For centuries, processors have used curing in brine as a step in many preserved meat products, from corned beef and ham to smoked salmon. Somewhere along the line, someone realized that brine can have a beneficial effect on many everyday meat and poultry dishes, and the idea has spread like wildfire in the last few years, through professional food conferences, newspaper food sections, magazines, cooking classes, and individual recipe swapping.

 

I have become a great believer in brining, and use it in a number of recipes in this book. In a way, brining goes against intuition. If you look at raw meat soaked in a salt and/or sugar solution as a classic experiment in osmosis, then water should be drawn out of the meat as the system attempts to equalize the concentration of the solute inside and outside of the meat. However, the surface of meat is not a simple membrane but a network of protein molecules, held in intricate twisted and folded shapes and to their neighbors (and to nearby water molecules) by various chemical bonds. The salt in the brine "denatures" the protein, breaking some of the bonds so the proteins relax, creating spaces where the brine can seep in and combine with the freed water. Whatever flavors are dissolved in the brine — salts, sugars, acids, essential oils of spices and herbs — get carried in too. The net effect is a slight increase in weight, but more important, extra moisture and extra flavor suffusing the meat as it cooks. As long as you don't overcook it, the result is meat that is moister and more flavorful than the same meat cooked with the same seasonings in dry form.

 

 

 

From The Microbrew Lover’s Cookbook, Copyright © 2002 by Jay Harlow. Used by arrangement with Jay Harlow.