Brining a huge turkey?

2 Responses for "Brining a huge turkey?"

1. Kevin Weeks November 17th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

   Teri,

   I know your problem all too well. A cooler is a great way to brine a large turkey — it’s what I do. And there’s another option as well that I haven’t actually tried.

   First, scrub your cooler with soap and water, rinse it out, then wipe it down with a bleach solution to disinfect it. Let the bleach solution work for a couple of minutes and rinse thoroughly (you don’t want to taste bleach in your turkey).

   Make up the brine and, if you have room, thoroughly chill it in your refrigerator. You’ll need somewhere between 2 and 3 gallons of brine for a 25 pound turkey depending on how big the cooler is — the turkey needs to be completely submerged in brine. After putting the turkey in the brine, lay a couple of bags of ice on top. Note: you can also use gel packs that you’ve sterilized with the bleach solution, but the ice in bags helps hold the turkey under the brine.

   The other option is to brine the turkey in a food-grade plastic bag and put it in your refrigerator or a cooler filled with water and surrounded in ice or gel packs. You can find these at many grocery stores and you only need about half as much brining solution. In this case you need to have room in your fridge for the turkey in its bag.

   You can A LOT about brining here: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/brining.html.

   Chef Kevin

2. linda long November 20th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

   Got a huge 26lb turkey and going to brine it. Alton Brown did a show on Food Network where seared a browned 14lb bird in a 500 deg. oven for 30 min’s, then finished roasting @ 350 deg. for 2 hrs.

   I don’t know if I can do the same deal with a 26 pounder. Do you think it would be ok? And if so, how long would I roast the 26lb turkey at 350 deg?