Should You Brine a Turkey?

What the salt does

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) quotes Texas A&M's Alan Sams: salt dissolves some of the protein in the muscle, and the salt and protein reduce moisture loss during cooking, so the meat is juicier and more tender. A wet brine soaks the bird in salt water. A dry brine is salt alone; FSIS describes it pulling moisture out, dissolving in it and being reabsorbed, without adding water.

Dry brine, wet brine or neither

America's Test Kitchen's Lan Lam lays out the trade. Wet brining is faster and adds moisture to lean meat, but it can inhibit browning, makes crisp skin harder and needs room in the refrigerator for a big container. Salting takes longer but is more convenient and doesn't get in the way of crisp, browned skin.

Neither works too. Our classic roast Thanksgiving turkey is simply buttered and salted just before roasting, and a thermometer keeps it from overcooking: 165°F in the breast, thigh and wing.

How much salt, by weight

Wet brine: FSIS calls for 3/4 cup of table salt per gallon of water. USDA's FoodData Central puts a cup of table salt at 292 g, so that is about 220 g per gallon. America's Test Kitchen brines at half that strength, 1 cup of table salt in 2 gallons of water (about 146 g per gallon), for 6 to 12 hours for a 12 to 17 pound bird.

Kosher salt is the trap. King Arthur Baking's weight chart lists a tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt at 8 g, Morton's kosher at 16 g and table salt at 18 g, so swap by weight, not by spoon. The 220 g in a gallon of FSIS brine is about 14 tablespoons of Morton's or 27 of Diamond Crystal.

Dry brine: FSIS says 1 tablespoon of kosher salt for every 5 pounds, the same ratio as our dry-brined Judy Bird. For a 15 pound turkey that is 3 tablespoons: about 24 g of Diamond Crystal or 48 g of Morton's. America's Test Kitchen salts more heavily, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound for 24 to 48 hours.

Timing and safety

FSIS technical specialist Archie Magoulas lists the rules: don't wash the bird first, cool any heated brine to room temperature before the turkey goes in, use a covered food-grade plastic, stainless steel or glass container or a brining bag, keep it at 40°F or below, and never brine longer than two days. Throw the brine away afterward.

Count the brine into your thaw plan; how long to thaw a turkey has the USDA numbers, and our turkey calculator works out the thaw day by weight. One disagreement: our Judy Bird recipe salts 3 days ahead, longer than FSIS's 2-day limit for both dry and wet brines. We'd stick to 2 days.

Skip it for kosher and self-basting birds

America's Test Kitchen says never to brine a kosher or self-basting turkey because it will turn out too salty. Kosher birds are salted during koshering, and self-basting ones are injected with salt and water. FSIS adds that labels reading "self-basting," "marinated" or "for flavoring" mean a solution was added during processing, up to 3 percent of the weight of a bone-in bird. Check the ingredient list for salt, and skip extra salt on these birds.

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