Cooking Tip: The chef's secret to making succulent, juicy & extremely flavorful poultry or meat every damn time!
A little over a year ago when I began cooking larger cuts of meat, mostly in the pork realm (also works for poultry)...I found that a simple brine is hands down the way to go. I am very fortunate to play music with a few local chefs and always pick their brains about what changes they are making to the menu between season, what new techniques they are trying and all that jazz. When I asked about prep, 99% of the time it comes down to the brine. Now let me drop some science on y'all, during the cooking process meat typically loses about 15% of it's natural juices, with brining we flip that number upside down and add a few more keeping your meat from drying out. The basic rule is a cup of salt & cup of sugar to every gallon of water, feel free to try adding your own spices/herbs to make a brine your own...but sometimes less is more when cooking larger cuts of meat for longer periods of time.
Here is my pork brine that I use for shoulders & chops, only difference is chops only need 1 night...while shoulders between 2-3 days
Swine Brine
- 1 gallon of water
- 1 cup of salt
- 1 cup of sugar (or molasses)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 handful of peppercorns
* Feeling Fancy Add Onion, Garlic, Rosemary, Apple Cider, Ground Mustard, Orange Peels, Lemon Grass
