Brining a Turkey

The local grocery store ran a promotion last month where if you spend x amount of money within a certain time period, you could receive either a free frozen turkey breast, Stoffers frozen lasagna, a ham or something else.  Two years in a row now I've managed to hit that dollar amount, and opted to get a Shady Brook frozen turkey breast.  I know, frozen doesn't taste as good as fresh, but who can argue with free???  I was going to spend the money buying groceries, so this was a nice perk.

Satuday, I started thawing the 7 pound breast and Sunday morning, I decided to try brining it.  The Joy of Cooking said to mix 2 cups of salt (or 4 cups kosher salt) to 2 gallons of water for a 15-25 pound turkey.  Since my bird was half the weight, I decided to halve the mixture... thankfully that was easy!  I also have an enormous mixing bowl in which somehow this all fit.  My back up plan was to use the water cooler we have, but thankfully I didn't have to go there.  If I do get a bigger bird in the future, I'll have to use that and put store it in the garage while it soaks, since the brining process requires a cool/cold environment.  If it's hot outside, the brine will have to include ice.  If it's winter, no extra measures needed!  So in this case, the bird went into the refrigerator.  Have I told you how much I love our refrigerator??

Six (6) hours later, I rinsed the bird, stuffed it with a quartered lemon and a halved head of garlic, buttered the skin, and stuffed it into the oven.  Covered it about 45 minutes into the cooking process, and then waited until the internal temp got close to 165 degrees, which Joy of Cooking says is the max turkey breast meat should get else risk overcooking it.  At 159 degrees, I decided to see if the little popper had popped, and it had, so out the bird came.

That turkey was so juicy and moist, it was awesome.  No gravy (or salt!) required. 

A friend of mine has suggested adding apple juice to his brine, so I don't know that would change the taste.  I may well try that next time!

Mmmm... turkey sandwich for lunch....