I love Gilmore Girls too. :-) Sands99  1/2 c salt to a gallon of liquid is not very much. This is why I started this thread. IÂm guessing the meat would have to soak for quite a while for the osmosis to do its thing in that solution. Contrast that to Cooks Illustrated PDF titled "The Basics of Brining" which has a formula using 1 quart water + 1/2 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (or 1/4 cup + 2 tbl Morton or 1/4 cup table salt) + 1/2 cup sugar. Use 1 quart per pound of food and brine for 1 hour per pound. Quite a difference! Maybe understanding the difference would be beneficial? For instance, if I want to fix dinner in a few hours, I use Cooks Illustrated method, but if I need the meat to brine all day while at work, I use a less concentrated method? See why IÂm confused? And, IÂm just too new at cooking to experiment. Like I said  I get one shot with the family. I don't want the meat too salty which I know can happen if this is not done correctly. Trsinc  Once you brine your pork  youÂll never go back. Everyone comments on how moist the meat is.

No, you can go ahead and freeze it. I have some split turkeys, a whole one is too much for Elery and I and so I sometimes roast a half. I just did it last week, took out the backbone, brined both halves and put one half in the freezer, roasted the other half. It turns out fine. Hey, that's what Butterball does, injects the turkeys full of salt and water and then freezes them until the customer buys them, and pays that premium for the Butterball name and some salt and water. Annie

Most home brine recipes are an overnight or 24hour total event. A bit of sugar, sometimes vinegar, tamari, and aromatics like bay leaf, peppercorns, herbs and spices. Enhanced brines are usually frowned upon in chicken and turkey as it adds weight to the final price per pound. Such a long brine can make meat tender on the verge of mushy if too long in a brine. Why pre-brining gets a bum rap for the most part and called 'enhanced'. TJ's does do a play with words making some things seem better than an actual natural processing un-inhanced. So not sure if that applies. My limited experience with TJ's is close to excellent in meats and fish. Just not convenient to my location. I think its been a couple years now. I do get the appeal for families needing quick packaged frozen foods better than most groceries. It should be listed on the packaging if you have easy access to your local store. Probably just a salt brine. Maybe a google search will come up with some reviews. Not sure many here have the experience your seek. Mine will be warm, fresh kill/plucked, while I wait and watch if I want, lol.

I tried a dry brine as a last minute impulse this year. I came across the instructions while looking at Martha Stewarts page on spatchcocking (which I also did). I had a 12 pound bird. I ended up combining a couple of different recipes, so I made a combination of kosher salt, a bit of white sugar, and some herbs to rub all over the bird then placed it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then when ready to roast, I used Clinton Kelly's lemon sage recipe (with a few tweaks -- for example, I infused the olive oil with some dried thyme stems (the only thyme I had) overnight). This turkey was just a tad too salty in spots for me, but otherwise was just about the best I've ever cooked. The combination of dry brine, rub, lemons and spatchcocking produced a lovely flavored, juicy and tender result. I'll be doing it again next year!