# Try Equilibrium Brining!



## Renorei (Nov 5, 2014)

After Christmas, Turkeys were 88 cents a pound at Target so I bought two 15 lb turkeys and put in my freezer. I cooked one yesterday. Before cooking it, I used a technique called "equilibrium brining" to add the exact right amount of salt to the meat so that we would have turkey breast that is moist, not dry. Equilibrium brining is great because you cannot over-salt your meat if your calculations are correct. And you can leave it in the brine longer than you would any other brine because the meat won't get too salty. 

In equilibrium brining, you precisely measure the amount of water you add to your brine, then calculate the weight of it. Then, based on the weight of the water you've added, you add salt at a rate of 1.5% - 2.0% the weight of the water. Once the meat reaches equilibrium with the surrounding water, your meat will have 1.0% salt in it, if you chose 2.0% for your brine. 

In the ice chest I used to brine my turkey, I had to add 38 cups of water (2.375 gallons) to fully submerge the turkey. This comes out to 304 ounces of water. 2.0% of 304 ounces is 6 ounces, meaning I needed 6 ounces of salt for my brine. 

I dumped all the water out of the icechest and added 35 cups of cold water. Some of the cups of water had ice cubes in them. Then, I added 3 cups of warm water to my blender. I added my 6 ounces of salt and blended it up to dissolve the salt. I added a few other things too, like garlic powder and oregano, and blended those up. This is the stage where you add whatever other seasonings you want in your equilibrium brine. 

Then I poured the water + salt + seasonings blend into the ice chest where the rest of the water was and stirred it good. Then I put my turkey in there. It was about as cold as a refrigerator outside so I left the ice chest with the turkey in it on the patio overnight. The next morning the ice had melted so I filled a ziploc bag with ice and put it in there to help everything stay cold until it was time to cook. 

It stayed in the brine about 18 hours. To cook it, I seasoned under the skin of the breast, and I also added several pats of stick butter. I lightly rubbed oil over the whole thing and then seasoned it all with cajun seasoning. I put it breast side down in a huge pan on a bed of potatoes and onions. I cooked it at 325 (convection bake) for 1 hour with the breast side down, then turned it over to cook breast side up for the remaining time, which was about 2 hours. I checked the temp every 15 minutes or so towards the end of the cooking time. I took it out of the oven when the breast meat was *just below* 160 and let it rest. Once meat is removed from heat it will "cook itself" a few more degrees. 

So on a random night in February we had Thanksgiving dinner. It's one of the best turkeys I've ever eaten. All the meat, even the white meat, was nice and moist and had a *wonderful* flavor. The real test is whether the meat is still moist *the next day* for turkey sandwiches. And it is! Success! 


So, give equilibrium brining a try the next time you cook a turkey or chicken. You'll probably love it and you'll get some nice juicy meat. 


Here's a quick reference so you don't have to do any calculating.

*For every gallon of water used in your brine, add:

-2.56 ounces of salt for a 2% brine
-2.24 ounces of salt for a 1.75% brine
-1.92 ounces for a 1.5% brine *

...and whatever other seasonings you want to add. Take care to choose seasonings that don't have salt in them...if you want to use a seasoning blend with salt in it, use less salt in your brine. Which salt percentage you choose for your brine depends on how much salt you want your meat to end up with. Your meat will always end up with half that percentage of salt, i.e. 1.0% salt will be in the meat when you do a 2.0% brine.


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## doingitmyself (Jul 30, 2013)

Thank you for taking the time to post all this info.!


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

The small print on the packaging of chickens and turkey says it is "brined with up to xx% of a salt solution". Sometimes it is up to 15% or more. Are you considering that when you brine?


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## Renorei (Nov 5, 2014)

suitcase_sally said:


> The small print on the packaging of chickens and turkey says it is "brined with up to xx% of a salt solution". Sometimes it is up to 15% or more. Are you considering that when you brine?


Hmmm, I never have before. Presumably with a 15% brine, the meat *should* end up having 7.5% salinity. But of course that depends on how long they brine it. If they brine it a long time it would be 7.5% salinity because it has reached equilibrium. If it is only a short time, it would be a lot less than 7.5%. I didn't even think to look at my turkey to see if it was pre-brined. All I know is, it came out amazing!


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## Toni Baloney (Apr 22, 2017)

This is not an equilibrium brine – this is a gradient brine . . . of some sort.

The amount of salt in an equilibrium brine is based on the weight of the meat, minus estimated bone weight, AND the weight of the water needed to cover the meat in the brine COMBINED.

(Water weight + (Meat weight – bone weight)) x finished salinity = salt weight.

Brining a large turkey in an equilibrium brine could take several days (not hours), and when the brining is complete, the salinity of the meat and the salinity of the water will be the same – hence the name “equilibrium.” I put a large pork loin in an equilibrium brine today, and it was likely take 5 or 6 days in the refrigerator to finish through the process of diffusion. 

Anyone who cares to learn about the science of equilibrium brining should visit this website:

https://stellaculinary.com/podcasts/video/the-science-behind-brining-resource-page

With all due respect, the brining described here may have worked beautifully, but it is not equilibrium brining. Without factoring in the weight of the meat, the salinity calculation is inaccurate.


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## copperhead46 (Jan 25, 2008)

Store bought turkeys are not brined, they "inject" a brine mixture into the meat  plumps it up, makes it weight more, too.


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