I tried my first dry brined turkey yesterday and I’m completely sold. Hands down the best turkey I’ve ever cooked.
Made a dry rub of kosher salt, thyme, garlic, dried lemon peel, peppericini, pepper, etc. rubbed down the bird and let sit 24 hours uncovered in the frig.
Made a compound butter with fresh oregano, lemon zest, and shallots. Tucked a few tablespoons under the skin of each breast and leg. Then melted the rest and basted. Lemons, red onions and celery around the bottom and stuffed with an herb dressing. Then some white wine in the bottom of the roaster.
30 min on 450 and then basted with more of the shallot lemon butter and then back in the cover with a foil triangle at 325 until the probe hit 160.
Sounds wonderful and easier to do than a wet brine, but isn’t this just a rub? If not, what’s the difference between a dry brine and a rub?
Also, Paul, how does a dry brine penetrate deeper into the meat than a wet brine? I would have thought it wouldn’t really get past the skin, let alone into the meat.
Apparently the salt first pulls liquid out to the skin and then it gets drawn back in… I also did a 24 hour dry brine to a turkey I had separated, use the back and wings to make stock which then became gravy base. I too am sold on dry brining and spatchcocking or fully separating the bird. (breast and legs were done at the same time… but can pull things out of the oven when they reach temp.)
Brine = salt-based mixture that might contain herbs/spices used for salting meat
Rub = herb/spice mixture that may contain salt, and used for flavor and/or texture
In my case, yes. I think you have to. Cooking a medium-large bird at 400+ would have your smoke alarm going off all day. And I never had mine as high as 450, I used about 410 for 30 mins, then dropped to 325.
Mine was a 16-pounder. This year I did it whole, instead of spatchcocked. I don’t bother brining, wet or dry, because the only thing I think that does is add salt to the interior of the meat. In the case of steak, that can be a good thing. But for turkey, I’ve concluded that it doesn’t matter because sopping up gravy is going to add enough salt to make it less important.
Well I’m sure it did to impart flavor, but if you are asking if it was too salty, the answer is no. I had to add additional salt to the gravy. And generally I probably undersalt and use additional flavor components instead.
But are you salting the outside of the skin or salting between the skin and the meat? I’ve not figured out how salting the skin ahead of time does much more than get the skin nice and crispy (which is awesome in its own right).
