Thanksgiving Quick Brine

The last few years we have cooked two birds in our house for Thanksgiving.  I do a traditional roast turkey in the oven and Ryan goes with spatchcocked in his smoker.  The problem has been that we both believe in the power of brining and I go berserk with sides, so fridge space becomes a major issue.  Two big buckets brining birds won’t fit in our Frigidaire.  So, when I was contacted by Flavorkey and asked to review their device that promises a quick brine method, I was in.

Flavorkey is a high tech device for making extra tender and juicy meat.  It uses electricity to prime the turkey (or ham or chicken or whatever) for brining and cutting the time in a brine from hours to minutes.  So, instead of needing to have two birds in Home Depot buckets overnight in the fridge, all we had to do was use the Flavorkey to “electrocute” the birds and brine them for 30 minutes before cooking.

We both used the same brine, a simple solution of salt in water with peppercorns and coriander. Ryan spatchcocked his turkey so that it would fit flat on his smoker and rubbed it down with a blended mixture of sage, fresh oregano, rosemary and onions.  Mine, I stuffed with pears, onions, orange and sage and halfway through cooking, basted with maple syrup.

I hate to admit it, but I think Ryan’s bird was better this year (shhh!  Don’t tell him I told you that!).  My big issue was succumbing to the allure of a gigantic turkey.  It was a massive 22 pounder, and when birds are that big, even cooking temps are a challenge.  Parts of it were perfect, others overcooked, but it was moist when properly cooked, much thanks to the quick brine with the Flavorkey.  Lesson learned, don’t buy the big birds.

Ryan’s more petite 14 pound turkey was evenly cooked and the Flavorkey did an outstanding job of maintaining the moisture and tenderness.  It was just as moist as turkeys done in prior years that had been brined up to 36 hours.

Thanks Flavorkey, for sending us a device to review.  It made things a lot easier this year in terms of fridge space and all of our guests raved about our turkeys!  Now…what to do with all of those leftovers?

Learn more about Flavorkey on their website at FlavorKey.com.

*Flavorkey provided the device in this review, but all views and opinions are my own.