How To Make Turkey Brine

For the best turkey smoking results, a good turkey brine does the trick. There are methods of putting the brine together that improve its quality. Just dumping everything into a bucket and stirring doesn't make the best brine.

Making Brine...Step By Step

• Add one gallon of water to each of two stock pots or large, lidded pans.
• To one of the pots, add the salt and sugar. Bring this to a boil, and boil it for five minutes. Remove it from the heat, cover, and let it cool.
• To the other pot, add the spice, herbs and vegetables. Slowly, bring this pot up to a light boil, simmer for five minutes, remove from heat, cover, and allow to cool.
• When both pots are cooled to room temperature, add them to your five gallon bucket and refrigerate.
• After twelve hours, or overnight, the brine is ready for the turkey.

The brine must be between 35 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to brine your turkey. Over 40 is dangerous, and under 35 slows the brining reactions.

For a 10-14 pound turkey, two gallons of brine is what you need if you use an upright brining container, like a bucket or a water cooler. If you use a normal box-shaped cooler, you'll need more than two gallons. Whatever you brine your turkey in, it must be completely submerged the entire time.

Basic Brine

This is the starting point for all brine recipes. Use this as a starting point for creating your own brine recipe. If you add juices or beverages, decrease the recipe amount of water by the amount of added liquids.

2 gallons water

2 cups kosher salt

1 cup white sugar

2 gallons 2 cups 1 cup

water kosher salt white sugar

2 gallons 2 cups 1 cup

water kosher salt white sugar