Sweet Child O' Brine II

This week on the Rouxde Cooking School Podcast we talked about salt. It's the most important ingredient in the kitchen as far as I'm concerned and it's transformative properties make it easy to see why it was used for centuries by apothecaries, witches and warlocks as a main ingredient in their wares.

We have covered brine before but this one is different.

Yes, there is more than one recipe for brine. They can go from fairly complicated (like the holiday brine to very simple (this one).

This recipe will be considerably less complicated and as basic as you can get. It will also change your life. Yeah....... I said it!

This basic brine will make you the Acme of your friends meat cooking masters.

While this brine will make it easier to put color on whatever chop or thigh you are cooking, be sure to constantly flip your food. The sugar in the brine mix makes it easy to burn  the food. Be careful and flip the meat as much as you can. Flipping the meat more than you think helps to keep the meat from

Like I said this is a basic brine. If you want to get more complicated, you can add things like  sage, thyme, rosemary, onions, celery, cinnamon, bay leaf and other spices, fruits or vegetables to steer your meat into the flavor profile you need to match your recipe.

Ready for a crazy simple recipe? Let's do it dear reader!!!

Rouxde Cooking School Simple Brine

1 gallon water
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar

In an extra large container to hold a gallon of fluid, place ingredients together in the bowl and whisk or stir until items dissolved together into a clear liquid.

Done.

Yup, that's it. Dead simple right?

you're now ready to use it for chicken, pork or vegetables (yes veggies, it's basic pickling).

Cheers!