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LarryR

Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

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Did a quick turkey cook and thought I'd record it since it wasn't Thanksgiving and had a little more time, not as many guests or food to cook. Just a note we were also tasting some champagnes that we'll be serving for Thanksgiving so I'm a little "lubricated" by the end of the video. Enjoy!

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

4 quarts water

2 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup sea salt

8-10 whole cloves garlic, peeled

6-8 whole bay leaves

3 large sprigs of thyme

2 teaspoons whole peppercorns

Preparation:

Place 2 quarts of water and other ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil, dissolving sugar and maple syrup. Remove from heat, add remaining 2 quarts and allow brine to cool completely before using.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

The bird is in a Reynolds roasting bag with the brine, all the air squeezed out and the bag tied off. The bird in bag is in a cooler full of ice and water, replenishing the ice as needed to keep cold and safe. Remember from before, you can also use a cylindrical ice water cooler as a brining vessel. It has to be sized to the bird and amount of brine. It is easier to use the bird in bag in cooler to get your proportion of brine to bird correct.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

I forgot who mentioned this after being horrified I was brining in an old mop bucket...

http://www.amazon.com/Igloo-MSIGLO5X-Wa ... gloo+water

They come in various sizes depending on the size of your bird. And hey, I cleaned that bucket out pretty good beforehand and no one got sick.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

4 quarts water

2 cups dark brown sugar

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup sea salt

8-10 whole cloves garlic, peeled

6-8 whole bay leaves

3 large sprigs of thyme

2 teaspoons whole peppercorns

Preparation:

Place 2 quarts of water and other ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil, dissolving sugar and maple syrup. Remove from heat, add remaining 2 quarts and allow brine to cool completely before using.

I like this recipe more than the recipe I posted. Can bourbon be added ? What does the soy sauce do to the turkey ?

I take it you have done this before.

Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

Two birds actually, a little 8 pounder for Thursday and a 13 for a delayed Thanksgiving on Saturday. I have not tried this brine before. My presumption is the soy just substitutes for some of the salt.

There's a plethora of brines out there, I just thought I would try a new one.

For new members, there is a huge wealth of info here:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html

We reference this site fairly often.

Check out the "All about brining" topic and the ever popular apple brine article.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

That maple syrup brine got raves. My wife doesn't like white meat but said this was the tops and all she ate was the white! These were natural turkeys with no solution.

Just pulled the second turkey off the grill a few minutes ago for tomorrows big party, hope they all like it too.

I brined for three days, removed from brine, rinsed, patted dry and straight to the KK without any overnight drying in the fridge. Skin came out nice and crispy, though we don't eat it.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

I am glad your Turkey came out good. I am curious about the taste. What did the soy sauce do for flavor ?

Was it salty? Was 72 hours too long ? What did you use for smoke if you smoked the Turkey ?

Do you think adding Bourbon be too much or just add more flavor ?

I want to try this soon. Thanks for telling how you turkey came out.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

My experience with brines is that the herbs, fruits and spices do not really flavor the meat, even after three days of brining. The maple syrup and brown sugar did add some detectable flavor. The meat was not the least bit salty. I used pecan chunks on top of Royal Oak lump.

I will guess that since the brining needs to be done at 30 something degrees, the spice and herb essences don't really get liberated in to the solution. Even though you are supposed to bring the brine to a boil prior to using it. Maybe prepping a brine a week ahead and letting the herbs and spices steep at room temp for a week prior to using it might make a flavor difference.

The core ingredients of a brine are the salt and sugar used for their osmotic effect. Any added flavors from herbs, spices, liquors etc. are at the users discretion. So try anything. Including bourbon. And let us know.

For brining experiments it would be easy and affordable to do chickens.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

For most applications I'd agree with Michael, and we generally use a plain light brine (1/2 cup sea salt, 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar per gallon water) for part of a day before cooking. Chicken at 500 F direct (charcoal nearly spent but KK hot) is great this way.

For pork loin we generally use some combination of the "Oliveto House-Cured Ham" recipes (Cooking by Hand, Paul Bertolli) where one heats a mixture to 160 F then chills before brining several days. In this case I compute a target salinity of 2.5% (a rather light ham) based on a water content of the meat itself of 70% (a guess, but better than using 0% by ignoring the effect).

For example, using an 11.76 lb bone-in loin in 9 liters of brine water, for a target salinity of 2.5% I compute

[tab=30:2ng56q3x]0.025 * (9000 + 0.7*454*11.76) = 318 g salt

If one is very consistent about the ratio of water to meat in brines, one can ignore this effect and simply learn a different target salinity as one's preference. For example, I could have used 3.5% salt to brine water above, ignoring the meat. However, the next time I used a bigger piece of meat in the same brining container, it would taste too bland if I didn't increase the salt by guessing. The calculation avoids the guessing.

I've always been able to taste the presence of added flavorings: some combination of allspice, peppercorns, cloves, juniper berries, onions, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, bay. For a controlled study with Michael I'd be tempted to leave out the veggies, but it would be hard to miss the cloves or juniper berries.

We do use a smoke pot: A two quart cast iron dutch oven with three 1/8" holes drilled in bottom, lid sealed on with flour water paste, filled with apple chips or chunks, and nestled in the fire. This would be way too much wood any other way, but one experiences a distillation effect of only part of the wood smoke, leaving out the harsher elements, and the smoke harmonizes with other flavors as just one more ingredient, rather than dominating. It may be the case that with other methods of smoke generation, the effect of brine flavorings is easier to lose.

Our taste buds are more different from each other than we realize. I know this cooking with my wife, we each pick up different flavors more clearly. I think conventional smoke tastes like the food got caught in a house fire, but other people love that effect. And I have wine-tasting friends who can identify tastes hours later far more clearly than I can.

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

In this case I compute a target salinity of 2.5% (a rather light ham) based on a water content of the meat itself of 70% (a guess, but better than using 0% by ignoring the effect).

For example, using an 11.76 lb bone-in loin in 9 liters of brine water, for a target salinity of 2.5% I compute

0.025 * (9000 + 0.7*454*11.76) = 318 g salt

What is the 454 in the formula? Do you also use the ratio of 70% water to meat for poultry?

Susan

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Re: Jack Daniels Maple Syrup Brined Turkey Cook - Video

Someone asked me a question about brining and how much to make.

You have to make enough to submerge the turkey.

If you put the turkey in a bag and squeeze out all the air one recipe will do.

If you use a big pot or other vessel like an igloo cooler you may need to double it.

Remember the brine and the turkey need to be kept below 40 degrees for the duration!

I put the turkey in a bag with brine and surround the bag with ice water in a cooler.

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