Brining a Turkey

[TromboneAl]

I was plannng to brine our turkey overnight, even though we will be roasting it in the traditional way.

However, I noticed that our Honeysuckle White turkey has "Contains 8% of a solution" on the label, and has salt listed in the ingredients. Brining instructions on the interweb generally read:

"The turkey should ... not be a self-basting or Kosher turkey. Self-basting and Kosher turkeys have a salty stock added that will make your brined turkey too salty. Make sure to check the ingredients on the turkey before you decide to brine. "

or

"Do NOT brine a turkey that has been "basted" "enhanced" or "marinated."

Should I brine it??

 

[Meadbh]

Not unless you want high blood pressure.

 

[donheff]

I wouldn't, it sounds like it is already treated. For what it is worth, I brined two untreated turkeys for Thanksgiving and smoked one and oven roasted the other. They were good but I am not sure I noticed much difference that I could attribute to the brining.

 

[ERD50]

My shortest post ever:

NO

 

[braumeister]

It won't do any harm if you brine it.
The salt solution they package the bird in will have put some salt into the meat, and if you brine it you'll put some more in.

The advantage of doing it yourself is that you can make a better, more flavorful brine.

Once upon a time, I got distracted and left a turkey brining for over two full days. It was just slightly saltier than I prefer, but DW thought it was perfect. So I doubt if you'll do any harm, and you might be happy with the result.

 

[TromboneAl]

Well, I decided to do the brining next time. I don't want to take any chances.

 

[East Texas]

After I wrote out the entire recipe we used with our HoneySuckle White Turkey, I found the one we used, Alton Brown's recipe, on the Good_Eats_Network. The only thing we did different was not needing to flip the bird over in the brine bucket because it was only a 12 pound turkey.