scrunching up some tea towels and carefully pushing them down between the bag and the container. This should squeeze more of the brine up to cover the bird.
  If you’re still struggling, then make up another litre of brine, don’t worry about the aromatics, just add 55g Sea salt and 30g sugar to 1 litre of cold water, and stir until dissolved, Then top up the bag so that the turkey if fully submerged.

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• Now your turkey is in the brine, it’s a good idea to take note of the time and maybe set a reminder to take it out.
  Place it in the fridge, or if it’s below 4°C/40°F outside and is likely to stay that way, you can store it out there. Make sure it’s well covered so no animals steel your dinner!
  Brine times as follows:
  Whole turkey 4-7kg 24 hours.
  Whole turkey over 7kg 24-36 hours.

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• Once the brining time has passed, lift the bag out of the container and into a clean, empty sink. Undo the bag and pull it down and off the turkey, while rinsing under cold water inside and out.
  When completely rinsed, transfer to a large dish and pat dry thoroughly with kitchen paper.

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• Before roasting the turkey it needs to rest, uncovered in the fridge,
  This does a couple of things. Firstly, it allows the skin to dry out after being submerged in liquid for so long. This will make for a beautifully golden, crisped up skin all over. Secondly, it allows the salty, sugary, aromatic brine to settle down, and evenly distribute itself throughout the meat.
  Place a couple of sheets of kitchen paper onto a large dish, then place the turkey on a wire rack on top of the dish, and place in the fridge for anywhere between 12 and 24 hours.