What does brining do?
Brining is the soaking of meat in a solution of water and salt. Additional flavorings like sugar and spices can also me added, but salt is what makes a brine a brine (just like acid makes a marinade a marinade). This soaking causes the meat to gain some saltiness and flavoring while plumping it up with water so that after cooking it still contains a lot of juices.
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Obviously, there's more going on than simple osmosis. It is true that salt enters the meat (it tastes more salty after brining). But why is it also more juicy? Well, when water flows out of the meat, salt flows in and begins to break down some of the proteins in the cells. In the broken down state, the molecules become more concentrated and the solute levels rise within the meat. This causes additional water to flow into the meat.
But doesn't that mean we've got the same amount of water as before brining? Nope. The cell membranes are semipermeable. They allow salt and water to flow in both directions freely, but larger molecules (like the denatured proteins and other solutes in the meat released by the salt) cannot flow out from within the cells. When the solutes of a solution on one side of a semipermeable membrane cannot pass to the other side, osmosis causes more and more solvent to move through the semipermeable membrane. This continues until the extra pressure from holding more solvent equals the rate at which solvent is "drawn" through the semipermeable membrane. (This rate is called osmotic pressure. How Stuff Works has a short article describing osmotic pressure with a diagram that may be helpful to visualize the water flow.)
What has happened is that through brining, we've caused a state change in the cells so that they will draw and hold more water than before. As we cook the meat, the heated proteins will begin to draw in tighter and squeeze out water, but, hopefully, enough water will remain to produce a juicy, tender piece of meat.
Brining Solution
So, how much salt in water is used for brining? That really depends on how long of a brine you want and how salty you want the final product. A weak brine will require a longer brining time to achieve the same saltiness as a strong brine. When I need a moderate strength brine, I use 1/2 cup (about 150 g) of table salt per gallon of water. (Higher concentrations of salt can be used to reduce brining times, but the amount of salt and the time it takes to brine is dependent on the muscle structure of the particular piece of meat.) Using kosher salt is a common practice, but different manufacturers grind the salt to different levels of coarseness, so kosher salt should be weighed before adding to water. For small amounts of salt, the salt can be dissolved into cold water, but for larger quantities it may be necessary to heat the water to dissolve the salt.
Brining Time
Always start with a cold brine. If you heated the brine, then refrigerate it before using it. The raw meat will be in the brine for a number of hours, so we don't want the temperature of the meat to rise higher than refrigerator temperatures (40°F, 4°C) if we can help it. Place the brine in a noncorrosive container like a plastic or glass container, plastic bag, or a stainless steel pot.
The brining time depends on the shape of your meat as well as the type of meat. Generally, a good rule of thumb is 2 hours per pound of solid poultry when using the 1/2 cup salt per gallon brine. Cut up poultry will have reduced brining time. For chicken pieces like breasts or thighs, 2 hours is usually enough time. Pork may take about four times as long to brine as poultry. In most cases, it's difficult to predict how fast the salt moves into the meat when you double or halve the salt in the brine, but it's worth experimenting with to have your brining "finish" at a time where you will be around to remove the meat from the brine.
When you remove the meat from the brine, rinse off the excess salt from the surface and return the meat to the refrigerator to await cooking. Pour out the brine after each brining. (No need to have a half gallon of raw meat juice infused salt water lying around growing germs...)
-Christian
New Zealand
Brining olives usually takes weeks. You'll probably need something to keep the olives under the salt water during the brining. Also, stir the olives once a week. After three or four weeks, the bitter taste of the olives should have reduced and they are considered brined or cured.
I think brined olives last about a month.
Good luck,
Michael
If you brine too long, all that happens is that the meat becomes too salty. In most cases, it's difficult to brine the meat so much that it becomes unpalatable. If you do plan on having a longer brine, reduce the salt concentration in the water. Start by halving the concentration if you plan to double the brining time. This doesn't work perfectly, but is a good starting point. If the meat's not salty enough, then next time increase some salt content in the solution.
Michael
Regarding olives - I ran across the following site:
http://www.oliveoilnews.com/olive_recipes_.htm
I was going to try curing olives this fall but never got around to it. I have brined pickles and the proportions are similar as to what Michael recommends, however the chemistry is different. For vegetables, the brining promotes lacto-fermentation, which preserves and flavors.
How salty is the meat? I don't really like salty food (I add it to get some flavour, but I don't actually like a salty flavour). Would you recommend not adding extra salt to the dish if I wanted to avoid it being too salty?
When brined properly, the saltiness is just a bit less than if you salted the meat after cooking. Except, the salt will be distributed throughout the meat instead of clumped on the surface. You can attempt to reduce the saltiness by using less salt in the brine and brining for a slightly longer duration. Make sure you rinse off the meat after brining and pat dry.
