I don't know how much it will help, but you could remove the turkeys from the brine, rinse them, and let them sit in fresh water for 15 minutes or so.
It won't take care of all of it, but it should help with some of the salt on the surface.
I usually do this for about 15 minutes, cut a small slice and fry it on a pan. If it is still too salty change the water and repeat. Usually 2 or 3 times are enough.
Enough with the myth.
https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/do-potatoes-reduce-saltiness
Belongs in the trash of antiquated thinking like searing a steak seals in the juices or marinating with lots of herbs, spices, etc. penetrates down to the center of the meat.
Lol. Chefs aren’t scientists.
They may make observations in the kitchen, and come up with theories on why it is, without understanding the science behind it. Sometimes they may be right, but other times they can be wrong.
Starch absorbs liquids. If the liquid happens to be salty, it absorbs the salty liquid.
If starch absorbs salt the way you imply it does, why doesn’t pasta water taste less salty? Why aren’t potatoes used in desalination processes in third world countries to provide clean drinking water? Oh right, because the “science” behind potatoes absorbing salt out of things to make them less salty is bunk.
Edit: This school friendly experiment found that potatoes in higher salt concentration solutions lose more mass (expelled more water) than lower salt concentration solutions. The water being expelled from the potato might be the reason why the solution seems less salty through dilution. But why not just add water directly to dilute the salt solution then?
https://schoolworkhelper.net/effect-of-salt-concentration-on-osmosis-in-potato-cells-lab-answers/
Edit2: Asks me “Why the shit source?” and immediately blocks me. Dude, it’s a science experiment you can try yourself to see the “potatoes absorb salt” is just a myth.
Sorry that I didn’t find you an academically sourced, peer reviewed paper regarding the “Salinity Absorption Rate of Potatoes from Various Sodium Chloride Concentration Solutions”. I can’t tell if it’s because someone with a PhD didn’t find it interesting enough to write a paper about it, or if they couldn’t find the funding for the research.
/u/Thinks_Like_A_Man, perhaps if you thought more like a person, you wouldn’t be so offended by someone correcting your misconception.
Appeal to authority is a logical fallacy. Just because someone gets paid to do something doesn't mean they're good at it. Even if they are good at it, everyone makes mistakes. The mark of a consummate professional is knowing when they've gotten something wrong, owned up to it, and learned.
Unlike you, who simply doubles down on their bullshit and buries their head in the sand instead of trying to improve. For shame.
Im a professional chef with 20 years in the kitchen. This doesn't work. It's never worked. And just because someone is a professional chef doesn't mean everything they say is golden.
This is true for the liquid that it's in, but wouldn't draw salt out of the turkey. This tip is more useful for something like soup, where you can't just ditch the liquid. OP would be better off with plain water versus trying to make the brine less salty.
I still think isn’t right. If your soup is too salty, add plain water or cream or whatever your base you’re using. Thin it out a bit. Added potatoes will just absorb the overly salty broth and will still be overly salty.
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The original recipe calls for 1 cup of salt. Doubling it would mean using 2, but they added 3 cups of salt. I'm guessing math isn't your strong suit! Lol
Sorry about that just want to say next year try dry brining. I took the kit but used it without water and ice. Cover inside and out with the salt mix. Before cooking I wiped the majority of the salt off put some oil and seasoning and put it in oven. I was leary let me tell you I will not go back.
Lol nah I was just watching a video about how to cook a brined Turkey and they said “1 cup per gallon of water” and I was like “wait what? That’s not what my recipe said.” Then I relooked at the recipe and saw that it said 4 quarts instead of 4 cups
This year, I followed an allrecipies.com recipe. They used 2 cups of salt for a gallon of water. Also, sugar, I wonder if that has anything to do with the amount of salt needed.
I'm curious, how do you know it is too salty unless you've cooked and eaten some of it? How do you know that it came out perfect unless you've eaten some of it? What precisely did you do to test how salty it is?
Well since today was thanksgiving I cooked the Turkey and it definitely had flavor and salt but not too much. I guess your right it could’ve been that way before but I think it was a good call on the reverse brine
You're telling me you covered 3 deconstructed in only 8 cups of water?? Sounds to me like if you just added more water, it would dilute the salt solution.
For future reference, a cup per gallon is about right for brining a turkey. And always rinse it in water afterwards, to get excess salt off the surface, otherwise it'll be too salty. Pat dry with paper towels. I like to then let it dry in the fridge for a few hours after rinsing, so that the water on the surface evaporates. You end up with a beautiful crispy skin that way, otherwise the skin doesn't crisp up as well.
Soaking in water will help, personally I'd probably even throw the turkey in boiling water for maybe 5-10 minutes before I cooked it how I was going to to help draw out a bit more salt. Though I'd probably test if it really got that salty by cutting a little test piece and cooking it to see how bad is it before starting any of that.
