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**Kelly5110**
You can still brine your turkey!!! Just make your own brine and then you will know that it is gluten free!
Use 4 quarts of liquid(I like to use 3 quarts apple cider & 1 quart water) to 1/2 - 3/4 cup of Kosher salt. Then add spices and herbs... garlic, apple or orange slices, thyme, rosemary, sage, onions, juniper berries, black peppercorns, etc.
Bring the water, salt and herbs/spices to a boil. Simmer until all the salt is dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the cider and about 5 or 6 cups of ice. Let the brine cool to room temp and add your turkey. Brine for 12-24 hours. ( I use the big ziplock style brining bags)
You could look at the Williams-Sonoma ingredient list if you are wanting a similar flavor profile.
I brine our turkey every year and it really does make a difference! The brining process imparts a LOT of flavor to the bird and helps it to retain moisture when cooking.
Re: **Kelly5110**
Thanks, Jenny! I'll definitely consider it!
Where on earth do you buy juniper berries? Haha.
me too- i wanna know what brine a turkey is?!
Jenny could explain it better than me, but this is my version:
It's a prep method, like marinating, that uses salt & water. Matt brined some pork chops earlier in the summer when we had my parents over for dinner - HUGE hit! Like Jenny said, it enhances the flavor and helps lock in moisture. I think of it like this - when we eat a lot of salt, we retain water. So the brining solution helps the meat retain the moisture.
cool thanks
Christine - Jen actually did a really good job of describing it.
Kelly - you should be able to find them in the spice aisle. Everything that goes in the brine can be dried. It doesn't have to be fresh. Except the garlic, in my opinion. I would just crush whole cloves and throw them in. And you can even use like dried orange peel or dried apples.
Excellent! Thanks.
Matt thinks I'm bonkers because I'm worrying about Thanksgiving already, but I have to explain to him that it's complicated, especially when I have to take the gluten-free aspect into account. We don't have any stores nearby that have much gluten-free stuff, so I need to plan special trips to special stores to get some of these things.
I have to keep reminding myself that MIL actually DOES need these things; it's a constant battle to remember that there is a straightforward blood test for celiac and that she's not making the whole thing up just to drive us crazy.