I would suggest not adding additional salt if you dislike the flavor of salt. For almost all dishes, I would recommend at least reducing the salt that would have otherwise been added.
I'd bet that the salt in the brininig solution helps to denature the proteins in meat, changing the osmotic properties of the cells, and allowing for a freer transfer of liquids (and flavorings).
Way late with this comment but just found this blog.
Michael, excellent explanation of brining. Tried it last Thanksgiving on the turkey and will never go back. Now I know how it works!
Any chance that we'll see a similar explanation for how Ceviche works?
Dorothy
I'm an EE not a chemist.
Also consider injecting the meat to add juiciness if you don't like salt.
and before cooking, using a syringe I inject clarified butter, olive oil and or marinade... depending on the dish... Great prepearation for smoking..
For smoking try chinese green tea.... along with your woods :shock:
A twelve pound turkey takes at least a day (24 hours) and longer doesn't hurt. Always rinse well inside and out to remove excess salt.
Pork chops take about three hours and if cooked slowly over a smokey fire will turn a beatiful pinkish color as they cook. Whole pork roasts can be brined like a turkey and cooked slowly.
I brine in a salt solution with a small amount of sugar added.
Thanks for this great post on brining.
1. It makes your prospective barbecue taste crappy!
2. The raising and subsequent lowering of the temp would facilitate the growth of some really skanky, nasty bacteria.
Always brine in cold brining solution. Not sure of the exact amount, but cold water should be able to hold a mixture of about 15% salt (by weight %) which is certainly sufficient to brine just about anything. (By the way, hot water will hold about 26 wt.% salt depending on water hardness and mineral content). If you mix in hot water, and then dilute that into cold water to lower the temp, you have just defeated the purpose for mixing salt in hot water to start with because not only are you lowering the temp, but also the concentration of salt. Therefore, it is more sensible, to mix as concentrated solution as possible in COLD water to start with and forget all about mixing in a hot solution.
I have brined birds of various sizes as follows with excellent results:
MAKE THE BRINE
I used a cup of salt, a cup of brown sugar, a few bay leaves a handfull of pepper corns and a few fat slices of orange and a lemon slice. I have not ever had to heat the brine to dissolve the sugar and salt, but if you do or you really want to just don't put the other stuff in (or use it) until it has cooled for obvious reasons. A little less than a gallon water is what I usually use.
BRINE THE BIRD
Once you have the chilled seasoned brine ready put the turkey in the brine, for an absolute minimum of 3-4 hours, and overnight is best. I have brined turkeys for up to 24 hours and it never has tasted the least bit over-salty. Make sure it is all covered with the brine. The brine should taste like salty sweet seasoned water, but not really intense.
LET IT CHILL & REST
One thing I didnt see is previously in this area is the resting phase. After you take the bird out of the brine rinse it very thoroughly and then pat-dry inside and out with extra strength paper towels. At this point you must let the bird "rest" with no covering at all, and no seasonings at all, in the fridge. This open air chilling and resting period should not be skipped, as it will taste much better if you do it. You should let it sit for at least 12 hours but 24 hours is fine, I wouldn't go much over 24 hours. Mop up any liquid present under the turkey once or twice during the resting period.
ROAST THE BIRD
Season to taste, prepare and roast as you would normally do, which is another story altogether and beyond the scope of this post.
This method of brining has produced some of the most tender succulent turkey I have ever tasted, and is never salty tasting. It is true there is a slight increase in the saltiness when you brine, because that is what it is, but it is not in any way a bad thing. I would think if you tripled the salt you might have a problem, but with this recipe I have never had anything other than delicious results.
I also liked the "Good Eats" show on turkey brining. It was, as always, a great show, and very detailed. Alton Brown covers the details of the method with info about what is really going on, on a chemical and cellular level and was very informative. I highly recommend watching it.
Nick
the brining solution as opposed to water? I've brined once
with stock and the results were amazing, but if water will
suffice, the cost will be reduced significantly.
Doesn't it work the other way around? Doesn't the solvent move from high solute (salt water) to low solute (meat) so that both areas contain an equal concentration of solute, thus pulling water and salt into the meat to create an equilibrium?
Doesn't it work the other way around? Doesn't the solvent move from high solute (salt water) to low solute (meat) so that both areas contain an equal concentration of solute, thus pulling water and salt into the meat to create an equilibrium?
You're partially right. In the absense of a semi-permeable membrane, the solvent moves from the low solute region to the high solute region AND the solute moves from the high solute region into the low solute region until equilibrium is achieved (diffusion). However, if you have something stopping the solute from entering the low solute region, but allows the solvent to move freely (i.e., a semipermeable membrane such as cellular walls), then osmosis occurs. Solvent moves out of the low solute area to the high solute.
