The importance of brining during the process of cooking – whether done to meat or vegetables – has been known to elevate flavours as well as textures significantly. The risk of ending up with a dry and tasteless roast chicken is reduced when the bird is given what’s best described as a ‘bath’ with flavour. Even kidney beans or chickpeas benefit from a salty brine which softens them – producing a creamier texture for your refried beans or hummus. Although by definition, the process of brining sits on a foundation of immersing ingredients in a salt-water solution, a dry brine essentially involves treating ingredients with salt.
When divided categorically into ‘wet’ and ‘dry’, the scope of what brining constitutes widens and allows for a detailed understanding of its effect on food. With meat or fish, the idea lies in salt penetrating the tissues of the protein, while seasoning it simultaneously – allowing them to release moisture – which in turn, keeps them tender and preventing too much contraction – for a juicier bite. With vegetables however, the absence of filamentous (fibrous) proteins makes the process of tenderisation redundant; instead, acting upon polysaccharides such cellulose and pectin, starches and sugars. The semi-permeable cell walls keeps the salt from moving into areas of high concentration – and focussing on low concentration areas of the vegetable’s cell membrane.
This process – known as diffusion – combined with another called osmosis, where water moves from areas of low concentration (where the salt is) into areas of high concentration, makes the salt permeate deeply as the water drives moisture out. This step is crucial to pickling vegetables such as cabbage, cucumbers and even denser vegetables like beetroot, in order to tenderize them without making them mushy. With regards to vegetables, water content can be no more than a relative factor to decide which ones are given the salt treatment compared to the rest, as much as the ‘waxy’ layer of skin one often spots on produce like pumpkin, cucumber or eggplant.
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Based off of how much of the cell membrane has been physically broken before the vegetables are introduced to brine, the epicuticular wax layer can absorb moisture and salt effectively. Typically, the process of pickling or prepping ingredients in brine involves cutting vegetables into smaller cubes or slices – which lets them tenderize evenly and also producing a well-seasoned finished product. Denser root vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes – although not consumed raw or pickled, tend to benefit greatly from brining before they are roasted or fried – producing a tender, fluffy centre and a golden-brown, crisp exterior. Similarly, brining potatoes also results in a creamier, fluffier mash even as time lapses for its use.