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Thanksgiving: Turkey Brine Recipe

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Photograph Credit: Fickr (Paul Townsend)

Though our family chooses to make a turkey each Thanksgiving, I know some families prefer to serve a ham or chicken. The recipe I am sharing today works great for a turkey, and I would definitely try it for a chicken as well. For the ham, I would bag it like I plan to do with our turkey next week.

For those seeking a different baking option for the bird this year, try brining. I received the below recipe from a friend, who could easily run his own restaurant. When I need help tweaking a recipe, I contact him for a solution. His recipes are always a huge hit.

With his permission to share, here is my all-time favorite recipe for that tender, moist, and delicious turkey:

Turkey Brine

 Tuesday

If preparing the turkey on Thanksgiving Day, then begin defrosting the turkey on Tuesday or 2 days prior to meal time. Though there are a number of ways to defrost the turkey, I prefer to soak it.

1. Place turkey in a large pot, tub, or tote.

2. Add enough cold water to cover it.

3. Replace the water, if needed.

4. Check the turkey to see if it is soft.

5. Put in refrigerator if the turkey is fully defrosted.

Wednesday

1. Place the defrosted turkey in the large pot, tub, or tote.

2. Fill the container by gallons with enough warm to lukewarm water to cover the turkey. Paul uses a milk jug to add the water by gallons.

3. Add these ingredients:

½ cup pickling or kosher salt per gallon

½ cup brown sugar per gallon

5 bay leaves

2-3 Tablespoons of peppercorns

6 crushed cloves of garlic (With about 20 cloves per garlic, just break apart the whole and use 6 of them)

5-7 oranges, squeezed and tossed into the mixture

Other spices that can be added are basil, poultry seasoning, and thyme

4. Allow the brine to seep the flavored water into the bird for 12-24 hours prior to baking.

Thursday

Preparing the bird

1. Remove the turkey from the sticky, slippery brine mixture.

2. Drain the mixture from the bird.

3. Be sure the giblets and other guts have been removed.

4. Place bird on roasting pan.

5. Insert meat thermometer.

6. Preheat oven to desired temperature (I follow the recommendations attached to the turkey packaging.)

7. Measure out foil to “tent” your bird to prevent burning the outside, but do not “tent” it at the beginning of the baking time. I find getting the tent ready while the pan is cool saves so much time working around a hot turkey and hot pan.

Baking the bird

1. Put the turkey in the oven.

2. Check it between ½ and ¾ of the baking time.

3. Tent the bird when the outside is golden brown.

4. Carefully, remove the turkey when the meat thermometer indicates bird is thoroughly cooked.

5. Allow bird to cool before carving.

Though this option takes a little time each day for three days, the results are definitely worth it. In using time wisely and working around your other responsibilities, this option will give you a fantastic turkey to share with your friends and family. Just remember to start early in your preparations. Happy planning!

Question: When will you begin your Thanksgiving preparations? Please add your answer to the comments.

Milk Option: Smart Balance

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With the price of milk rising (with all the other grocery prices) and my need to purchase a minimum of 2 gallons of milk each week, I have been watching for milk deals. Unfortunately, I have not found any great sales.

My family of 5 drinks whole milk. My 17-month old needs the fat in the milk, and I prefer to purchase one type rather than remember “who gets what milk” first thing in the morning. In our household, we currently get the “red milk” because the cap on whole milk is red. We used to purchase “blue milk” since the cap on the 2% is blue. (Yea, we keep it simple.)

While still searching for sales, I continue to purchase our milk (for drinking) at Aldi for around $2.89 per gallon which is the least expensive price in our area.

Besides drinking milk, our family uses milk for cooking. Here is where I can stretch my grocery budget because I can find sales on fat free milk and other varieties. My current milk of choice for cooking is Smart Balance.

Recently, I purchased Smart Balance: Fat Free Milk and Calcium at Publix. The half gallon containers were on sale 2 for $5. Combining this sale with the $1.50 and $1 off coupons from the June 5, Smart Source insert in the newspaper, I was able to purchase 2 half gallon cartons totaling $2.50. The savings was $.38, but the Smart Balance has a much longer shelf life than the whole milk.

Thus far, my family has not noticed a change in the baked chicken, pork chop sauce, stroganoff, macaroni and cheese, tomato soup, or pudding – where I have replaced the whole milk with the Smart Balance milk. Without coupons and a sale, I would have by-passed the Smart Balance. However, if I can get milk below the $2.89 price, then I will purchase it and use it for cooking.

Have you considered using one milk for drinking and another for cooking? Without the sale, I would not have considered it. Now, I like the idea. The next time I can nab a gallon of milk below my rock bottom price of $2.89, I will not hesitate to try it. Happy savings!

Pork Chops: Experimenting with Pork Loin Assorted Chops

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In last week’s post on Pork Chops: Slicing a Boneless Pork Loin, I shared that my rock bottom price is $1.99 per pound. When I find this cut of meat at this price, I stock up. The last sale I found was in April, and I purchased a half pork loin which netted about 11 pork chops. Do you think I purchased enough? I thought so, but after 3 or 4 open-faced pork chop sandwich meals, I was out. Having been looking for another sale and finding none, my troops requested more pork chops.

The Experiment:

Since I was not finding a sale and refused to pay full price, I decided to check the price at Sam’s Club. While browsing, I found 10.49 pounds of pork loin assorted chops for $1.98 per pound for a total of $20.77. Since this price was my rock bottom price for pork chops, I chose to purchase this package.

When I unsealed the meat, I immediately noticed the fat and the bones in each one. My eyes bulged. For some reason, I thought I was purchasing boneless pork chops and was shocked to find bones. Oh well, I have bones. Here is my pictorial tutorial for getting boneless pork chops from a pork loin.

