Foodista Blog » brining

Beer Brined Pork Chops

Sheri Wetherell — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:52:12 +0000

Today’s a quickie as I’m attending my first BlogHer Conference in San Francisco, CA. Upon arriving I felt a bit homesick for the Bay Area, fog and all. I actually had to change from my Capri pants and sandals to jeans and closed-toe shoes (with socks!!) in the Nordstrom ladies’ room. Brrrrr! Mark Twain was certainly right when he said “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” Apparently I will never learn how to dress appropriately in the Fog City.

On to the good food stuff…

The great thing about loving food and cooking is coming up with new and different twists on recipes. I’ve written before about brining chicken, and we tried it again with pork chops, this time with a different type of brine. Pork chops can often get dry when roasting and grilling, so this will help moisten your meat and ensure juiciness with each and every bite.

Beer Brined Pork Chops

2-4 thick-sliced chops
1 bottle of beer (any type)
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons kosher salt

Soak pork chops in brine for 1-2 hours. Drizzle with olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper, then toss on the grill!

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Brined and Roasted Chicken, Part II

Sheri Wetherell — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:15:49 +0000

There’s never a bad time for a roasted chicken. Especially when the weather is still a bit crisp, and you feel like tucking in for the evening and enjoying a good meal. The smell of roasting bird wafts through the house, taunting your hunger. You almost want to grasp fork and knife in hands and bang on the table, urging it to cook faster.

But roasted chicken can all too often turn out dry. One way to avoid unwanted dryness is to soak your bird in brine, which locks in moisture and enhances all those wonderful flavors we so desire. Another excellent way to ensure your bird comes out of the oven juicy-licious is to roast it on a vertical roaster. Vertical roasting helps sear the inner cavity, keeping all those desireable natural juices and flavors in the meat and not in the pan. Roasting vertically also allows fat and grease to run off, much like rotisserie cooking.

We decided to combine moisture-retaining efforts and both brined and vertical roasted. Crazy, I know. But that’s just the kind of wild, recklessness we throw down in the kitchen every day (OK, that’s a slight exaggeration).

If you want to skip the brining step (it does take at least 24 hours) and get down to the roasting bit, then pull out your roasting pan and place the vertical roaster in the center. Our preparation was simple and no-frills, but you can certainly add more veggies, herbs and seasoning.

To prepare our bird for roasting we rough chopped a large sweet onion and placed it in the bottom of the roasting pan. We sprinkled a bit of fresh cracked pepper in the inner cavity, but did not season with salt since we had already soaked it in the salt water brine. We respectfully placed our bird on the vertical roaster and gave her a little massage with olive oil. Then, we sprinkled the outside with pepper, squeezed the juice of one lemon over the top and popped it in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes (time will vary depending on size).

Finger lickin’ good!

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Brining Your Bird, Part I

Sheri Wetherell — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:15:44 +0000

Brining, the soaking of meat for many hours or days, was traditionally a method for preserving meats. It’s a curing process that binds with, or completely removes, the water in the meat in order to prevent the growth of micro-organisms. Fortunately for us we have refrigeration so we don’t have to rely on this lengthy, but delicious marinating method. In addition to its preservation qualities, brining meats (especially lean meats) improves the texture, flavor, and moisture content, leaving you with nothing but juicy goodness.

A basic brine solution consists of simply water and a moderate amount of salt. This got us thinking! “We live near water! Great, clean salty water!” So we went crazy and scooped up a bucket full of pristine Puget Sound water in our stockpot, added a quartered lemon, and soaked our free-range chicken for 24 hours. Now, you don’t have to get this connected to Mother Earth and scoop up the sea. Just fill up your stockpot with cool water and add Kosher or sea salt. You want about 1/2 cup of salt per 1 quart of cool water for each pound of meat. Here are a few simple rules:

The saltier your brine, the shorter your brining time. However, too little salt and it won’t work.
Do not reuse your brining solution.
Refrigerate. (I know, I said it was a preservative, but your temperature still needs to be below 40 degrees).

For more on “flavor brining” check out The Complete Meat Cookbook by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly.

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