If I am wet brining the turkey, should I adjust the salt levels at all or just proceed with the recipe?

Jessica
  • Posted by: Jessica
  • November 19, 2018
  • 1495 views
  • 5 Comments

5 Comments

Brinda A. November 20, 2018
Ah, I see! Thanks for clarifying, Jessica. I might actually work with just the butter and herbs in this case, and forego the salt—since you don't know how much your butcher used in the wet-brining process, it's better to err on the side of making sure your bird isn't over-salted.
 
Jessica November 21, 2018
Thanks so much for the response! :)
 
Brinda A. November 20, 2018
Hi Jessica,

You'll definitely want to adjust the salt levels for a wet brine vs. a dry brine. For a wet brine, you'll want to use a ratio of 1 gallon of water to 10 ounces of kosher salt. Scale up as needed so you can completely submerge the turkey in this solution, then refrigerate for 24 hours. (If you’re in a hurry, you can increase the saltiness and brine for less time.)

For this recipe in particular, I'd skip the dry-brining portion of step 1, so you can wet bring instead, but proceed from step 2 onward as written.
 
Brinda A. November 20, 2018
Sorry, Jessica, one thing I forgot to add: when you're done wet brining, be sure to dry the turkey very well after you remove it from your brine, before applying the herb butter and further refrigerating/roasting.
 
Jessica November 20, 2018
Thank you so much! So I picked it up at the butcher wet brined already - so much proceed with adding the additional 1 TBS of salt with the herbs and butter and it should be good, right? Thanks!
 
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