How to Brine Your Turkey

Each year around turkey time, a culinary question surfaces: To brine or not to brine?

Everyone has their preference, but brining your turkey — either through a wet or dry process — can help retain moisture, making your meat juicy and tender. We talked to local culinary masters to get the scoop on brining. Give one of these options a try and let the finished product speak for itself.

Wet Brine Recipe

For our wet brine, we turned to Alicia Boisvert from Real Deal Meats, the southside butchershop known for their freshly cut, locally sourced meats. She provided a traditional brine as a great introduction to the brining process.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sea salt
• 1 cup brown sugar (Demerara sugar recommended)
• 4L water

Cookware

• Extra Large Pot or Food Safe Plastic Container

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in the pot or plastic container.
2. Submerge your turkey for 24 hours in the brine
3. Roast as usual

Want to get more experimental with flavour? Happy & Olive’s Frank Olson pulls from whatever he has on hand for his wet brine mash up. You can add anything from garlic and oregano to apples and white wine to your wet brine.

Dry Brine Recipe

Butcher Corey Meyer, from ACME Meat Market, shared a simple recipe that does not require drowning your turkey. This approach will deliver the juiciest meat while still “drying the skin slightly for a perfectly crisp roast.”

Ingredients

• 1 cup salt
• 2 tsp black pepper, freshly cracked
• 12–16 cloves fresh garlic, minced OR you can use 2–3 tsp garlic powder
• 2–3 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage OR 2 tsp dried thyme, rosemary and sage

Instructions

1. Pat the turkey completely dry.
2. Rub the salt, pepper, garlic and herbs over the turkey, including under the skin.
3. Refrigerate uncovered for 24–48 hours.
4. Roast as usual

If you want to stick to the basics, Chef Blair Lebsack, from Rge Rd, simply uses salt to season his bird.