Brining Meat

I am playing around with brining my meats, especially chicken, to get them extra juicey.

Brining is submerging a cut of meat into salt and water. It adds flavour, seasoning from the inside out and traps so much liquid inside that it can’t all evaporate during the cooking process, creating a juicier piece of meat.

There is no need to brine red meat, I marinade those in a combination of oils and acids to break down the fibres.

Ingredients

• 4 cups water

• 1/4 cup salt

• Any additional herbs, sugar or aromatic ingredients (optional)

The brine in the pic is a few bay leaves, 240g salt, 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 250ml malt vinegar and 3 litres of water.

Directions

1. Combine the water and salt in a large container.

2. Dissolve the salt by stirring with a whisk or put on a low heat to speed up (adding heat is the best way to infuse additional ingredients like sugar, herbs etc). Only heat a quarter of the water and use cold water to fill so it cools more quickly.

3. Brine as per table below. As a general rule brine meat for about one hour per 500g.

4. Remove the meat from the brine and pat it dry with a paper towel.

5. Cook the meat according to your favourite recipe.

Timings:

Prawns/Scallops	15-30 mins
Boneless chicken pieces	30 mins
Bone in chicken pieces	1 to 2 hours
Whole chicken	4 to 12 hours
Whole turkey	12 to 24 hours
Boneless pork chops	30 mins
Bone in pork chops	30 mins to 1 hour
Whole pork tenderloin	1 to 2 hours
Whole pork loin	2 to 12 hours