Brining process

[jamieneenah]

HI,

We processed about 20 birds yesterday, I have been in a large container covered with ice water. I mixed in 3 pounds of caning salt and a pound of sugar with the water.

I took out a piece of chicken (a small piece of breast meat) and was in the brine since about 6 last night (so about 16 hours in the brine) and fried it in a skillet with some butter.

The flavor was good, and it was juicey, the texture seemed a little different, just a little chewy. Not too far off though from how we like them.

Should I add more salt? I used the 3 pound box of salt for the entire batch, but it is quite a few gallons of water for 20 birds.

Any suggestions on how long I want to keep the brine going? Will I see improvement in texture as they soak longer? I've read such varying opinions on the amount of time to brine (from the people that do no time at all to 72 hours). My thought is more time won't hurt, but I am unsure about mixing in more salt at this point.

Any thoughts / suggestions?
Thank You
Jamie

 

[saddina]

How much water did you dissolve the 3 LBs salt into? Is the canning salt idodized?

As long as you maintain the temps correctly, (32-40) you can leave them in, the thing is, the salt is used to regulate water absorbation, so after a certain point, it won't help at all. But without knowing your solution % (how much salt into how much water)...

You may still have a texture differance, many commericial meat birds are cage raised, and do little movement, the lack of muscle tone means softer meat.

I use this:

 

[jamieneenah]

Quote:
HI;
Yes, it was a non-idodized salt, like the one you have shown. I honestly don't know the percentage solution I have because I added ice and water as I went to have enough to cover the birds and keep them cold. My best guess would be I have between 10 and 15 gallons of water in there.

Thanks
jamie

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

A good Brining post I went by:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=188443

Well...Well... saddina You added to this one twice...and you didn't have to put the extra time in...I love knowing the whys and what for..... on what I'm doing and you explained it....Thanks for the help!!!!

Hope this helps!!!

Edited to add to

 

[jamieneenah]

Is it too late to add more salt now?
Thanks
Jamie

 

[saddina]

The flavor was good, and it was juicey, the texture seemed a little different, just a little chewy. Not too far off though from how we like them.


Based off that I'm going to say the salt did it's thing and the texture differance is muscle tone.

Ok I went and got out the scale and weighed a cup of kosher salt (I'm an american and still use cups not LBs), 1C kosher salt weighed just over 8 oz, so 3Lbs is ~ 6 cups of salt, I would've done 9C for 20 gals of water, but, only a 6-8 hour soak on pieces, I'm pretty sure the extended time has evened out any differances. I'd say you should be set, drain it and freeze. And invite me over for fried chicken, I still can't make that come out right!

 

[jamieneenah]

Quote:
Thank You, for figuring that out for me. I am just finishing up cooking lunch (deep fried chicken - not mine, but locally raised), then will head down to drain / dry / bag & freeze.

Thanks again!
Jamie