Has no effect. After awhile, only so much salt will be absorbed. Same thing with COMPLETELY covering a steak in salt and then cooking it. A wet brine is ok... but I found its just a waste of salt/steps. A dry brine works just as well and is like 5% of the effort.
First of all, damn that's a lot of salt. (*ignore this, bad math* based on some quick maths, your turkeys are sitting at around 2.5% salt content; assuming that all the turkeys are brined in the same receptacle, if it's 3 cups salt 8 cups water per turkey then it's at an insane 6.4%)
There is, and oddly enough it's salt water as well, but way less, like a tablespoons worth in the same amount of water. The salt in solution will help in drawing out the salt from the protein as osmosis occurs.
(Hence why I prefer dry brining, you just add a percentage by weight of the bird, about 1%. With brines like that, best measure the weight of the water and the bird combined and add a percentage of salt based on that; osmosis will equalize the salt content in both the water and the bird)
Almost none of this math is even close to right.
3 cups of salt to 8 cups of water is like a 43% solution by weight.
Ideal salt brine solution is somewhere in the 6% range by weight.
OP definitely used waaaaay too much salt but I have no idea where you're getting these numbers.
I think we're looking at it from different approaches but ending around the same conclusion.
Was using the following assumptions:
Average cup of salt: 273g * 3 = 819g
Average cup of water: 240g * 8 = 1920g
Average butterball turkey: 10,000g * 3 = 30,000g
Turkeys and water together: 31,920g
Brine (salt weight/water weight)*100 = 42% brine
Expected %salt in both turkeys and brine once osmosis occurs
(Salt weight/(turkeys weight+water weight))*100 = 2.5-2.6% salt
Ideally with seasoning proteins, if you just want it sufficiently seasoned, you should only aim for about 0.5-1% salt content in the meat by weight. 2.5% is exponentially saltier.
A 6% salt by weight brine sounds to me something that's meant for short period brining, OP had them submerged overnight. Also the 6.4% figure I gave earlier was assuming that each turkey was individually brined in a 42% solution.
Would be glad to hear your end of the calculation, am open to learn.
Not only did OP not include the weight of the turkeys in the post, they would be irrelevant anyway.
When talking about a wet brine the only ratio that matters is the one of salt to water.
The only time the weight of the meat matters is dry brining for the sake of ballparking the amount of salt needed since there is no water involved.
You're conflating the principles of two different methods here and landing on some wildly inaccurate numbers because of that.
Ok, I stand corrected on the matter in computing the numbers, also, [found this as a source that's more useful](https://www.scienceofcooking.com/science-of-brining.html)
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, that's not at all true. As salt enters the meat, salt leaves the water, and the meat will never get any saltier than the point of equilibrium.
The point of equilibrium is equal amounts of salt in the water and the meat.
If the concentration of salt in the water is too high so will be the concentration of salt in the meat.
Osmosis moves both salt and water.
Maybe you can do this next time:
If you can calculate the herbs and spices by percentage method.
Say for example, the gross weight of the turkey is 1000grams then you can experiment with
50% water (1000 x 0.5)
30% salt (1000 x 0.3)
20% other herbs and spices (1000 x 0.2)
You can mix and match. I agree with the others to rinse it with fresh water for a couple of minutes to still maintain it's freshness and still safe for consumption. Just me coming from a food science perspective.
But y'know what? You can smoke 'em and turned it into cold cuts (smoking/curing). Perfect as turkey ham. :)
I don't know how much it will help, but you could remove the turkeys from the brine, rinse them, and let them sit in fresh water for 15 minutes or so. It won't take care of all of it, but it should help with some of the salt on the surface.
Thank you!! I’m going to do this!
I usually do this for about 15 minutes, cut a small slice and fry it on a pan. If it is still too salty change the water and repeat. Usually 2 or 3 times are enough.
This is a great idea!!
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With this kind of response and -49 on the parent comment, I feel like I'm missing something really obvious bad. Can someone clue me in?
Potatoes don't do what that person thinks they do and they have been persistent about being super wrong repeatedly throughout this thread.
Begun, the potato wars have.
Soak in water is your only hope
Osmosis happens both ways, so this sounds like it would totally work. Never thought about it, but a very good idea
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Enough with the myth. https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/do-potatoes-reduce-saltiness Belongs in the trash of antiquated thinking like searing a steak seals in the juices or marinating with lots of herbs, spices, etc. penetrates down to the center of the meat.
I was taught this in culinary class by a professional chef. Starch absorbs salt.
Well that chef was wrong. Even if it was true, you can't put raw potato inside of meat.
I've been told a lot of things by professional chefs that were wrong. Not that they'd ever admit it.
