Anonymous Modernist 2976

Thanks for reminding me of the section on brining turkey because I was planning to use the MC discussion on roasting a chicken in a combi oven. At the moment, I have just injected a chicken as a test for a turkey with a 5 percent brine equal to 5 percent of the weight of the chicken. I am using apple and oak pellets in a perforated basket in a gas Weber barbecue adjusting the temperature to 250 F with a pan of water for humidity. Here in Michigan with the temperature staying at about 36 F, the chicken took 3 1/2 hours to get to 161 F. But, it was quite tasty though the skin, as expected, was touch. Even though I injected the chicken breast just before putting it on the grill, the texture of the breast meat was too soft --- it lost some of its texture. I'm not sure if the solution is to use a higher or possibly even a lower concentration of salt. A few years ago Harold McGee had a column in the NYTimes in which he said that the trade-off with brining is that the texture of the meat changes. Please let me know if you discover anything interesting with your experiment.

I'm planning to brine and smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving, but am not sure which is the best way to brine it. Would it be better to inject the breast with a salt brine, as suggested for chicken in MC, or immerse the whole bird in a brine? Also, what is the highest temperature to smoke it at without compromising the smoking process to minimize the time in the danger temperature zone?

They are also called glycerin flakes. I bought 2 oz from willpowder.com in Florida. That is enough emulsifier to make gallons of ice cream or gelato since they are typically used at the 0.1-0.2 percent level. Dennis