Has anyone ever soaked your turkey in a brine?

[Christie]

I am being brave this year and have put my turkey in a brine. I used 1/2 cup salt to 1 gallon of water...I heard those measurements on the Wal-mart tv when I was there. I was wondering has anyone out there ever done this and if so how did it turn out?

[cr8zyscrapper]

DH always brines his turkeys and they turn out very juicy, never dry. He smokes them and they are delicious. He uses a brine recipe from food tv's Alton Brown. www.foodtv.com He brines it the night before for about 8 hrs and uses a large insulated water cooler with a lid and drain on it.

[Fief14]

Yep, mine's soaking as we speak. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com. I made a 10 pound turkey using this recipe about 2 week's ago & DH claimed it was the best turkey he ever had & that he didn't even need gravy to eat it! I just soaked my 18 pound turkey this morning for tomorrow's dinner!

ETA: Then I cooked it in the oven with a Reynolds oven bag following the directions on the box. I have to admit, it was very easy & good!

[GSMom385]

We brine ours when we use the smoker, I have never done it for the oven. If you don't brine it in the smoker it gets really tough and chewy, like leather. With the brine it is very juicy, it seems to seal in all the good stuff. We also cut and apple and an orange in half and place 1 1/2 of each inside the bird. This keeps it moist and gives it good flavor with the smoke. I normally brine it for 24 hours prior to smoking. We have an igloo cooler we use just for that, I am always scared if I use it for other stuff it will have germs from the raw birds. I always bleach it when I am done, since it had raw meat in it. I use morton brine, it comes in a bag and fill the cooler half full of cold water and then a 1/2 bag of salt stuff. By the time you get the bird in there it fill the cooler to the brim.

[jaykirs]

I know this is an old thread, however, I always inject my Turkey with Cajun seasoning and then Rotissorie that puppy for a couple of hours and it always comes out GREAT!!!! I usually do 10 to 12 pound Turkeys, since they fit in my Rotissorie oven.