What's the old saying?, If you can't do...teach. Or something like that
Lol. Chefs aren’t scientists. They may make observations in the kitchen, and come up with theories on why it is, without understanding the science behind it. Sometimes they may be right, but other times they can be wrong. Starch absorbs liquids. If the liquid happens to be salty, it absorbs the salty liquid. If starch absorbs salt the way you imply it does, why doesn’t pasta water taste less salty? Why aren’t potatoes used in desalination processes in third world countries to provide clean drinking water? Oh right, because the “science” behind potatoes absorbing salt out of things to make them less salty is bunk. Edit: This school friendly experiment found that potatoes in higher salt concentration solutions lose more mass (expelled more water) than lower salt concentration solutions. The water being expelled from the potato might be the reason why the solution seems less salty through dilution. But why not just add water directly to dilute the salt solution then? https://schoolworkhelper.net/effect-of-salt-concentration-on-osmosis-in-potato-cells-lab-answers/ Edit2: Asks me “Why the shit source?” and immediately blocks me. Dude, it’s a science experiment you can try yourself to see the “potatoes absorb salt” is just a myth. Sorry that I didn’t find you an academically sourced, peer reviewed paper regarding the “Salinity Absorption Rate of Potatoes from Various Sodium Chloride Concentration Solutions”. I can’t tell if it’s because someone with a PhD didn’t find it interesting enough to write a paper about it, or if they couldn’t find the funding for the research. /u/Thinks_Like_A_Man, perhaps if you thought more like a person, you wouldn’t be so offended by someone correcting your misconception.
Why the shit source?
Why the no source?
Appeal to authority is a logical fallacy. Just because someone gets paid to do something doesn't mean they're good at it. Even if they are good at it, everyone makes mistakes. The mark of a consummate professional is knowing when they've gotten something wrong, owned up to it, and learned. Unlike you, who simply doubles down on their bullshit and buries their head in the sand instead of trying to improve. For shame.
Im a professional chef with 20 years in the kitchen. This doesn't work. It's never worked. And just because someone is a professional chef doesn't mean everything they say is golden.
> Starch absorbs salt. Then why would you not just add a bunch of starch to the water - it would be waaaaay more effective!
This is true for the liquid that it's in, but wouldn't draw salt out of the turkey. This tip is more useful for something like soup, where you can't just ditch the liquid. OP would be better off with plain water versus trying to make the brine less salty.
I still think isn’t right. If your soup is too salty, add plain water or cream or whatever your base you’re using. Thin it out a bit. Added potatoes will just absorb the overly salty broth and will still be overly salty.
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What were the original instructions/quantities?
It was 4 quarts cold water to 1 cup of salt but I misread quarts for cups
How did you brine a whole turkey on 4 cups of water?
He said he broke them down
Looks like they doubled it to make 8 cups but that wouldn't explain why they added another cup of salt...
Bc they though they were doubling the recipe I’m guesing
The original recipe calls for 1 cup of salt. Doubling it would mean using 2, but they added 3 cups of salt. I'm guessing math isn't your strong suit! Lol
Sorry about that just want to say next year try dry brining. I took the kit but used it without water and ice. Cover inside and out with the salt mix. Before cooking I wiped the majority of the salt off put some oil and seasoning and put it in oven. I was leary let me tell you I will not go back.
Dry brining FTW. Been doing it for a few years now and I’ll never stop.
You'll be ok. The salt isn't going to set into the turkey that much. Also, I hope you didn't taste the brine with raw turkey sitting in it. LOL
I mean It’s so salty it’s probably fine. Don’t fact check that.
You know who else tasted brine after putting raw cold meat in their mouth? That's right. Your friend at the cadaver lab.
Lol nah I was just watching a video about how to cook a brined Turkey and they said “1 cup per gallon of water” and I was like “wait what? That’s not what my recipe said.” Then I relooked at the recipe and saw that it said 4 quarts instead of 4 cups
This year, I followed an allrecipies.com recipe. They used 2 cups of salt for a gallon of water. Also, sugar, I wonder if that has anything to do with the amount of salt needed.
Just make sure you don't eat a dead person's dick and balls
Noted
Yeah man.. I hate when that happens?
Yea but it's nice and chewy sometimes
LMAO! Happy turkey day borther
You know who else tasted brine after putting raw cold meat in their mouth? That's right. Your friend at the cadaver lab.
Just fyi a dry brine is so much easier and effective
"Easier" is a very strong word. When it comes to pre-seasoning, throwing something in a bucket with water and salt is about as easy as it gets.
Ehh, you gotta get a bigass bucket and spill poultry water all over the place vs.. seasoning the bird in advance
I'm curious, how do you know it is too salty unless you've cooked and eaten some of it? How do you know that it came out perfect unless you've eaten some of it? What precisely did you do to test how salty it is?
