BRINING MEAT: THE BIG

TRADE-OFF

Cold, hard fact time: all meat dries out and

toughens as it cooks, particularly in the very hot
zones on its exterior. Yet we want the center to cook
through. How does one heat the center without
cooking the exterior to dry oblivion? Enter brining,
the process in which a lean cut of meat (like turkey,
chicken breast, or pork) is soaked in a saltwater
solution to help it retain moisture during cooking.
Sure, sure—this is nothing new. The Scandinavians
and Chinese have been extolling the virtues of
brining for millennia, but is it worth it? What are the
trade-offs? Before we jump on the bandwagon,
consider a few simple queries: namely, what does it
do, how does it work, and should I bother?

Why Brine?

Let’s start with what brining actually accomplishes.
Time to break out the science. I started with a
dozen nearly identical chicken breasts. Three of
them were cooked as is. Three were soaked
overnight in a 6-percent solution of saltwater (about
½ cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or ¼ cup table
salt, per quart of water) before cooking. Three were