* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Cardi B Adds More Dates to Little Miss Drama Tour: ‘Y’all Making Me Work’ – Yahoo

    Cardi B Extends Little Miss Drama Tour: “Y’all Making Me Work

    ‘Today’: Sheinelle Jones Thanks Katie Couric for Support After Husband’s Death – CBS 19 News

    Sheinelle Jones Expresses Heartfelt Thanks to Katie Couric for Support After Husband’s Passing

    Sate your hunger at DBA’s Taste of Downtown – Bakersfield.com

    Indulge Your Cravings at DBA’s Taste of Downtown!

    Caesars Entertainment (CZR): Assessing Valuation After Times Square Casino Setback and Mounting Investor Concerns – simplywall.st

    Caesars Entertainment Faces Times Square Casino Hurdles as Investor Concerns Mount

    Why Hilaria Baldwin Has Found the ‘DWTS’ Process ‘Embarrassing’ At Times – WFXG

    Hilaria Baldwin Opens Up About the Embarrassing Moments on Her ‘DWTS’ Journey

    Harvest Fest 2025 – yadkinripple.com

    Celebrate the Bounty: Harvest Fest 2025 is Coming!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Aurora police hope to add facial recognition technology to crime-fighting tools – CBS News

    Aurora Police Aim to Boost Crime-Fighting with New Facial Recognition Technology

    Autonomous Solutions shows off cutting-edge technology for the public – Cache Valley Daily

    Autonomous Solutions Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology for the Public

    Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion in Prime Membership Settlement – The New York Times

    Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion in Prime Membership Settlement – The New York Times

    What are we really gaining from technology? – Fast Company

    What Are We Really Gaining from Technology?

    TOMI Environmental Solutions, Inc. Expands SteraMist iHP Technology Services in Healthcare Sector with New Provider Partnership – Quiver Quantitative

    TOMI Environmental Solutions Accelerates SteraMist iHP Technology Expansion in Healthcare with New Provider Partnership

    Indiana County Technology Center’s Joint Operating Committee looks to the future as program plans began to take shape – Indiana Gazette Online

    Indiana County Technology Center’s Joint Operating Committee Charts an Exciting Path Forward as New Program Plans Take Shape

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Cardi B Adds More Dates to Little Miss Drama Tour: ‘Y’all Making Me Work’ – Yahoo

    Cardi B Extends Little Miss Drama Tour: “Y’all Making Me Work

    ‘Today’: Sheinelle Jones Thanks Katie Couric for Support After Husband’s Death – CBS 19 News

    Sheinelle Jones Expresses Heartfelt Thanks to Katie Couric for Support After Husband’s Passing

    Sate your hunger at DBA’s Taste of Downtown – Bakersfield.com

    Indulge Your Cravings at DBA’s Taste of Downtown!

    Caesars Entertainment (CZR): Assessing Valuation After Times Square Casino Setback and Mounting Investor Concerns – simplywall.st

    Caesars Entertainment Faces Times Square Casino Hurdles as Investor Concerns Mount

    Why Hilaria Baldwin Has Found the ‘DWTS’ Process ‘Embarrassing’ At Times – WFXG

    Hilaria Baldwin Opens Up About the Embarrassing Moments on Her ‘DWTS’ Journey

    Harvest Fest 2025 – yadkinripple.com

    Celebrate the Bounty: Harvest Fest 2025 is Coming!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Aurora police hope to add facial recognition technology to crime-fighting tools – CBS News

    Aurora Police Aim to Boost Crime-Fighting with New Facial Recognition Technology

    Autonomous Solutions shows off cutting-edge technology for the public – Cache Valley Daily

    Autonomous Solutions Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology for the Public

    Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion in Prime Membership Settlement – The New York Times

    Amazon to Pay $2.5 Billion in Prime Membership Settlement – The New York Times

    What are we really gaining from technology? – Fast Company

    What Are We Really Gaining from Technology?

    TOMI Environmental Solutions, Inc. Expands SteraMist iHP Technology Services in Healthcare Sector with New Provider Partnership – Quiver Quantitative

    TOMI Environmental Solutions Accelerates SteraMist iHP Technology Expansion in Healthcare with New Provider Partnership

    Indiana County Technology Center’s Joint Operating Committee looks to the future as program plans began to take shape – Indiana Gazette Online

    Indiana County Technology Center’s Joint Operating Committee Charts an Exciting Path Forward as New Program Plans Take Shape

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

What Brining Does to Your Holiday Turkey

November 21, 2023
in Science
What Brining Does to Your Holiday Turkey
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Everyone cooking on Thanksgiving dreads the same thing: a dry turkey. Tough, chewy meat can suck the enjoyment out of a meal, which is why people might consider submerging their holiday bird in a brine overnight.