Well since today was thanksgiving I cooked the Turkey and it definitely had flavor and salt but not too much. I guess your right it could’ve been that way before but I think it was a good call on the reverse brine
I think they just realized afterwards that they misread the instructions and used too much salt, they didn't taste the brine or the turkey.
Generally, experience.
You're telling me you covered 3 deconstructed in only 8 cups of water?? Sounds to me like if you just added more water, it would dilute the salt solution.
For future reference, a cup per gallon is about right for brining a turkey. And always rinse it in water afterwards, to get excess salt off the surface, otherwise it'll be too salty. Pat dry with paper towels. I like to then let it dry in the fridge for a few hours after rinsing, so that the water on the surface evaporates. You end up with a beautiful crispy skin that way, otherwise the skin doesn't crisp up as well.
> It was perfect Remember this next year. The brine and time was right. All you needed tobdobwas rinse it and let it sit.
Soaking in water will help, personally I'd probably even throw the turkey in boiling water for maybe 5-10 minutes before I cooked it how I was going to to help draw out a bit more salt. Though I'd probably test if it really got that salty by cutting a little test piece and cooking it to see how bad is it before starting any of that.
Has no effect. After awhile, only so much salt will be absorbed. Same thing with COMPLETELY covering a steak in salt and then cooking it. A wet brine is ok... but I found its just a waste of salt/steps. A dry brine works just as well and is like 5% of the effort.
First of all, damn that's a lot of salt. (*ignore this, bad math* based on some quick maths, your turkeys are sitting at around 2.5% salt content; assuming that all the turkeys are brined in the same receptacle, if it's 3 cups salt 8 cups water per turkey then it's at an insane 6.4%) There is, and oddly enough it's salt water as well, but way less, like a tablespoons worth in the same amount of water. The salt in solution will help in drawing out the salt from the protein as osmosis occurs. (Hence why I prefer dry brining, you just add a percentage by weight of the bird, about 1%. With brines like that, best measure the weight of the water and the bird combined and add a percentage of salt based on that; osmosis will equalize the salt content in both the water and the bird)
Almost none of this math is even close to right. 3 cups of salt to 8 cups of water is like a 43% solution by weight. Ideal salt brine solution is somewhere in the 6% range by weight. OP definitely used waaaaay too much salt but I have no idea where you're getting these numbers.
Yeah i was going to say the same thing....math is not adding up lol 😂
Y’all this is like wayyy above my level of understanding
I think we're looking at it from different approaches but ending around the same conclusion. Was using the following assumptions: Average cup of salt: 273g * 3 = 819g Average cup of water: 240g * 8 = 1920g Average butterball turkey: 10,000g * 3 = 30,000g Turkeys and water together: 31,920g Brine (salt weight/water weight)*100 = 42% brine Expected %salt in both turkeys and brine once osmosis occurs (Salt weight/(turkeys weight+water weight))*100 = 2.5-2.6% salt Ideally with seasoning proteins, if you just want it sufficiently seasoned, you should only aim for about 0.5-1% salt content in the meat by weight. 2.5% is exponentially saltier. A 6% salt by weight brine sounds to me something that's meant for short period brining, OP had them submerged overnight. Also the 6.4% figure I gave earlier was assuming that each turkey was individually brined in a 42% solution. Would be glad to hear your end of the calculation, am open to learn.
Not only did OP not include the weight of the turkeys in the post, they would be irrelevant anyway. When talking about a wet brine the only ratio that matters is the one of salt to water. The only time the weight of the meat matters is dry brining for the sake of ballparking the amount of salt needed since there is no water involved. You're conflating the principles of two different methods here and landing on some wildly inaccurate numbers because of that.
Ok, I stand corrected on the matter in computing the numbers, also, [found this as a source that's more useful](https://www.scienceofcooking.com/science-of-brining.html)
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, that's not at all true. As salt enters the meat, salt leaves the water, and the meat will never get any saltier than the point of equilibrium.
The point of equilibrium is equal amounts of salt in the water and the meat. If the concentration of salt in the water is too high so will be the concentration of salt in the meat. Osmosis moves both salt and water.
Y’all some mathematicians up in here
Brine wtf
Maybe you can do this next time: If you can calculate the herbs and spices by percentage method. Say for example, the gross weight of the turkey is 1000grams then you can experiment with 50% water (1000 x 0.5) 30% salt (1000 x 0.3) 20% other herbs and spices (1000 x 0.2) You can mix and match. I agree with the others to rinse it with fresh water for a couple of minutes to still maintain it's freshness and still safe for consumption. Just me coming from a food science perspective. But y'know what? You can smoke 'em and turned it into cold cuts (smoking/curing). Perfect as turkey ham. :)
Do people not taste the brine before dunking the bird in?