Brining/resting question

[suzettex5]

Getting ready to process our first roo's. They are about 6 months old and mostly mixed breed roos from dual purpose birds.

My questions are-

When brining (or soaking) do you completely cover the brid in the solution?

What is the ratio of water to salt?

How long do you leave it in the fridge in the solution?

Do I drain and then rinse the bird before freezing OR eating?

How long after death (and processing) do I put it in the solution? Do I soak it right away, or do I let the bird rest a few hours before putting it in the solution?


Thanks for any help, any tips would be much appreciated!

 

[Judy]

Yes, cover the bird. There are many different recipes for brine. An average simple brine would probably be 1/2 cup kosher (or, not iodized) salt to enough water to cover one or two chickens. Some use a lot more salt. You can also add spices and seasonings; professionals often brine for a few hours with seasonings, both for tenderness and flavor. How long you leave it varies a lot, too. Maybe 4 hours to overnight, but this varies a lot, too. Probably less if you use a lot of salt. Yes, rinse it after. I always brine right away, as soon as it is clean, for a few hours only as we don't want them too salty; we are light salt eaters. Rinsing helps but of course some of the salt stays in the meat.

You may get a whole lot of very different answers -- certainly there are a lot of different ones in this section.

Also, brining for tenderness is much less significant if you are doing cornish x than if you are doing DP roos or the like. If cornish x, probably a lot of people don't brine. I don't know; I've never done one.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Quote:
I like to preseason a few of the birds. Put on the label what I used, date, age of bird and freeze them for later. They seem to absorb the flavor even in the freezer or while defrosting. You can also use one of the seasoned brines on here, but I cheat and do it the simple way. I often just squirt some italian dressing or BBQ sauce in the bag and massage it all over the bird before I freeze it.

 

[johny]

Depends on if you like a brine soak for any meat before you cook it.

Personally, I don't. I just roast my birds un-salted. Pan sauces, gravy or any other saucing method is how salt gets onto the dinner plate.

I also did not waste time putting freshly killed birds into an ice bath.
I cleaned them with no GI spillage and so there was no issue of bacterial contamination.
I put the carcasses in the fridge in a large covered pot and let them chill for 4 days.

I tried roasting a 2 day rested bird but it was too chewy.
The four day rest was ideal for tenderization and still tasted really good