Bring on the Brine!
By Alice Osborne
Our monthly newsletter writer, Jeanne Wolfley, is a terrific cook. I pick her brain all the time for cooking help. This last conversation was about turkey cooking. Mine always comes out dry. Hers is incredible - incredible because she brines it in a salt-water bath (brine) overnight in the fridge.
I went researching this idea and found she's right on - top chefs recommend brining the turkey, also. It keeps even the white meat juicy and flavorful. The procedure involves heating the salt water and then covering the turkey with the water (it has to be completely covered).
So we decided to follow along and we brined our turkey this year, too. Wow - Jeanne and all the others weren't exaggerating. It was an incredible turkey!
This turkey-brining technique made me wonder if we could brine other things as well. Seems you can. For starters, did you know many cooks don't just soak their beans overnight before cooking, they brine them? This brining seasons them and improves their texture.
When beans soak in brine, sodium ions from the salt replace calcium and magnesium ions in the skin of the beans. Sodium ions weaken the pectin holding the cells together, allowing more water to penetrate the skins to produce softer, more tender beans.
Yeh, yeh. I'm mostly interested in taste and how to get the most out of whatever I'm cooking. So science aside, a standard formula for brining beans is to soak a pound of dried beans overnight in a solution of 3 tablespoons salt dissolved in 4 quarts of water.
But what about soaking beans in a flavored brine? Is this possible? Yes it is. And that's exciting. Test chefs tried all sorts of beans with all sorts of flavors, and found that garlic and onion and fresh or dried herbs were all superb. Can you imagine, instead of just flavored broths that beans swim in, and actual garlic-flavored pinto, or a basil-flavored navy? Yum!
If this is something you think you'd like to try, follow the procedure for turkey brining by heating your salt water so all the salt dissolves. Then just puree some fresh garlic cloves or other flavors of choice, in a little water, and stir it well into the salted brine; let beans soak overnight. That's the basic procedure with onions and herbs (fresh or dried) as well. Puree in a little water, whatever you want to flavor the beans with, then stir it well into the heated salt water brine. This adds a whole new dimension to cooking - bring on the brine!
