Sometime I am little selfish about so tasty meat after grilling, smoking or baked, due to my discovery of brining the meat. Not sharing my recipe secret is my “Hall of Fame” job. Took me much time to explore through many recipes about brining since that disappointed Thanksgiving turkey--my family told me the turkey tasted delicious but I don't appreciate the way it was smoked but it took so long and have to finish the cooking in the oven. Noticed how moist the turkey is for few days; it tasted better than damn dried turkey meat like few years ago. I had made few things out of good turkey like turkey salad, sandwich, and other turkey-ish goodies. Now I am satisfied with my result beside that disappointed Thanksgiving but I like the sauce I had made for turkey.(I used the recipe from BBQ guru Steven Raichlen, The Perfect Thanksgiving recipe, the source from BBQ USA: 425 FIERY RECIPES FROM ALL ACROSS AMERICA. I have no personal grudges against the recipe, I am only disappointed with how I did with 15 pounds of turkey, and how it take so long to cook or smoke than I think. I am learning from this lesson and am willing to try this recipe again on next Thanksgiving. My lesson: Plan ahead and be ready for long time smoking the glorified fowl. Wanted to comment how much I like the sauce to go with turkey—very delicious, very best than that knorr gravy.)
After weeding out many brine recipes and tossing the bad recipes out, I kept brining recipes for proteins in file for trying something new with the ingredients I want to use for smoking, grilling or baking. I had used few recipes and getting good results with it. I recalled the wise sayings from a drunk: Practice more to make perfect. Well I thought he just joked but he was not.
I am learning so much with experimenting with new recipes and evaluating how it tasted, how it cooked and how much my family love or they just feed my dog without hurting my feelings. I had noticed how it made the difference in comparison of brined meat and just regular meat by tasted their texture and its flavors. It tasted better than I can have regular cooked meat. I am pleased with good results with my attempts with brining the meat.
Last week, I put eye round beef in brine for next day smoker. Result is very delicious and I am very happy with its smoky flavor over the BBQ rub on meat. My family gobbled it up as I can manage to take some for my lunch at work. Note to myself, I have to brine extra meat for my family so I can have good amount of meat for my lunch or maybe hide meat somewhere, just kidding.
I have to admit that I bragged so much because my meat tasted better than I had tasted at work. I knew I had tasted but I have to say that my smoked chicken breast is best than that, that, that, at work. I better refrain from saying more or “someone” come and have nice chat with me--you know. Sorry, I am not going to share the secret of smoking chicken breasts with you and that “someone”, too.
Let me start with easy Brine recipe for Pork. I use this recipe for my any kind of cut pork and have many good results with tasty flavors in smoked pork. From this recipe I developed my brine recipes for beef, chicken, and pork with other ingredients that I want to try for the flavors. Still same amounts of ingredients that I often used without any sad results.
Pork Loin Brine Recipe
Preparation time: 15 minutes but pork should marinate in brine for 12-24 hours. Makes enough brine for a 4-5 pound pork loin.
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup kosher salt (or 6 Tbsp of table salt)
3 cups of hot water
5 cups of cold water
3 bay leaves, crumbled
1 Tbsp whole Allspice berries, lightly crushed
1 Tbsp whole black peppercorns, lightly crushed
10 medium garlic cloves, lightly crushed
In a large, wide pan or bowl, dissolve the sugar and salt in 3 cups of hot water
Add the Bay leaves, Allspice, peppercorns, garlic and 5 cups of cold water; stir to combine
Add the pork loin to the brine and cover the container with plastic wrap
Refrigerate 12-24 hours
Remove the pork loin from the brine and pick the spices off the meat
Dry the pork loin thoroughly with paper towels
If you want to Google more for brine recipes, I can give you little Simple Brine from Brining 101 in Cookshack as a starter. I have found Brine recipes from many sites.
I am sure you will find more informative technique of brining--I can give you a “Visitor” pass to visit sites:
Basic Brines from CulinaryWorks
Basic Brining from Cook Illustrated—Good instructions
More you learn about brining, you might want to make your recipe secret with your favorite meat. Good luck!
I hope I give you more adventure in trying something new with barbecuing or grilling by improving your status to best Backyard Chef. I already made myself look so good as my family’s Chef—my family are my favorite food critics, not kidding! You should try this!
Bon Appetit!
0 comments:
Post a Comment