I replaced the bucket with a large Igloo cooler, the cyclinder model for liquids with spout at the bottom and a round lid that comes comepletely off; I think this is the 5 gallon model that you see at virtually every construction site, frequently mounted on a truck. I've had a 15# turkey in mine but I don't think I'd go much bigger.
Chill turkey and 3 gallons of supermarket drinking water to temperature in fridge; dump 2 gallons water in the cooler, mix your brine in the cooler, immerse turkey, top off with additional cold water if needed. Put cooler lid on and brine as long as you choose. It'll be just as cold after 12 hours.
I've never had any particular problem dissolving the brine in the chilled water; just have to stir like madd!
I have also tried several experiments in this regard, and can conclude nothing for certain.. (most people always "conclude" that their method of brining was a success, with no real statistical basis whatsoever, other than a severe "attitude" that their cooking is superior.... go figure that one!)
I have tried as little as 2 TBL of salt per half gallon of water, and have noted no real difference from using a half a cup!
I say the whole "brining" action is hogwash "relative" to just physically injecting your chicken with a salty/sweet fluid (i.e. apple juice, sugar, and spices), and not even bothering with the lengthy, and uncertain, arguments of brining. Hell... injecting is REAL (no "osmosis" required).... you can watch it swell, and bleed with juices. Brining is slow, and unpredictable based on Ph and timing.
I say "Inject" in lieu of brining. Brining is for old-school-die-hard-fools... (the same people who tell us to NOT season our meat before we cook it, cuz it will draw our the juices... all proven hogwash!)
And don't even get me started on the correct temperature to grill/roast a chicken... cuz that's the "real" science! (and i ain't tell'in!)
Want juices? ... I got your juices! :)
p.s. You can show me all the hype and articles you want about brining, but all of the big time BBQ contest winners love to "inject". America loves the direct injection. (Any Turkey that is not "Plumped" with juices, is a loser when compared to others.... when taste tested... NO BRINING INVOLVED!)
150 g in 1 gallon of water is about 4.0% solution, 110 g is a 3% solution and 210 g is about 5.5%.
The biggest problem I see with what I will call the *osmotic hypothesis* is that a piece of meat is not encased in a semipermeable membrane. In the case of a whole bird the layer of skin may work as one, but chops certainly aren not encased in a membrane.
At the cellular level, cells are not dialysis bags. They have large numbers of channels that allow ions to move in and out. In a living cell the ionic gradient is preserved through pumps, pumps that do not work in a dead cell. Dead cells are very porous to ions even though their phospholipids bilayer may still be intact.
Also, I am unaware of a mechanism for salt to *break down* proteins, which sounds like proteolysis. Denaturing itself will not effect solute concentration, although opening a protein may expose regions to proteolytic attact that might otherwise be shielded. The presence of salt ions around proteins will likely partially denature the proteins (depending on ionic concentration and the protein itself); quaternary structure being the most likely to be affected, followed by tertiary and secondary structures. However I think it doubtful that primary structure is going to be affected by brining, that would not really be denaturing anymore but rather proteolysis. Contrast with the tenderizing effect of yogurt as in tandoori chicken. Dairy tenderizing is probably due to the calcium-dependant calpain proteolytic enzyme. In short, if salt broke down proteins the resulting piece of meat would be tenderized, not just juicier. I realize that many say that brined meats are more tender but I consider that to be from the increased water in the meat that makes it seem more tender. I have never known a brined meat to get over-tenderized as can happen with papain or yogurt marinades.
The actual reason why brining results in a moister piece of meat probably has less to do with 8th grade science class than most people think. Meats have space between its constituent parts where water and salt can collect. A piece of cloth dropped in a salt water bath will come out moist and salty without the benefit of a semi-permeable membrane or denatured proteins.
Steve
I have some chops with freezer burn. I was wondering if brining the (lamb) chops would improve them. I am also thinking of grinding the meat and making a meatloaf with it.
Any advice?
Brining might improve them, but not to the point where you'll want to eat the burned parts. If you're going to grind it, then remove the burned areas and grind the parts that are still meat-like.
The concensus of essentially all food safety organizations is that there is no food safety risk from avian flu. The normal food safety precautions taken with poultry -- which are mainly aimed at eliminting bacteria rather than viruses-- would be sufficient to inactivate the virus, if it were present. Moreover, it is far from clear that orally consuming infected poultry would transmit to virus to humans. Most likely the virus, orally consumed, would simply be enzymatically destroyed before it could ever reach the target cells it specializes in infecting.
