brine
brīn
noun
- water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt.
verb
- soak in or saturate with salty water.
"brined anchovies"
Brining is an often overlooked process in preparing food at home. Sure, you have gotten away just fine simply seasoning your food and people seem to enjoy your cooking. However, as with most things, things can always be improved upon. Brining, if you are not already doing it, is definitely something that will take your cuisine to the next level.
I’ll always remember the aha moment when I first considered brining in my own kitchen. There is an incredible hole-in-the-wall Lebanese restaurant in Vasant Vihar, South New Delhi, called Arabian Nites. Their chicken is the best chicken I have ever tasted, and I grew up in the South of the United States where bbq chicken is a staple dish. On the surface, it would seem their technique was nothing particularly special. They roasted their chicken in a cabinet rotisserie outside and there was nothing exactly fancy about the roasting method or equipment used. I always wondered what made their chicken so unbelievably delicious. One evening I was inside to beat the summer heat, waiting for my takeaway order to be fulfilled. In those days people weren’t glued to their smartphones and people were much more aware of their surroundings. Suddenly a door swings open and a gentleman hobbles out with two buckets filled with a potent smelling liquid with whole chickens sloshing around inside. I got only a glimpse before he disappeared to another room out of sight but my eyes were already open and my cooking would never be the same.
I had watched enough cooking shows on television to have an idea about brining but since I was never formally taught how to cook it was a step that I often overlooked and never really thought about. Seeing those buckets and smelling their secret recipe wafting from those swimming hens enlightened me. I vowed to try brining as soon as I had the chance.
Thanks to the internet, it wasn’t difficult to learn about different brining recipes and methods. The possibilities seemed endless. Brining seemed to me to be the close cousin to marinating. I understood the significance of marinating. Everyone enjoys a good marinated meat roasted over coals on the bbq, unless you’re vegetarian. So what would brining bring to the table that marinade didn’t?
Juiciness! Brining helps keep your food moist. Anyone who has grilled chicken has likely had the disappointing result of tough and dry chicken jerky every once in a while. It is too easy to do. A good marinade or glaze, even decent seasoning, helps to cover for the mistake of overcooking or drying out the meat but what if there was something you could do to help prevent that from ever happening. Brining is the best way to mitigate against drying out your meat.
Another thing brining does that changed the way I cooked certain dishes is the way it can magically disperse salt throughout the meat. I wish I knew the science behind this but all I can say is that a well brined chicken will taste seasoned even at the deepest point inside the meat. Marinade can definitely penetrate the meat with seasoning but brine somehow reaches depths that marinade will not. Also, marinade isn’t necessarily about saltiness as much as adding other flavors that compliment the meat you’re cooking.
Other than adding even dispersion of salt, one can add MSG or even vinegar among so many other things. Vinegar is a popular addition to many brines and there are a ton of secret recipes for bbq chicken that use vinegar, especially in certain regions of the South.
Now, before you get brine-happy and start soaking everything you are about to cook, there are some things to keep in mind. You can over brine something. The recipes you’ll find should include a way to adjust the amount of ingredients based on the size or weight of the the thing you’re brining along with a recommended amount of time to brine said item. Lastly, not everything is brine-worthy. Chicken and pork definitely do well with a good brining but beef isn’t typically brined, for example. You can, however, brine veggies and french fries I have taken the time to brine are light years ahead of any french fries made skipping the brining process.
A final note on brining with salt solutions is to be careful with the amount of salt you add to any dish during or after the cooking process. Since salt brines already disperse salt throughout, it is easy to over salt by adding the amount of salt you are used to adding to that same dish without brining. Tasting is always advisable before adding extra salt. You may be surprised to discover that no additional salt is required at all.
I know cooking is often just a necessary daily chore and getting it over with as soon as possible is the name of the game for some people. If this describes your relationship with cooking then brining is probably not for you. If you enjoy your time in the kitchen and are looking for ways to improve the flavor of dishes you may have already mastered then adding that extra step at the beginning is well worth the effort!