My wife agonizes whether or not she should brine our Thanksgiving turkey. That is, should she soak it for hours -- or days; even the experts disagree -- in a solution of water and salt, the aim being a kind of chemical reaction that causes protein fibers to disassociate and then reassociate, a certain amount of moisture (maybe) and tenderness (certainly) having been added.
I may have this wrong. The source from which I got my information (that I may have garbled) may have it wrong. But it is certainly correct that some people recommend brining turkeys and some are dead set against it.
Eydie worries. If you brine, you cannot put the stuffing inside the turkey because it comes out salty, and you cannot use the pan drippings for gravy. This is where I come in. Gravy first, succulence of the turkey second. Gravy is a blanket pardon. All sins are smothered by gravy.
I have made myself clear, but some recipe somewhere says that if you brine for only six hours, you can still make a delicious gravy, and my wife is a very neocon of the culinary arts, willing to take wild chances for big gains.
I'm on pins. I'm on needles. I'm also on tenterhooks if they are sufficiently different from pins and needles.
I do love gravy. I love it the way some parents love a favorite child.
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