The Artist Eats An intersection of art, food, and culture.

Giant in the Kitchen: The Briny Word

Have you brined? Brining is fun. Brining is easy. Everybody's doing it...Seriously though, brined food is moister, juicier, cooks easier and tastes better. So, why not try it? To start, what is brining? Good question! Rather than respond with simple prose, I have chosen to use the form of a sonnet:

Brine

How lovely are the messengers who tell

Of all the scrumptious attributes of brine

And keep their friends and family fed well

Spreading the briny word to human kind

Brining, gustatorially speaking

Guarantees you tasty pork and poultry

Also good to prevent people choking

Whilst feasting on your prized Christmas turkey

Every briner has their own concoction

With a secret blend of potent spices

Mine has pepper, bay and rind of lemon

Make yours with a flavor that entices

So spread the word of brine to heart's content

And salivate to meaty merriment

Brining is a simple marinade of salt water, and just about anything else you want. My brine is never quite the same because I use whatever is around: peppercorns, whole sprigs of rosemary, bay leaves, sage, maple syrup or brown sugar, cayenne, lemons, orange juice concentrate. I've got some pictures below of a brined Pilgrim's Acres free range chicken that I put together at Fair Shares. I'll use the chicken as an example, but apply the technique to whatever you're cooking. It is more about the approach than the specific recipe.

For the chicken brine, I used two sprigs of rosemary, three fresh bay leaves, the zest and juice of one lemon, a bit of sugar and a bunch of sea salt and peppercorns. With the salt, don't worry about measuring it. Take a container which is large enough to submerge the chicken in water, fill a third or half full with cold water (allowing for the water displacement of the bird) and stir in sea salt until it tastes like the Mediterranean (In a salty, not polluted sense). Be aggressive as you add flavors. Your brine should taste intense. This isn't the time for delicate seasonings - be bold! As you stir together the ingredients taste your concoction periodically to ensure you have some robust flavors happening. (This may be obvious to some, but make sure you don't taste the brine after you've put the Chicken into it. No one wants a case of salmonella!)

At this point, toss in your bird, top off with cold water so that it is completely submerged, and you're good to go. I stuck mine in the fridge for around 24 hours, but if you don't have that much time, don't worry about it. The timing for brining isn't an exact math. I would suggest soaking your bird in the brine for at least two hours. That's a minimum though - you want to allow the chicken the time to get fully saturated with flavors. I soaked the Thanksgiving turkey for two days last year, and it tasted brilliant. (Side Note: Pork can get so dry that brining is almost a necessity. With pork chops or steaks, two days is an excessive amount of time to brine. Two hours is a good time to shoot for, but a forty-five minute soak will do the trick.)

When the chicken is properly brined, remove the bird and rinse thoroughly with cold water. This is a key step. If you don't give the chicken a good rinse, it will be overly salted. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel. At this point you have some more options. You can stuff the cavity with a sprig or two of fresh herbs. I used rosemary and oregano, but sage is also a good choice. Another option is sticking garlic or a halved lemon into the cavity. You can also stuff butter and herbs under the skin of the breast, but I think this is overkill with limited results. This stage of the process is another chance to be adventurous. Do something exciting. I stuck with bright, fresh, herbs in the hole and some garlic powder sprinkled over the top.

Now it's time to cook your chicken. Put it in a roasting pan breast side up and toss in a 400 degree oven. (Chickens can be confusing. Picture this - breast side up is when the chicken is running out of the pan, not into it.) After an hour, take the chicken out and flip it on to it's chest, pour some beer or stock over the bird and ring it with washed roasting potatoes and as many garlic cloves as you are willing to peel. I used a variety of Yellow Wood Farm's potatoes (a mix of red, black and golden roasters) that were fresh at Fair Shares. Top the spuds with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. For the fluid, I used a pint and a half (about 24oz) of Schlafly Oktoberfest. Any good lager will do the trick, but make sure to use something you would drink. If you would never drink Miller light, why would you cook with it?

Stick the bird back in oven and cook, basting occasionally until a thermometer stuck into the thigh (not touching bone) reads 170 degrees. Ok, you're done! One last note. The drippings from the chicken are amazingly delicious. Try and serve it in the pan you cooked the chicken in so that you can really sop up the juice with the extra bits of meat. Cheers!

EDIT: The beer quantity is all relative. Go for about a quarter inch of liquid in the bottom of your pan. In other words, if you have a smaller bird and less potatoes, bonus!, you get to drink most of that beer you opened!