Does anyone brine their turkey/crown?

[WonsWoo]

I’ve never thought of doing this but I watched Nigella last night and she mentioned it.

I’ve had a look online and it seems opinions are divided. I’m not sure Christmas is a good time to experiment but there is only DH and I so it’s not like I’m feeding a whole horde.

Does anyone do this/ tried it and it was a disaster?!

Seems like it's the latest 'thing' and an extra load of work for what is essentially a roast dinner! I plan to put butter between the skin and breast to keep the white meat from getting dry.

We did one year and it was totally inedible. We ended up feasting on stuffing balls and all the trimmings! The turkey went directly into the food waste.

So glad I asked! Thank you, I won’t bother.

Someone (a chef) was on the radio earlier about brining it.
I was thinking "oh another thing to do" so glad I've seen this. I'm mentally ditching this idea.

I have always used olive oil (got a dairy intolerance in our household) on my turkey crown and with regular basting it's always been fine.

Nigella's been dunking her bird in brine for donkey's years, so not new.

I suspect that most of us don't have the space or the inclination to deal with a bucket of brine in their kitchen. I still go with the tried and tested shoving butter under the skin. It's a pain and not always easy but gives a good result..

I do mine, it makes it lovely moist and flavoursome

I do it too - always works out well!

That's what I do too. Jamie Oliver does that. I'm not a fan of Nigella so wouldn't have a clue how long she's been brining but loads of other chefs are recommending it this year which is why I said it was a 'new thing'!

I've just put my turkey in brine. Took about 5 minutes. I mean, how difficult is it to put a turkey in a bucket of salty water?

I've used Nigella's brine recipe on capon a few years back - both times it worked a treat. You can also dry brine if you don't want a bucket of brine in the kitchen (I can't remember where I left ours - I used one of those big storage boxes and popped a lid on it and possibly put it in the garage)

We do a dry brine 3 days before and then stuff with butter before cooking. It only takes 15 mins and makes it taste way better. We use the method poppycooks shows on her YouTube channel.

I find for Turkey the best thing to do is salt a couple of hours before cooking. Then butter and stuff and cook. Slice and reheat in gravy on the day - somehow it moistens it and makes it delicious and soft

Same! I started doing it a few years ago and use Nigellas method, and it has been the best turkey ever. I discovered this year, when getting a larger turkey than usual, to make sure you have a large enough vessel to brine it in 🙄

same here.

been brining the turkey for a few years now, and wouldn't do it any other way now. Really tasty.

it takes 10 minutes to make the brine solution and then it just sits in it - hardly a lot of extra work

I’ve been brining my turkey for the last 30 years or so. I can’t really imagine doing it any other way.

I brine my turkey - we just have turkey for Thanksgiving here. It always turns out great. The brine I use has sugar, salt, orange juice, orange peel, allspice berries, bay leaves, parsley, onions, garlic, peppercorns, whole cloves, cardamom pods, and a few more ingredients, plus ice.