turkey brining in an icechest?

grillcrazy · Joined: 30 Aug 2007 Posts: 6

I don't have refrigerator space for the Thanksgiving bird and was wondering if it ok to brine it n an icechest. Do i just put the bird and brine in a container on top of a mountain of ice for 24 hours. I dont want to poison the family after all Shocked

allsmokenofire · Posted: Nov 15 2007 Post subject:

How big is the ice chest??

That's one way to do it, you may have to add some more ice after time.
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ou812warford · Posted: Nov 15 2007 Post subject:

I did some turkey legs last weekend and I brined them in an ice chest with ice pack in it. It worked great and was able to rotate the packs in and out of the freezer. No one died from the legs. They were good just a little on the salty side. When I do the turkey for Thanksgiving I am going to cut down on the salt a little.
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BackYardNik · BBQ Fan Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 156

I brine in a 5 gallon bucket, on the back porch. It's usually <50 degrees when I do it, and there's always ice still floating when I'm done the next morning.

DaveInPhx · Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Posts: 13

I use a water cooler like this one:
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&upc=7915411621

I double bag the bird and brine mixture in Reynolds Turkey Size oven bags and then put that into an ice water mixture in the water cooler. I put about a 1/2 cut of salt into the ice water mix to keep the temp down. As needed, I drain a quart of water out of the cooler (the spigot makes this easy) and replenish it with ice and a little salt.

whoppr · Joined: 26 May 2007 Posts: 14 Location: New Hampshire

Man...Sorry I didnt see this sooner... hopefully, however, it helps for future reference. I have brined a turkey a bunch of times in an ice chest... Just mix the brine with Ice to make sure it doesnt drop in temp. Here in NH, most years its only slightly above freezing so you dont have to replace any ice. Depending on where you live, you might have to.

Last year we had a ton of family at the house and I brined a 28 pounder in the ice chest since I couldnt get it to fit anywhere else. Couple cups of salt and sugar along with a few gallons of water and ice.

My only caution is that I dont know what diseases can be in turkeys, but I rinsed the cooler aftewards with water and bleach to kill any nasty bacteria that could result

lantern · Posted: Nov 27 2007 Post subject:

The cylinder shaped ice chest is Alton Brown's favorite brining receptical. At least that's what he said and used on good eats. Embarassed

FullofBull · Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 6

Another idea is, you can make your brine in a 32 or 64 quart pot submerge your turkey in it then transfer the pot and turkey together and put in a cooler surround by ice. This works for me and keeps the temps at around 37 degrees. Make sure liquid is at or around 40 degrees before you drop in your bird.

Pit Boss · Posted: Jan 14 2010 Post subject:

Jarhead · Posted: Jan 15 2010 Post subject:

I would freeze some milk jugs full of water, not only with that keep it cold, but will also take up room in the ice chest, so that you won't need as much brine.
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large1 · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 6

Jarhead i was thinking the same thing but with 2 liter soda baottles. you could actually drop them in the brine with the bird and not worry about diluting your brine as the ice melts.