Your Basic Brine And Beyond
For a simple basic brine recipe that can work with any protein, combine eight cups of water with half a cup of rock or sea salt and half a cup of light-brown sugar in a large pot.
Heat the mixture on high, stirring occasionally, just until the salt and sugar dissolve. Let the brine cool completely before using. Pour it into a large resealable container and add your protein of choice.
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt in water. In different contexts, brine may refer to salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% up to about 26%. Lower levels of concentration are called by different names: freshwater, brackish water, and saline water
There is more than a basic brine recipe
But why stop at basic brine? With this simple mixture as your base, you can add flavour with apple juice, honey, chillies, garlic cloves, bay leaves, orange peel, peppercorns and /or rosemary, to name a few.
No matter what you use to flavour your liquid, make sure the brine covers the protein completely so it can penetrate evenly – and always keep both brine and protein covered and refrigerated. A basic brine recipe can be stored in the fridge pretty much indefinitely.