The strategy has kept meats tender for centuries — even ancient Romans had recipes for making a tasty boar ham in seawater. Brining has likely earned its place in cookbooks through time because it’s one of the most effective tactics for ensuring the centerpiece of your meal is actually something your family wants to eat. 

What Is a Brine?

Brining is a saltwater bath that transforms proteins and allows them to hold onto more moisture — a change that both softens meat and makes it juicier. This chemical transformation is so helpful that many turkey producers have perfected a similar — but much faster — procedure that they use in processing to boost your Thanksgiving bird’s palatability even before you take it home. 

How Does Brining Work?

You might think that the brining process is as simple as submerging food in salty water to get moisture and salt inside. But what’s happening on a chemical level is a bit more complicated than that. 

Read More: Cooking a Turkey for Thanksgiving? Here’s What To Do

What Is the Process of Brining?

The goal isn’t to get the brine to seep into the meat, per se. If that’s all that was happening, any added water content would disappear during the cooking process, says Casey Owens, a food scientist at the University of Arkansas. Rather, the act of brining actually causes chemical and structural changes in the meat itself that primes it to suck up moisture. “What you want is for the proteins and the meat to be able to hold on to that water.” 

What Is the Science Behind Salt Brine?

When table salt dissolves in water, it separates into two atoms — sodium and chloride. This separation leaves each atom with an unusual number of electrons, which makes them take on a positive or negative charge — just like a magnet. These unbalanced atoms — called ions — float around in the water and are attracted to the meat. Muscle cells in the flesh also have positively and negatively-charged regions. Opposites attract, with the negatively-charged dissolved salt ions binding onto the positively-charged muscle cells, and vice versa.

Meat soaked in a brine will slowly absorb the dissolved salt, and soon, water will follow. 

What Is the Chemistry of Brining a Turkey?

The negatively charged ions from the dissolved salt actually attach themselves to muscle fibers and start to crowd together — but they then repel one another. The mutual push physically opens a tiny gap in the muscle tissue, which allows water to come inside. Post-cooking, each bite is juicier thanks to the water that’s drawn into each cell.

Read More: What Is the History of These 6 Thanksgiving Foods?

Why Do People Brine Turkeys?

Saltwater tenderizes meat. Those same muscle fibers start to dissolve and soften slightly in brine. Food taste tests have shown that we also tend to perceive juicier meats as more tender, regardless of the physical differences in texture, Owens says.

Why Is White Meat Dry?

White meats, like chicken and turkey breast, have lower fat content and release more water in the cooking process, Owens says. Brining is particularly useful for people cooking poultry and want to avoid potentially dry, tough parts of a bird. The conventional at-home brining process works, but it takes a while for the saltwater to move its way through the entire piece of meat. 

How Long Do You Brine a Turkey?

Recipes typically recommend eight to 12 hour soaks for turkeys. Keep in mind that this means dedicating precious fridge space to the brining process, as it’s a health hazard to let raw meat sit out on the counter for that duration of time. If you’re cooking a big turkey, the saltwater might not reach the center of the bird at all, Owens says. 

Read More: Does Turkey Make You Sleepy? What Really Makes You Tired

How Are Turkeys Processed?

Turkey producers take shortcuts by injecting the meat with brine. “They don’t have the luxury of holding something overnight, necessarily,” Owens says. “[They’re] producing to get the product out the door and to the grocery store.”

Instead of waiting for saltwater to migrate through turkey from the outside, processing facilities send turkeys down a conveyor belt to a bank of spring-loaded needles that descend together, contouring to the shape of the bird and pushing uniform levels of saltwater into the meat in 40 to 50 different places. The injections help turkey producers counteract the likelihood of someone drying up (and not liking) their food after they cook it at home. 

What Is an Enhanced Turkey?

Commercially-brined turkeys are generally labeled as “enhanced” or “marinated with saltwater” on their packaging, says Owens. Sometimes packages have a note about containing a certain percentage of salt and a flavoring solution. But if you opt for a pre-treated bird, Owens recommends not brining it at home, as it could make the meat too salty. Instead, apply a rub to ramp up flavor on the surface.

