Good Brine Recipe?

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2004
Good Brine Recipe?
4
Thu, 02-28-2008 - 5:10pm

Does anyone have a good recipe they use for brining pork?  Or any kind of meat?  I plan on smoking a lean pork roast this weekend, and from reviews of the recipes I found, it sounds like it would be a good idea to brine it first to help with flavor/moisture.  A lot of the brine recipes called for brown sugar or white sugar, which wouldn't be too great.  Some of them called for beer.  Is it okay to use beer/alcohol in a brine?  I will be eating this on my first day of phase 2, and I know that as far as the meat goes, I'll be eating a small portion of the meat which will only contain a small portion of the brine ingredients, I just don't want to do a big no-no.


Sorry so many recipe questions; I cook a lot and am always trying to find new inventive things to do!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2004
Thu, 02-28-2008 - 8:24pm

Hi Staci,


I was hoping that someone (like MichaelAnn) would have a sugar-free idea for you.


You can use alcohol in cooking.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-04-2006
Thu, 02-28-2008 - 8:40pm

I was thinking about this one and hoping Cathy would have a good idea! So -

We've always brined our turkeys - ever since seeing the Good Eats episode on Thanksgiving - I adore Alton Brown! Anyhow, the recipe we use for turkey calls for 1/2 cup brown sugar to one gallon of vegetable stock (plus salt and spices) We only do turkey once a year, so I've always just kept doing it. If you think about the 1/2 cup sugar diluted in a gallon of broth, then drained, I can't even imagine the miniscule amount left in the meat. BUT - even though its a small amount, I probably wouldn't do it on a regular basis. Thanksgiving, yeah, phase 3, yeah - weekly dinner on phase 2, probably not.

Its funny, but we are actually talking about the science of diffusion/concentration of solutions and osmosis in biology which has a lot to do with why a brine increases the moisture of meat. I'm not sure if you would chemically get the same effect without the sugar. I would at least give it a shot by just leaving out the sugar.

















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belizesig1
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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2004
Fri, 02-29-2008 - 10:25am

Oh, good ol' A.B.


 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-04-2006
Fri, 02-29-2008 - 3:10pm

Good to know you only need the salt, I was thinking that you would still get the affect of absorbing the water with the just salt, but wasn't sure (I'm learning that bio-chemistry is NOT my strong suit and my taint my 4.0 GPA -sigh)

Let us know how it turns out!

















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belizesig1
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