Using Brines

I love using brines, especially for poultry and pork. Thanksgiving turkey always gets put in a salt/brown sugar brine the night before. It's easy to adapt from there, too: add some black peppercorns, or pickling spices, soy sauce, fresh herbs, or one of my favorites if I'm grilling pork - dry Jamaican jerk seasoning. Most brine recipes I've seen call for one cup of kosher salt per gallon of water. Some use equal sugar, some half as much sugar as kosher salt. I usually use half as much sugar and probably tablespoons of other flavorings. I also like to hold back on the full amount of water, put everything together in a pot, bring to a simmer to get everything dissolved/blended, then take the pot off the heat and add ice cubes to cool it down to a usable temperature. Large items get brined over night, smaller ones for four hours or so. Always rinse off your brined item and let it dry before preceding with the cooking.

OK, now to my point. I read and article last year on a restaurant in Brooklyn that brines chicken in pickle juice before cooking. Sounded interesting, so I saved a jar of pickle juice after the pickles were finished, brined the chicken in it, and did my own adaptation of the recipe pan-searing and then roasting the chicken pieces. It was fantastic. And, it got me thinking - what other items did I have in my refrigerator that I could use the leftover liquid to brine with? I always have a variety of jarred olives and so I tried that -- great also. And pepperoncinis -- that juice as a brine gives nice kick. And as a side benefit, I am much more careful of reviewing ingredient lists when purchasing an item that I might want to save for a second life as a brine.

Right now, I have a pork tenderloin brining in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator with the juice from a jar of pimento-stuffed green olives and I can guarantee you - it's going to make a great dinner!

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