Nevertheless, what I remember from various 101's some 50 years ago:
(a) What salt? Anything but the road salt is just salt, differences being in the story on the label and on the price tag. Of course the Jew should not use the halaal salt and muslim the kosher variety but otherwise...
(b) What temperature when making the brine? Just what came from the tap. The salt (NaCl) is rather special that its solubility does not much change with temperature and is about 37 gm of salt per 100 gm of water, which is far beyond anything you need in the brine for your turkey. Heating up would speed up dissolving but will also ask for additional time to cool the brine.
(c) Brining theory: You may forget about membranes as regards water and salt alike. If you would brine long enough, you will get the same salt concentration in meat juice everywhere in the meat as in the brine, which won't be the original concentration of the brine but something lower (salt divided between the remaining brine and meat) satisfying the mass balance of your brining container. If you brine for shorter time, the "everywhere in the meat" part wouldn't have time enough to happen. Time to get reasonably close to this "infinity" changes in inverse proportion with the square of the meat slab thickness. Therefore 1 hour for the 3/4" chicken breast chop and 24 hours for the whole turkey.
We all know that taking some sort of living tissue (or hands and feet) and soaking it in distilled water will make it swell because the concentration of solute is greater inside our cells than in distilled water. This is partly because our cells have high protein concentrations as well as active transport mechanisms which keep relatively high concentrations of salt inside our cells.
Now, cells maintain most protein-like constituents as large macromolecular complexes, mostly because this helps reduce the osmotic pressure they have to deal with. This is because osmotic pressure is a colligative property--meaning that it's determined by the total number of solute molecules ("molality") rather than their size (so a big complex of 20 different proteins counts only as "one" solute molecule).
As any biochemist will tell you, increasing salt concentrations interferes with protein-protein interactions needed to make macromolecular complexes (I think some people call this "denaturing", but that's not the normal sense in which denaturing is thought of, since salt usually leaves the tertiary structure of proteins intact). So in high salt, the effective "number" of proteins goes up, because the complexes dissociate (since there is no active transport anymore, salt can freely diffuse into the cells).
Note that the individual components of these complexes (proteins are typically larger than say, a few kilodaltons) are still too large to diffuse out of cells. Thus, treating with salt makes the solute concentration in cells go up, causing the net movement of water into the cell to be nonnegative.
The sort of salt concentration needed to see the dissociation effect biochemically is typically around 500mM salt concentration (150mM being roughly physiological). 150g salt in 1 gallon (3.78 L) is 680 mM.
Based off of this line of reasoning, it's apparent that soaking meat in plain distilled water would also cause a net uptake of H2O. Salt would just allow a greater water uptake.
Regarding the brine-temperature issue, I've found that saturating about 2 cups of freshly-boiled water with table salt (i.e. adding salt until no more dissolves), then adding this solution to enough cold tap water to just cover a 15 lbs turkey in a 5-gallon paint bucket, is plenty salty enough to adequately brine a turkey overnight. "Diluting" hot brine in cold water does not defeat the purpose, as some people have pointed out that salt only speeds up the process of moisture uptake. I've found this method an effective and speedy way of getting a cold solution for my turkey, for those who are impatient (like me) or in a hurry. Seems like it would work for making an injection solution as well.
I used one a few times, and they work at frightening speed--a pound of chicken was brined in 20 minutes. I actually forgot to remove the chicken once and left it for an hour and it was inedibly salty.
The Foodsaver will do this with any marinade as well. Highly recommended.
nick@montrealfood.com
Throw some ice into a large, Ziplock bag and place it in your brining vessel off of the stove, after warming... of course). You can stir the brine around to speed up the process and you can repeat if the ice melts and you still need to reduce the temp. further. The liquid chills rapidly without adding more water to the mix.
Don't want to waste the bag? Dump the ice (now water) and add your chicken breasts, etc. Fill with brine and Zip 'er up!
if so, how were the results?
I don't brine steaks, but I salt-cure them for 1 hour per inch. It works superbly, but I've been trying to figure out why.
Thoughts?
http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/08/28/how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks/
Question: Would brining add juiciness to kosher meat, which already has salt in it? If so, should the salt concentration in the water be reduced? enlarged? For that matter, could soaking with plain water be used to draw out some of the remaining salt in the meat?
That's a good question - generally it's not advisable to brine kosher meats since you'll increase the salt concentration (the salt water would be higher concentration than the salt concentration in the meat). Soaking in pure water (or very lightly salted water) might help - but I really can't say if the water will be drawn into the meat. My guess is yes.
That is correct.
You can combine both, just add some more salt to your marinade. Since you marinade for 3 days, I'd add only a little more salt to your marinade. If it's not enough, then add some more...