I wet brine mine for 24 hours whether they are pre-brined or not. Never had one get too salty.
1 cup salt and 1 cup brown sugar per gallon of water.

goatchze said:

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drthoop said:

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You're gonna end up with a pretty salty bird if you brine for 2-3 days. 24 hours is my max.

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Depends on the strength of the brine I suppose, and what you're going after.

I've brined them for 4-5 days, basically like a ham. Meat comes out seasoned, but I wouldn't say salty.

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I second this. I've done a week before and no problems with saltiness.

B-1 83 said:

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Trinity Ag said:

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Unless you are buying a "fresh" or natural bird pretty much every grocery store bird (butterball, etc) is already pre-brined with an 8%+ salt solution.

It is easy to overdo it if you brine it again yourself.

I've found it is hard to beat Tony Chachere and peanut oil -- either on the Weber bullet smoker or the CHarbroil Big Easy oilless fryer.

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ttt for this issue.

Every turkey I've seen does have this "pre-brine". Wouldn't additional dry brining make it too salty? I was sure leaning that way, but do t want a 14# ball of salt.

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Dry brining definitely could. For wet brining, and to my point earlier, it would depend.

If you've got a "water/brine added" turkey, with the above example an 8% solution, and you put it in a bucket with an 8% brine, no additional salt is going to go into the bird. The bird will be no more salty after the brine soak than before.

If you put it in a 5% brine, you would actually remove salt from the bird.

If you put it in a 10% brine, you would make the bird saltier.

The strength of the brine matters if it's wet (and I guess you could say the strength of a dry brine is about 100%).

All that said, an 8% brine solution is crazy high. In fact, 5% is really high. That's what you use when making pickles. The turkeys on the shelf might say 8% "injected broth" or some other phrase, but that's not a brine that is 8%. It just means that 8% of the listed sale weight is what was injected, which is mostly water.

We're devolving into chemistry here, but the type of salt matters too. The typical brine is based on 1 cup salt to 1 gallon of water. That 1 cup salt is based on common table salt. I typically use kosher salt for brining and it's lighter (per cup) than table salt. You can weigh it out. 1 cup table salt is about 10oz. Kosher salt is closer to 7 oz/cup, depending on brand. I use 1 1/2 cups Morton kosher salt.

I use Kosher salt also. Along with the brown sugar. Not sure what it weighs. Not that I really care. Figuring the % brine is a fairly easy calculation.

I've smoked several turkeys with Breggy Bomb Brush Dust on them and they are really good.

mandevilleag said:

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We're devolving into chemistry here, but the type of salt matters too. The typical brine is based on 1 cup salt to 1 gallon of water. That 1 cup salt is based on common table salt. I typically use kosher salt for brining and it's lighter (per cup) than table salt. You can weigh it out. 1 cup table salt is about 10oz. Kosher salt is closer to 7 oz/cup, depending on brand. I use 1 1/2 cups Morton kosher salt.

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You're right. Actually, OP asked about rubs, and we have devolved into brines. I've heard for years people saying that brining longer will make turkeys too salty, which is why I responded. I'll make one last post then move along.

You are correct that from a volume perspective, the type of salt matters. But from a weight perspective it does not. Whether I'm using kosher or table salt, I weigh the salt to get the desired wt % of final brine. This is true for pickling veggies or brining meats.

But yes, your point is important to note. Different types of salts weigh differently by the cup.

Buttermilk brine.