  1. Place the meat on a cutting board and find the bones by feeling the pork.
  2. Cut away the meat from the bones.
  3. Stack boneless pork into meal-sized piles.
  4. Wrap pork in plastic wrap or place in zipper-topped bags.
  5. Place in freezer.

My Conclusions:

  1. Though both packages were about $1.99 per pound, the pork loin assorted chops is not the same deal as the boneless pork loin.
  2. The boneless pork loin half resulted in  3-4 meals for about $10 while the same 3-4 meals with the assorted chops cost $20. Ouch!
  3. With the assorted chops, I paid $10 for these bones.
  4. The Chicken Fried Chops tasted the same with both cuts of meat.

Overall, this experiment taught me to use my time wisely by waiting for a sale on the boneless pork loins, stocking up, and bypassing a $1.98 per pound sale on pork loin assorted chops. If I run out of boneless pork loins and really need them, I will consider paying full price for the boneless pork loin. Though it is hard to see so much money wasted on the bones, I have learned from this experiment and will be able to bypass this sale without wondering if it is a good deal.

Have you tried any experiments in the kitchen? I’d love to learn along with you.

Pork Chops: Slicing a Boneless Pork Loin

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Planning for Success

Photograph Credit: Fotolia

When Paul and I were first married, we enjoyed cooking together a new recipe each week. We had received some cookbooks for our wedding, and we would browse and choose one recipe to make. Besides giving us time with each other, these sessions also helped us find meals we both liked. I tended to cook foods that were coterminous with my mom’s style which was vastly different from Paul’s mom’s style. As a couple, we worked to find meals that were our style.

During these experiments, we tried different cuts of meat, including pork. We found that we liked the taste once we overcame the chewy consistency. As we added children to our family, the consistency of the pork I cooked, baked, or roasted was not tender enough for our little ones to chew. To spend my time wisely, I chose not to make pork until . . . I came across this great post from centsiblesavings.com.

After reading her post, I waited for boneless pork loins to go on sale for $1.99 per pound. At the sale, I purchased a small pork loin and tried her Chicken Fried Chops recipe in the crock pot. (Her recipe is included in her post here.) The result of trying this new recipe was . . . a family favorite! The pork was so tender after cooking in the crock pot for 6-8 hours. The realization that this was a “keeper” meal came when my children asked for more.

We love this recipe, and I have made some minor adjustments to stretch the pork more which saves me time, energy, and money. These are Tracy’s tips for this recipe:

  1. Purchase the boneless pork loin when it is on sale for $1.99 per pound or less. My rock bottom price for this cut is $1.99 per pound. In April, I purchased 5.17 lbs. of a “pork loin, loin half boneless” at $1.99 per lb. for a total of $10.29.
  2. At your time of purchase, ask the butcher to cut the pork loin into chops. Our butcher at Publix used a sharp knife to cut our pork loin into 11 pork chops. My kids loved watching this process. I am thankful for all the wonderful employees at Publix who willingly demonstrate and teach my kids as they help me save time, energy, and money.
  3. Consider using 3-4 pork chops for each meal instead of 6 or 7. To feed my family of 5, I use 3 pork chops.
  4. Add more ingredients. About an hour before serving the meal, I remove the fat from the edges of the chops, shred the chops using a fork, and stir in another mixture of ½ cup of milk and 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup.
  5. Allow the chops to complete the meal. Instead of serving a side of meat per person, I make open-faced sandwiches using toasted hamburger buns. The leftovers make great lunches. By using my time making this meal, I can serve one dinner and at least one lunch. Yeah, saving money, energy, and time while feeding my family makes me happy.

This meal is such a hit in our house that my son requested pork chops for his birthday dinner. I highly recommend this delicious recipe. You, too, can save time preparing dinner by allowing the crock pot to cook all day for you. Stay tuned next week for more on pork loins.

Hamburger Helper: Asian Beef Fried Rice

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Delicious new variety

Do you enjoy the boxed Hamburger Helper mixes from Betty Crocker? I have purchased some of the varieties in the past, fixed them for quick dinners, and decided not to purchase those again. I like the convenience of the boxed meals, but the taste of the ingredients, especially the cheese, leaves an aftertaste. Not caring for the lingering sensations, I have opted to bypass sales on Hamburger Helper. Until . . .  last week when I had a $5 off any purchase of $25 or more at a local grocery store. Knowing I needed to refill one of our propane tanks with the sale of $15.99, I began scouring the Bi-Lo weekly advertisement for other great sales. I again found Hamburger Helper on sale for $.99 which I could pair with a coupon for $.75 off any 3 boxes resulting in $.74 per box.

Putting Hamburger Helper on my list means – check it out at the store. I don’t always purchase everything on my grocery list. Sometimes I am just looking and considering purchasing that item. I will indicate the deal on my grocery list, and then check out the deal with the available varieties while shopping.

At the store I browsed the Hamburger Helper section to find a new boxed item: Asian Beef Fried Rice. Since we love Japanese food, I decided to try this variety. I purchased 2 boxes of the Asian Beef Rice and another variety for the third box. On Wednesday night, I made the meal using ½ pound of hamburger rather than the suggested 1 pound. (Our family prefers a small amount of hamburger.) The entire family enjoyed the meal. I’m thankful we tried this variety, I found it tasty and filling. I will definitely purchase it again.

Having found a variety of Hamburger Helper that I like, I am ready to try other foods and varieties which is a big step for me. I get in my comfortable zone and continue to prepare and serve foods I enjoy. Breaking out to try something new keeps my family on their toes. I’m glad to find another quick option for those crazy weeks when every meal needs to be made in 5 minutes.

What about you? What new variety or new recipe have you tried recently? Please leave your answers in the comments.