Read More: The Ancient Art of Raising Turkeys

How to Know When Your Turkey Is Done

Beyond that, brining can only go so far when it comes to turkey perfection. A patient and loving brine bath can be a wasted step if you overcook your bird. This tendency has an easy solution, one that Owens plans to bring up in her lectures with students. “We’re going to talk about cooking, and I’ll probably get on my soapbox,” she says. “You all need a thermometer in your kitchen.” 

Check the Temperature

Cooking the turkey to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in its thickest parts, like the thigh and breast meat, ensures the bird is cooked to perfection. Plus, it’ll stop you from getting sick from any potential pathogens. A meat thermometer is the only way to ensure your bird meets the crucial food safety threshold. Surpassing that temperature doesn’t make the meat any safer to consume, Owens says; it’ll just dry it out. 

Don’t Rely on Color

Visual cues alone — the color of the juice running from the meat, or texture changes, for example — can’t tell you if harmful bacteria in the meat has been killed. A recent study found that 40 percent of people said they relied on chicken texture to assess doneness, yet there was no correlation between how the meat looked and whether it carried harmful bacteria. 

So, go to town on your brine — or don’t, if you’d like the turkey producer to handle that step for you. But when coming home from the store, make sure you have other essential tools, like a thermometer, on hand to ensure a delicious and safe Thanksgiving.

Read More: Turkey Trivia: 6 Fun Facts About Turkey

This article was originally published on Nov. 18, 2020 and has since been updated with new information by the Discover staff.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Discover Magazine – https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-brining-does-to-your-holiday-turkey

Tags: BriningHolidayscience
Previous Post

TMED10 mediates the trafficking of insulin-like growth factor 2 along the secretory pathway for myoblast differentiation

Next Post

The Truth and Myths of Camel Spiders

What happens when President Trump attends major sports events – and why he does it – The Athletic – The New York Times

What happens when President Trump attends major sports events – and why he does it – The Athletic – The New York Times

September 27, 2025
New Delhi 2025: Preview, stars and how to watch the World Championships – Paralympic.org

New Delhi 2025 World Championships: Top Athletes to Watch and How You Can Catch the Action

September 27, 2025
Stock market exodus to Wall Street hits 20-year high – EL PAÍS English

Stock market exodus to Wall Street hits 20-year high – EL PAÍS English

September 27, 2025
October Prime Day TV Deals: Elevate Your Entertainment Space With These Early Savings – CNET

October Prime Day TV Deals: Upgrade Your Entertainment Space with These Early Savings

September 27, 2025
Georgia’s Medicaid work requirement program spent twice as much on administrative costs as on health care, GAO says – North Carolina Health News

Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administration as on Patient Care, GAO Finds

September 27, 2025
TGIF: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for Sept. 26, 2025 – The Public’s Radio

TGIF: Ian Donnis’ Rhode Island politics roundup for Sept. 26, 2025 – The Public’s Radio

September 27, 2025
City Parks Initiative Launches Ecological Tracker for Bond Projects – Citizen Portal AI

Revolutionary Ecological Tracker Unveiled to Transform Monitoring of City Parks Bond Projects

September 27, 2025
Award-winning science writer leads student discussions at Eckerd – theonlinecurrent.com

Award-Winning Science Writer Inspires Student Discussions at Eckerd College

September 27, 2025
Human Head Transplants: Where the Science Stands, and Why the Ethics Are So Complicated – Discover Magazine

Human Head Transplants: The Science Behind the Procedure and the Complex Ethical Debate

September 27, 2025
New lifestyle brand TENŌRE set to open flagship store in Waikīkī – KITV

New lifestyle brand TENŌRE set to open flagship store in Waikīkī – KITV

September 27, 2025

Categories

Archives

September 2025
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Aug    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (839)
  • Economy (860)
  • Entertainment (21,734)
  • General (17,271)
  • Health (9,903)
  • Lifestyle (872)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (861)
  • Politics (870)
  • Science (16,069)
  • Sports (21,360)
  • Technology (15,842)
  • World (842)

Recent News

What happens when President Trump attends major sports events – and why he does it – The Athletic – The New York Times

What happens when President Trump attends major sports events – and why he does it – The Athletic – The New York Times

September 27, 2025
New Delhi 2025: Preview, stars and how to watch the World Championships – Paralympic.org

New Delhi 2025 World Championships: Top Athletes to Watch and How You Can Catch the Action

September 27, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version