What to do if a turkey has been brined for too long
I was going to brine my turkey for two nights til I found out that you can over-brine a turkey which is very bad. So what I have done is washed the brine out (after brining for 20 hrs) and put my turkey in the fridge til it comes time to cook it in 12 hours. Will my turkey still be ok or have I irrecoverably ruined it already?
Best Answer
According to Alton Brown (of Serious Eats fame) you can safely brine a turkey for days. However, you'll need to adjust the brine depending on the duration. Yesterday I roasted a chicken that was brined for about 36 hours and the results were delicious.
AB Fan: Can I brine an 18-pound turkey overnight, or is this too long?
Alton Brown: No, it's not too long. Technically, you could brine a turkey for several days. The trick is in two things--brine concentration versus mass. You could either soak a bird for a long time in weak brine, or for a short time in a stronger one. You're better with weaker brine and a longer soak, so take the standard brine that we use in "Good Eats," and you could easily do that overnight. If you're afraid of it being too salty, you might cut back to 3/4 cup of salt instead of the full cup, but leave the sugar amount the same. I've gotten to where I really like to thaw my turkeys in brine, because I can make my brine, keep it in a cooler, toss in my frozen bird, and leave it for days if I want without worrying about the temperature getting too high. It will stay really cold, but, at the same time, the water will help thaw the bird. So when it's thawed, it's already brined. But that is an imprecise science, so you have to work with it. If I feel the brine will get too warm, I'll add a bit of ice. So far, that hasn't happened. It stays around 40 degrees.
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What happens if you brine a turkey too long?
Brining too long can result in meat that tastes overly salty and has a spongy texture. If you're not ready to roast the bird after 18 hours, remove it from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry and refrigerate for up to two days.How do you fix an over brined turkey?
After rinsing, fill the sink with cold water and soak the turkey for fifteen minutes. This will \u201cpurge\u201d the excess salt that has built up in the skin and surface meat and just decrease the intensity of the salt in the drippings.How do you fix over brined meat?
Brine Times Most over-brining simply makes everything a little too salty, and you can soak the meat in cold water to draw out the excess salt.Is 3 days too long to brine a turkey?
Place the container in the refrigerator for the period of time specified in the recipe. The amount of time will depend on the type of brine you use; however, do not brine any longer than two days and always keep the turkey and brine refrigerated (at 40\xb0F or less). Remove turkey from brine after the recommended time.Can you brine a turkey too long?
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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