Brining Your Turkey? Here's How to Do It

Our Quick and Dirty Guide No Images? Click here   The Quick and Dirty Guide to Brining Brining or dry-brining your bird can mean the difference between dry turkey and supremely moist and plump turkey. Over the years, we've written many articles on brining (or not brining) turkeys. Much of this info can already be found in our Definitive Guide to Buying, Prepping, Cooking, and Carving Turkey, or in The Truth About Brining, but here’s a quick and easy reference for those who want just the essentials.   First Things First. Why Should You Brine? Brining, whether you're using a traditional water-based brine or a dry brine, improves a turkey's ability to retain moisture. Certain muscle proteins are naturally dissolved by the salt in the brine solution. Once these proteins are dissolved, muscle fibers lose some of their ability to contract when cooking. Less contraction leads to less internal moisture being squeezed out, which in turn leads to juicier meat in the cooked bird. Brining also seasons a bird more deeply than simply salting just before cooking. What Do You Need to Do It Right?    A Wire Rack If you're dry-brining, you'll need a wire rack to keep air circulating all around to the salted bird.  A Rimmed Baking Sheet Plop that wire rack right on top of a rimmed baking sheet to catch all those delicious drippings.   Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt Whether you're going for a dry or wet brine, do yourself a favor and reach for the Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. (It's our favorite.)   Get the Rest of the Quick and Dirty Guide Here   Serious Eats 88 35th St Ste 602 Brooklyn, NY 11232 Click Preferences to control which emails you receive from Serious Eats. Clicking Unsubscribe will remove you from all Serious Eats emails…which would be sad. Preferences  |  Unsubscribe

How to Make Chopped Liver: The Jewish Foie Gras

Your Recipe of the Day No Images? Click here Classic Jewish Chopped Chicken Liver  Chopped liver contains only a few ingredients, so for the best version, you have to be thoughtful about each one. This recipe gives you options for how to proceed to get the results you want. (With just a little opinion sprinkled in along the way because, let's be honest—not all of the options are equally good.) Read More → The Kitchen Essential Wire Rack Set the livers on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and run them under the broiler, so that the juices can drip down as the livers cook. Shop Now   Serious Eats 88 35th St Ste 602 Brooklyn, NY 11232 Click Preferences to control which emails you receive from Serious Eats. Clicking Unsubscribe will remove you from all Serious Eats emails…which would be sad. Preferences  |  Unsubscribe

The Best Southern-Style Thanksgiving Cornbread

Your Recipe of the Day No Images? Click here Southern-Style Unsweetened Cornbread​ The key to truly great unsweetened cornbread is to use the best stone-ground cornmeal you can find, ideally freshly ground from a small mill. If you can't get that, a tiny bit of sugar is just enough to make lesser stone-ground cornmeals work. Read More → The Kitchen Essential Cast Iron Skillet Bake your cornbread in a black cast iron skillet preheated in the oven so it's smoking hot. When the batter hits the pan, that heat will cause the edges of the bread to brown.  Shop Now   Serious Eats 88 35th St Ste 602 Brooklyn, NY 11232 Click Preferences to control which emails you receive from Serious Eats. Clicking Unsubscribe will remove you from all Serious Eats emails…which would be sad. Preferences  |  Unsubscribe