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Brining, as a technique, is important in the process of cooking any kind of meat for two key reasons – one, because it increases and maintains the moisture of the meat, without letting it dry out during cooking and two, because it helps manifold in improving flavour. The process of brining involves soaking the meat in a salt water solution or by dusting the meat in a salt-heavy rub. While both types of brining work towards the same goal of breaking down muscle in the meat in order to make it porus enough to absorb moisture, the difference in both brining options focus on the effect of salt on the meat. Depending on how much time, space and effort you can allot to the process of brining, it is necessary to know the idea behind both, dry and wet brining, as well as the difference in output with both techniques.
In a wet brine, a salt water ‘bath’ of sorts, saturates the meat, thus plumping up the level of liquid content in the meat approximately by 35-40%. What it also does is help the muscles retain their moisture as the salt helps in retaining liquid during long cooking processes like baking or stewing. On the other hand, a dry brine draws out the moisture that is naturally present in the meat and mixes with the juices that get reabsorbed, once the meat is cooked.
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Creating the right kind of dry or wet brine is essential to ensure that your meat is well-seasoned from the inside-out. To get the ratio of a wet brine correctly, it is said that 1 cup of salt is ideal if your meat weighs between 3-3.5 kilos of meat along with 6 litres of water. Adding aromatics like bay leaves, peppercorns, onions and herbs are a great way to add some depth of flavour to a wet brine and perfect for red meats and game birds. Alternatively, for a dry brine, a tablespoon of salt for every kilo of meat, is the preferred measurement of choice. Adding spices like paprika, brown sugar, onion powder, crushed black pepper to a dry meat rub tastes delicious on meats like chicken or turkey.
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Depending on the kind of brining technique you choose, each of them have their fair share of challenges, if you’re a first-timer. To illustrate this further, a wet brine needs plenty of refrigerator space or a cool place to store the tub as it is important for the meat to be fully submerged in the saline solution. However, a dry brine might have an intense flavour that might interfere with the natural flavours of the meat it is sprinkled on, if care is not taken to not go overboard with the seasoning. That being said, pick what feels comfortable to do and easy to clean up after and make some juicy pork ribs, chicken wings or even a whole turkey!
