Cooking With Beer

In the premiere issue of "Beer Magazine" there is on pages 22-24 several recipes for Thanksgiving Dinner. The one that did not stand up to the recipe provided was the Beer Brined Turkey. The recipe is as follows:

Serves: 6-8(depending on your turkey)
Prep time: 30 minutes
Marinate: 24 hours

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups(flaked) kosher salt
1-1/4 cup brown sugar
10 whole cloves
3tsp. black peppercorns
3tsp. dried thyme
13 12oz. of your favorite brown ale or try Buffalo Bill's
Pumpkin Ale
Zest of one orange

Additional Items Needed:

Large nonreactive pot
note- the pot is not aluminum or cast iron. The pot is to be used for marination and cooking the brine turkey.

Now What:

1) Combine all the ingredients in your nonreactive pot.Bring mixture to a rolling boil. Once you reach a boil,lower the heat ,partly cover, and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

2) Cool to room temperature.

3) Rinse turkey under cool running water inside and out while removing giblest. Pat dry with paper towels, place the turkey in the cooled brine. The bird needs to be completely submerged. If necessary, plsce somethingheavy to keep the turkey completely in the brine.

4) Cover and refrigerate for at least 8-10 hours. The longer the better ,24 hours max.

5) Remove from brine,rinse with cool running water, pat dry, and roast the bird with your favorite roasting recipe.
Pair with : Cream Ale

I encountered two problems . One,i have yet to see "flaked ' kosher salt available locally,so i used the coarse version instead. Two, Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale was not available locally during November,2007, so i used Newcastle Brown Ale.

Now anyone who is familiar with cookbooks knows that each and every recipe is tested, adjusting as necessary. I suspect that this procedure was not done. The following question would have been answered by suggesting a weight range for the amount of brine to be used. The big question is what size turkey to buy? 144 ounces of liquid brine will cover a Turkey up to what size?

I learned the hard way that i needed more brown ale for the 13.6 pound Hen Turkey used. The recipe is great for any Turkey in the 8-10 pound category, but for my size I needed 6 more bottles.

The results?

The Turkey that was brined properly turned out very well. The dark meat was the best part. However, the part of the Turkey not brined would have benefited from more added flavor.

I will use the recipe in the future with adjustments for the amount of brine need for the weight of the Turkey.

Maury