I'm Just Here for the Food_ Version 2.0 - Alton Brown [84]
BRINING AND MARINATING: THE SHORT FORM
• Heavy zip-top freezer bags are great for marinating and brining because they allow for the most surface-to-marinade /brine contact. You can suck out the air before you seal the bag, and the bag itself provides the meat with an occasional massage, which helps the marinade or brine to be more quickly absorbed into the meat.
• PH matters: the more acidic the brine, the longer the journey into the meat. So if your brine is heavy on wine or vinegar, consider adding some baking soda to neutralize the acid.
• Temperature matters: meat proteins are more extractable around 34° F, meaning that the tissues in question will hold on to more water if brined at refrigerator temperatures.
• Never wash off marinades or brines; simply pat the food dry before cooking.
• Although marinated foods can be fished from the drink and wrapped for several days prior to cooking, try to time your soak session so that the brined food can go straight from the liquid to the heat. All those cells are puffed up like blimps, and without the counterpressure of the brine, the sheer weight of the food will begin to squeeze the brine out within minutes of leaving the bath.
• When brining large items like turkeys or multiple pork shoulders, I put them in a plastic cooler and replace about a third of the brine liquid with ice.
• Another good reason for brining and marinating at refrigerator temperature is, of course, sanitation. Most micro bugs don’t dig salty environs, but some don’t mind a bit.
• A cure is simply a brine without the water. Since it’s pretty darned strong, it’s usually only used as part of a curing process, such as corning beef (the word cure is a reference to the size of the salt crystals used in the process) and making gravlax.
Like a molecular Trojan horse, the water can harbor other substances, specifically water-soluble flavors like brown sugar or various herbaceous elements whose flavors have been extracted via brewing. This means you can sneak various and sundry flavorings and seasonings into the meat.
And yet there’s more. When salt gets into meat cells it runs into certain water-soluble proteins. They look sort of like this:
That is, until they meet the salt. Then they look sort of like this:
This is what denatured proteins look like. Notice that they’ve gone from tight little separate springy things to big loose coils that have managed to get all tangled up with each other. During the cooking process, this tangled-up structure traps water almost like a gel, which means two things:
1. Brined meats are juicier when cooked.
2. Since they hold more moisture, brined meats are more forgiving of overcooking.
For instance, a turkey cooked to 165° F will taste okay and will be relatively moist, but it dries out quickly with every degree over.
A brined turkey, on the other hand, can reach all the way to 180° F without losing its finger-lickin’ status. This rule applies equally to all pork cuts, all poultry and fowl, and, oddly enough, shrimp.
Orange Brine
This brine is equally good on all kinds of poultry and pork—and I like it best on pork loin or even pork chops. It’s good for grilled pork tenderloin, too, but you might also consider basting the tenderloin on the grill with a combination of orange-juice concentrate mixed with the hot sauce of your choice.
Application: Brining
In a pot bring 2 cups of the stock, the salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, and bay leaves just to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Add the remaining stock, the orange juice, and 2 quarts ice water, and pour into a 2-gallon bucket. When the mixture has cooled to below 40° F, add the meat in a cool place