# brine a frozen turkey



## victorytea (Nov 15, 2012)

Recently read that only fresh turkeys should be brined. Reasoning was that frozen turkeys are injected with a salt solution- can anyone shed some light on this= Paul


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## oldschoolbbq (Nov 15, 2012)

Paul, even though not Brining an "enhanced" Bird will cook alright, a brining will add to the flavor more than one would expect. The Osmotic effect will bring much of the extra flavors(onion,garlic , etc.) into the meat along with more moisture to the finished Bird , without adding time to the cook.

The processed Birds have already (IMHO) too many holes in them-especially that big red plastic thing they call a doneness therm., it's the first thing I remove to keep having a Plastic flavor in the food...
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






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You can add flavor under the skin if wanted , by mixing a 'Compound' Butter and placing it under the skin and in the cavity.Then rub with (Oil or Butter ) on the skin with a coating of your favorite Rub.

Injecting(IMHO) leaves ugly streaks in the meat and turns off some people.

Just sayin' , have fun and...


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## chef jimmyj (Nov 16, 2012)

Any Turkey or meat for that matter can be brined as it adds moisture, tenderizes and bring your choice of flavors to the meat. Enhanced Turkeys like Butterball's are pre-brined or injected with a brine solution but adds little flavorings. So if there is some Brine you like to use go ahead and brine whatever Turkey you buy. 

Now I would like to see the Article you read. The Authorities on brining suggest a Max brine time for turkey's of 24 hours or less, some say max 12 hours. A frozen turkey will be in the brine 3-5 days waiting for that badboy to thaw!. If the brine causes the turkey to get mushy after a 24 hr bath, I never noticed this affect, what will you have after 5 days? I would suggest brining a Thawed bird...JJ


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## austinl (Nov 16, 2012)

Never tried this myself but I heard an interview on a radio show where the "guest chef" said at his home he makes up his brine like normal, chills it down to 40-ish degrees and drops a frozen bird in there for a week!  He said the container he uses is one of those 5-gallon insulated water cooler jugs and claims he checks the temperature twice a day and never gets over 40 degrees over the entire process and always works just as well as a thawed bird over a shorter amount of time.  I guess it's one of those two-birds cases for him; the conversation caught my attention none the less.


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## sprky (Nov 16, 2012)

I have brined a partly frozen turkey. Let me say it worked but not near as well. I am with JJ here brine a thawed bird. My turkeys are in the brine for 3-5 days, I use a lower salt brine with cure added. I have yet to have a mushy bird using the lower salt. almost all the turkeys I brine are enhanced with around 7%.


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## chef jimmyj (Nov 17, 2012)

I looked into Brining a Frozen bird some more out of curiosity. There are as many opinions on this as there are Turkeys sold for Thanksgiving...Just as many," Sure, I do it all the time," as there are," What are you nuts? " I think if you don't get your Turkey early enough to thaw and then brine, go ahead and brine frozen. But there does not seem to be any major advantage to brining frozen if not necessary...JJ


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## sigmo (Nov 19, 2012)

AustinL said:


> Never tried this myself but I heard an interview on a radio show where the "guest chef" said at his home he makes up his brine like normal, chills it down to 40-ish degrees and drops a frozen bird in there for a week!  He said the container he uses is one of those 5-gallon insulated water cooler jugs and claims he checks the temperature twice a day and never gets over 40 degrees over the entire process and always works just as well as a thawed bird over a shorter amount of time.  I guess it's one of those two-birds cases for him; the conversation caught my attention none the less.


That was Alton Brown.  I heard it on NPR on Thurs or Fri evening.  Anyhow, it sounded plausible to me, and Alton is pretty sharp on this stuff, so I suspect it'd work fine.

Now, since my turkey is still frozen, I'm gonna be rooting in my garage for a big cooler right about now.  :)

I'll let you all know how this works.


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