BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Holiday/Seasonal Cooking Thanksgiving Cooking!!!!!

I'm ready for the taste of Thanksgiving! How are you cooking your turkey this year? Trying anything different? I've never brined my turkey before, but this recipe from Safeway for Maple Turkey Brining sounds good....

4 cups water
1/4 cup kosher or coarse salt
Maple Syrup
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 minced or pressed garlic cloves
sprinkling of juniper berries and cloves

Mix 4 cups water, 1/4 cup kosher or coarse salt, 1/2 cup Maple Syrup, 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 3 minced or pressed garlic cloves, and a sprinkling of juniper berries and cloves.

I always brine my turkey and this recipe sounds super!

The past couple years we smoked our turkey. My husband loves smoking meat and smoked turkey is really good.

There are two other brining recipes including a soy brine and basic brine plus other recipes for Thanksgiving on safeway.com. The maple syrup with the brown sugar sounds like it will give a good sweetness to the turkey. Top it with some good gravy....droooool . Hoping it will add a good golden brown color to the turkey as well.

I've never brined my turkey before. I guess the reason is that if it turns out bad then we're stuck with that turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe I'll try it on another day sometime when we also have the option of ordering take out food.

I have been brining my turkey every year for the past five years since I saw Alton Brown do it on Good Eats (and I think he is a genious!)

Here's his orignal recipe on Food Network.com Altoin Brown Brine & Roast Turkey

but about 2 years ago I came across a recipe for a Tea Brined turkey - and we fell in love with it. My kids go nuts for it!

Grilled Tea Brined Turkey at Epicurious.com

This is our go-to recipe now. We do NOT have leftovers of this bird!

I too have brined my turkey for the past several years, but after reading a piece in one of my favorite cookbooks, I will try an easier approach this year.

The author explains that if you like the taste and texture of brined turkey, opt for a Butterball or Kosher Turkey because they have already been brined so it saves you the time and mess of doing it yourself.

She suggests a fresh turkey instead of frozen. In her recipe, she stuffs the cavity with celery, carrots, and onion and then drapes it with 6 strips of bacon and cooks it low and slow (325 degrees F). After 1 1/2 hours you discard the bacon and continue to roast until an instant read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh without touching bone registers 175 degrees F.

The author is Diane Phillips. She has been teaching Do Ahead Thanksgiving Cooking Classes all over the country for more than 15 years and most all of the recipes I have tried from her books have turned out great.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

We've brined, fried, smoked, grilled and roasted. This year we're going to try salting the turkey.

Here are the instructions for salting:

Salting a Turkey.

Why do you brine a turkey? I guess it is like marinading but what is the benefit of a tea brine or of salting a turkey?

Brining a turkey causes the salt to soak into the muscle fibers of the turkey which in turn cause lquid to be absorbed by the fibers (so you have a moister turkey)

It is the same reason why when people cut sodium out of their diet they lose water weight.

Marinading is the same principle - soaking the turkey in flavor - but brining is secifically using salt to make the meat absorb the liquid as well as the flavor.

Best turkey I ever had was brined and deep-fried!
It was also entertaining since the deep frying pot was too full of oil and when the turkey dropped in six-foot flames nearly burned the tree under which they were cooking.

This year I'm gonna try to cook like Rocco on The Biggest Loser. He's on the show Tues. night with healthy recipes. That'll be a nice change!