I am just starting to think about doing some brining and smoking. Never brined before and done minimal smoking. Wood any of you care to share your brine recipe/tips and smoke tips. I have a 30 gallon charcoal barrel grill.
what are you planning to smoke? i just did some salmon with a dry brine, i do chicken with a wet brine
you dont necessarily have to brine chicken, sometime I do other times I dont. when I do brine a chicken I like this recipe, have used it several times and always good results Alton Brown Orange Juice Brine 1 qt vegetable stock, chilled (regular, not low sodium - that's important) 1/2 cup kosher salt 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 1 tsp black peppercorns (I usually use more like 1 tbsp, but I like pepper) 2 bay leaves 1 qt. orange juice, chilled 2 qts. ice water Bring 2 cups of the stock, the salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, and bay leaves to a boil. Dissolve the sugar and salt, and cut the fire. Add in the remaining stock, orange juice, and ice water. Once the brine has cooled to 40F or under, add the meat and keep in a cold place (under 40F). Brine for 8-48 hours. This is enough for 2 chickens or 1 turkey I went 24 hours on the brine with 2 whole chicken, Cooked at 350 on my GMG for 1 3/4 hours and IT of 165. Came out very nice
try adding cheap imitation maple syrup( real stuff too$$$$, unless you tap your own). adds a great flavor and moistness too turkey and pork loins. even thought a fresh picnic shoulder doesn't need more moisture it does taste good. don't have a smoker, but if I did first thing I would tryout. enjoy. one more, replace h2o with apple juice on some pork, the old apple pork thing.
I always brine poultry - you get better moisture and flavor, and I think it even makes the cooking process more forgiving - if I overshoot the temp a little, it doesn't get all dried out. I usually do a very basic brine - water, salt, sugar, peppercorn, and onion and garlic slices. For poultry, I'll add some fresh terragon; lemon slices and rosemary work great too. Here's a smoked turkey I made for my Memorial Day BBQ. You want to cook poultry at the "normal" oven temperatures - 315-350. Otherwise, if you go "low and slow" at 225, the fat under the skin will not render and turns into the consistency of shoe leather.
Didn't get any good ones - it went pretty fast... I served it as cold cuts with the lettuce and tomato. There was a little dark meat left when I got the pic.
The sky is the limit after you have your salt and water. I had some great reviews after using about 10 bay leaves.
Problem with making brine is the heating of the brine, then the cooling, takes more time than I would like. It's the salt that does the magic. I just sprinkle kosher salt, wait a few hours, then apply NO SALT dry spice rub. Chicken pieces, an hour or two. Larger cuts, a few hours to a few days depending on timing.
Being new to this...I always thought you had to use tenderquick for a brine. Why is it none of above recipes has it, am I mistaken or what advantage is there to not using tq?
I've skipped the boil and there is no real dif. just give it time to dissolve , heat just quickens the process.
As for wood...apple works great for everything. It is a great starter wood. Some wood will get bitter or burned tasting if you don't know what you are doing but it is hard to mess up with apple.
