The food intolerance/allergies thread ( https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....llergies/page3 ) with comments about banana bread and bananas Foster reminded me of my "Banana bread Foster"
Slice off a piece of banana bread, butter both sides and place in hot fry pan to brown both sides of the banana bread to a buttery crispness. Place in bowl or on plate and cover with a scoop of ice cream and top with caramel sauce.
I skimmed the thread, and brining was only mentioned once and in relation pork and beef. Chicken can nearly always a good soak. A couple of hours to overnight. Fruit juices, beer (google six pack chicken), wine. A simple do anything brine for chicken breasts is a quart of water, a cup of salt, a cup of brown sugar and then any spices that you like on top of that. At risk of oversimplifying brining causes small changes to the meat that allows the protiens in the meat to soak up water and any flavorants the water carries with it, and hold onto them. It doesn't make chicken breasts bulletproof, but it really helps.Originally Posted by Luke
So will butterflying the chicken breast make it less dry? We eat a TON of boneless skinless breasts and they are always drygrill, skillet, oven.. All dry.
pat
Also works for turkeys. For Christmas, I soak a couple birds over night with salt, spices and soy sauce and then smoke with apple wood. Juicy and tasty.
Last edited by NEPAKevin; 06-18-2018 at 12:49 PM.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
Yeah, a couple of years back an acquaintance of mine was running a restaurant, and during the turkey frying crase he deep fried several turkeys, and found that the brined/roasted turkeys outsold both the deep fried and the smoked. So much so that over the next couple of years he made and sold more brined and roasted turkeys than smoked and deep fried combined. One great addition to turkey (taken from Alton Brown) is about 4-6 oz cryistalized ginger to the brine for a 12-16 pound bird.
Now that I own a sous vide, I am planning a properly cooked turducken, using the Serious Eats method.
Brining does have drawbacks. It is really tough to get a consistently crispy skin. Again following Altin's brined turkey recipe I toss my bird in a 500 degree oven until the skin is almost done, tent it and lower the heat. I can cook a 16 pound bird in about 2.5 hours using that method. And once in cooking school, just for fun I gave my turkey tan lines with alumunum foil. Not as good looking as the photoshopped ones you can find knline, but still funny.
pat
¡Tengo que lo comer!
Man that sounds amazing.
I've brined my Thanksgiving turkeys in Alton Brown's orange juice brine for going on 10 years now. I think the recipe is in his book, "I'm Just Here For The Food." Only one failure my second year when I brined it too long and the turkey tasted like orange juice. Otherwise, it's worked well.
I highly recommend adding that book and his follow up book about baking to your cooking library. Paper would probably be better than Kindle in this case. I regularly see both books at Half Price Books.
Last edited by David S.; 06-20-2018 at 07:45 AM.
David S.
I used to brine ducks before smoking them. Got tired of the mess and did a comparison once. Two ducks not brined vs one brined. Nobody could tell the difference. All delish.
Caveats.
- store bought farm raised ducks. I would definitely brine wild ducks every time.
- smoking them apparently adds a stronger flavor than brining, so, no benefit to brine, tastewise.
Generally, I'm not a fan of brining most poultry that isn't gamy.
Past several Thanksgivings we've seasoned the bird inside and out with herbs and spices, left it in the fridge for 2 days, stuffed it with aromatics (orange and lemon sections or onions and rosemary) and cooked it in an "oil less fryer". After many years of hosting that holiday and trying every which way to cook the bird, this is my favorite.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
Cooks Illustrated, which runs a food lab and employs food scientists, over the last couple of years has gotten away from brining in favor of salting. Similar results, less mess. They peel the skin back on the turkey and rub salt on it and store overnight. They claim to be getting as good a penetration of the bird....but I wonder.
As I said, I have brined for flavors other than salt, like garlic, pepper, sugar and ginger. Another thing they do is add baking soda to denature some of the proteins in the skin to ensure a crisp skin, but I have had very mixed results with that approach, and the failures are dismal. I agree that smoking would overpower much of the brining. Alton's pan fried duck brined in pineapple orange juice with salt, garlic and thyme rocks!
pat
Last edited by UNM1136; 06-20-2018 at 06:41 PM.
I don’t brine small birds like chicken and I’ve never cooked duck.
I’ve only made turkey with a brine method. I ASSume the size and long cooking time makes it more prone to drying out.
David S.
Brining is messy and a PITA. Most of the herbs and spices are too large to penetrate into the meat so that’s kind of a waste of time and money. You’re just putting the bird into contact with salt water - so why not skip the middleman? Salt the bird and put the spices on the skin when you cook it.
I’ve done well with a simple dry brine (I.e. salting and storing in the fridge overnight). If there’s a difference between my brined and dry-brined turkeys I can’t tell.
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