SPICING AND AGING
DEFINING BRINING
Brining seems to be all the rage these days, as if the world’s chefs and food writers have suddenly discovered salt water, like Balboa discovering the Pacific Ocean. What, exactly, is it
supposed to do?
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rining, soaking meat, fish or poultry in a solution of salt in water, is far from new. Surely, at some time in maritime history, someone discovered—accidentally, perhaps?—that meat that had soaked in seawater was juicier and had better flavor when cooked.How does brining work? What does a bath in salt water accomplish, besides making the food…well, wet and salty? Are the claims of increased juiciness and tenderness justified?
First, let’s get our terminology straight. The word brining is mistakenly used for everything from rubbing salt on a roast to soaking it in a concoction of salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar, wine, cider, oil, spices, and, oh, yes, water. But rubbing dry salt on meat isn’t brining; it’s making a rub, which serves a completely different purpose. Some people call the soaking of meat in a liquid mixture of many ingredients brining, although it’s really marinating, which is a different ball game.
On the other hand, the meat industry refers to the injection of salt water into pork as marinating, whereas it’s really a form of brining.
To keep this section somewhat shorter than the briny Moby-Dick, I’ll limit my discussion to the effects of soaking meat in plain salt water, although most brining liquids also contain sugar.
A typical meat (muscle) cell is a long, cylindrical fiber of protein and liquid containing dissolved substances, all encased in a membrane that allows water molecules to pass through.
When such a cell is bathed in a brine that has a lot more free water molecules per cubic inch than it has, Nature tries to even things up by forcing free water molecules through the membrane from where they are more plentiful—in the brine—to where they are less plentiful—inside the cell. This process, in which water moves from a solution that is water-rich into a solution that is relatively
water-poor is called osmosis, and the pressure that forces the water through the membrane is called osmotic pressure. In this case, the result is a transfer of water from the brine into the cells, making a juicier piece of meat.
Meanwhile, what about the salt? There is very little dissolved salt (Techspeak: very few sodium ions and chloride ions) inside the cell, but there are tons of salt in the brine, usually from one to six cups per gallon. Again, Nature tries to even things up, this time by the process of diffusion: Some of the plentiful salt ions outside the cell diffuse or migrate through the membrane into the cell. There, by a mechanism that still isn’t completely understood, it increases the protein’s ability to hold water. The result is a seasoned, moister piece of meat. As a bonus, the meat may well be more tender, because protein structures that are binding more water tend to be swollen and softer.
Brining is therefore most effective for relatively flavorless, lean meats that tend to dry out when cooked, such as today’s white-meat turkeys and fatless pork loins. But that, my friends, is where science ends and art takes over, because there are dozens of different ways to brine and cook various kinds of meat. There can be no general answer to how long and in how strong a salt solution one should brine a given kind of meat that is subsequently to be cooked in a certain way, at a certain temperature, for a certain length of time. That’s where your confidence in the recipe developer must be the deciding factor, because trial and error rule. If you find a brining recipe that gives you tender, juicy, not-too-salty results, cherish it and don’t ask questions.
While we’re in a saline mood, let’s talk about salt’s ability to “draw the moisture out” of food, a historic method of drying and preserving meat and fish by covering it with rock salt. Isn’t that contrary to what I’ve just said about salt water’s increasing the moisture in brined meats? Not at all. (Watch me squirm out of this.)
Salt water and dry salt don’t have the same effect on food. Osmosis works because of a difference in the amount of available water between the two sides of the cells’ membranes. In brining, there are more water molecules available outside the cell than inside, so osmotic pressure forces some of the water inside. But when you cover a piece of high-water-content food (and that includes just about all food) with solid salt, some of the salt dissolves in the surface moisture to produce a film of extremely concentrated salt solution, with an extremely low proportion of water—lower than that inside the cells. Thus, there are more available water molecules inside the cells than outside, and moisture is extracted.
Rock Cornish Brined Hens Bob’s Mahogany Game Hens
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ornish game hens are flavorful and juicy, especially when brined before roasting. In this recipe we give them an Asian flair by basting with a soy-garlic-ginger sauce to produce beautiful mahogany-brown skins.How much brine to use? Put the hens into the bowl, crock, or resealable plastic bag that you intend to brine them in and add water to cover them completely. Then remove the birds and measure the amount of water.
How strong should a brine be? As a rule of thumb, use 1 cup Morton’s kosher salt or 1½ cups Diamond Crystal kosher salt for every 4 quarts of water. Sugar and other ingredients may be added to balance the flavors.
2 Cornish game hens 4 quarts water
1 cup Morton’s kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed 1/3 cup soy sauce, preferably Kikkoman 2 tablespoons peanut oil
4 cloves garlic
3 nickel-size slices of ginger
1. Remove the hens from their wrappings, clean out the cavities, and rinse well. Pour the water into a large bowl or stockpot. Add the salt and sugar and stir until dissolved.
Put the birds in the liquid, breast side down. Weight with a plate to keep the birds fully submerged. Allow to sit in a cool place or refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove the birds from the brine, and rinse and dry with paper towels. If not using them right away, refrigerate.
2. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Tie the legs loosely together with string, just so they do not splay.
3. Pour the soy sauce into a 1-cup glass measuring cup, and add the oil. Put the garlic cloves through a garlic press and add to the soy and oil. Mince the ginger, put in garlic press, and squeeze its juice and any bits that may come through into the soy mixture.
Whisk the mixture to blend as much as possible (the oil won’t blend completely, of course), and paint the birds all over with the mixture. Place the birds breast side down on a rack over a roasting pan.
4. Roast the birds for 30 minutes, basting with the soy mixture after 10 and 20 minutes.
Stir or whisk the sauce well each time to suspend the garlic and ginger fragments so that the basting brush picks some fragments up and deposits them on the skin. If the pan drippings begin to smoke, add ½ cup water to the pan. Turn the birds breast side up and continue to roast for another 30 to 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes. Make sure to get some of the solids onto the skins, especially on the final basting.
The birds will be tender, juicy, and mahogany brown all over.
SERVES 2 GENEROUSLY
There’s No Excuse for Losing Juice Salt-Seared Burgers
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amburgers cooked on a gas or charcoal grill lose a lot of juice by dripping into the fire. But when they are cooked in a skillet, the evaporating juices leave behind flavorful “brown bits,”o r fondon the pan. That would be wonderful if the pan were to be deglazed with wine or another liquid to make a sauce. But when skillet-cooking plain, unsauced hamburgers, all those brown bits are lost.
The solution: Cook the burgers on a thin layer of salt in the skillet. The salt draws out juices and quickly congeals them, forming a crust on the meat that keeps it from sticking to the pan and leaving its brown goodies behind. The resulting burger is crunchy on the outside, and deliciously salty.
¾ to 1 pound ground beef chuck
½ to ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1. Using your hands, pat and shape the meat gently into 2 fat ovals. Do not compress the meat more than is necessary to hold it together.
2. Sprinkle kosher salt evenly onto the surface of an 8-inch cast-iron skillet. It should not quite cover the bottom in a single layer. Heat the salted skillet for 5 minutes on medium high.
3. Place the burgers directly on the salt and cook without turning for 3 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for 3 minutes on the other side for rare or until done to your liking.
MAKES 2 BURGERS