I tried both dry brine and wet brine for Thanksgiving turkey and one was way better

I did a side by side test last month with two identical 14 pound birds. One got a dry brine with salt and herbs for 48 hours, the other sat in a salt sugar water mix for the same time. The dry brine bird came out with this crispy golden skin that actually stayed crunchy even after I carved it. The wet brine one had soggy skin no matter how long I let it air dry in the fridge. Plus the dry brine took up way less space in my cooler, which matters when you're feeding 12 people in a tiny apartment kitchen. Anyone else find wet brines more trouble than they're worth?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.val28d agoMost Upvoted

And you know, @charlie_fisher45, this whole thing reminds me of a bigger pattern I've noticed. It seems like every time we try to add more steps or more stuff to something, we end up making it harder on ourselves. The wet brine is a perfect example - you need a big bucket, a whole fridge shelf, you gotta worry about leaks, and then the skin comes out sad. Dry brine is just salt, a tray, and some patience. I see the same thing in other parts of life. People buy all these fancy gadgets for cooking when a good knife and a cast iron pan will do the job better. It's like we forget that simple often works best. The wet brine folks mean well, but they're just making extra work for themselves.

charlie_fisher4528d ago

The dry brine skin actually stayed crunchy even after I carved it" ok that's just showing off lol. I tried wet brine one year and my turkey looked like it went swimming and then decided to fight me in the parking lot. The skin was so sad and floppy I almost cried. Meanwhile my dry brined chicken last week came out like a dream, crispy all over, and I didn't have to clear out a whole shelf in my fridge for a giant bucket of salty water. I think I'm team dry brine forever, mostly because I'm way too lazy to lug a wet bird around.