do you brine your turkey?

[*Celeste*]

everyone is doing it and i'm just curious if any of you are and why?

[schock77]

I'm making my first turkey and using Alton Brown's Good Eats turkey brine recipe (gotta love google). The hubby has been wanting to try a brine as it's supposed to make the turkey stay moist. We'll see how it turns out!

[MamaBee]

We have been using Alton's recipe for the 5 years of so... love it!! The turkey stayed moist and had a good flavor. But this year we are trying something different... my hubby (who does the turkey) saw on PBS about putting salt under the skin and have it sit for 12 hours in the fridge and it's suppose to do the same thing.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Another AB brining fan here (but are you surprised by that? LOL). One of the reasons, too, is that you aren't constantly opening the oven to baste, which just rolls off the skin of the turkey. You allow the turkey to absorb all the moisture ahead of time, stuff the cavity with aromatics, and have a great, juice, flavorful turkey without all the work :)

[DawnMarch]

We do! Only for a fresh turkey though.

[Balinda]

omg...I brined my first turkey last Christmas...it turned out great except for the fact that I a huge turkey...if I had been on candid camera putting it together I would have made someone pee their pants laughing at me.....give it a go! I say go for it!!!

[Kat Stokes]

Nope. We put ours in a Turkey bag with carrots, onion and celery and let it roast until done. It's always good that way. I'm only doing an 8 lb. breast this year since we will be camping (rv'ing) for Thanksgiving and my oven in the trailer is pretty small.

[NeverendingJen]

nope. did it once for a turkey breast and hubby complained that it was dryer than how I do it, so I'll stick with my normal method.

[*Celeste*]

we don't have room to do it this year - in the fridge. but maybe next year i can co-opt my sister's fridge. thanks for the input!

[MandaT]

Nope, we don't have a big enough fridge or pan.

I'll be roasting (2) in the oven & stuffing with citrus & herbs, rubbing with an herb/salt/butter compound. :)

[MamaBee]

we don't have room to do it this year - in the fridge. but maybe next year i can co-opt my sister's fridge. thanks for the input!


we use one of those larger cooler to brine the bird over night. :)

[ColleenSwerb]

I've never had a brined turkey before. My mom always did a regular roast, until a few years ago when they got a turkey fryer. They got Jordan a fryer for Christmas last year, so that's how we're doing ours (with a regular breast roasted in the oven, just in case anyone doesn't like the fried).

[kscwgirl]

I brined ours the first year I did thanksgiving. You should only brine a fresh turkey though as the frozen are already injected w/a sodium solution.