12.26.25 – Feeling A Little Salty
Starting to populate recipes and get plans and overthink everything like anyone is going to give a shit. But seeing that I have a lot of grilling and BBQ based recipes, I felt the topic of brining needed to be discussed.
The science of salinity as it pertains to meat prep can drive you mad. There are some wonderful calculators out there that help you choose by weight and ratios how to make wonderfully dialed in wet brines. (see Destination BBQ Calc for a great one) Honestly the only thing I still use a wet brine for is for chicken wings because of the size and texture – which isn’t conducive to a nice even spread with a dry brine.
So here is MY preferred methodology for brining.
Dry Brine (Steaks/Chops/Thicker fish cuts/Chicken boobs)
2:1 Salt to sugar. Salt as you normally would, put on rack and refrigerate uncovered for 45min to 1.5 hours. Do not rinse meat, then season for cooking without adding more salt. For larger birds and roasts, try to keep around 1/4 tbsp/lb, and brine for 12-24, even up to 48 hours.
Dry Brine (thinner cuts of fish)
1:1 Salt to sugar. Salt as you normally would for 30-45 min, do not rinse and season without salt for cooking.
Wet Brine (Wings/Drums) @ 5+% salinity
Half gallon (8 cups) warm water, 100g kosher salt, 40g sugar. Stir in salt/sugar to dissolve, and give them appendages a bath for around 2 hours. Discard liquid, pat dry and let them air dry uncovered in the fridge for a few hours to dry the skins out.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ We don’t all have time for this in the moment when the kids are cranky, you have to be at baseball practice in 69 minutes, and you do not have a plan. But given you do, I am a big proponent of always brine. It can make the shittiest most inexpensive cuts taste absolutely insane.
Here is cross section of a gigantic chicken breast, dry brined for 2 hours then cooked indirect for almost 90 minutes to an internal of 145°. Removed from heat, cranked the Weber to about 500°, then seared on both sides to finish at 165°.
And a store cut pork chop, dry brined for a little under an hour, patted dry and grilled as one would grill a chop. This was done to a medium to medium well (155°-160°).
