A Brine for All Time...and Turkey

From this allrecipes post with a few modifications suggested by the commenters that tried it. If you are a calorie counter, make sure you take a weighed portion and count up those calories using these nutrition facts for white meat turkey or the nutrition facts for dark meat turkey from Calorie Count! The meat will have absorbed sodium, but to be honest I have no idea as to how one would count those numbers.

Brine for Turkey

Ingredients to make enough brine for a 12-18 pound turkey:

1/2 gallons veggie stock
1/2 gallon apple juice
1 large onion sliced
2 stalks celery rough chopped include leaves
1 cup sea salt
1 T rosemary
1 T sage
1 T thyme
1 handful peppercorns
1 T savory
1 gallon ice water

Directions:

Combine all except the ice water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Stir until the salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Pour into a large food safe container such as a large pot with lid or plastic container with lid large enough to hold all the liquid and the turkey. It will need to hold about five gallons to be large enough and you may need to purchase a special container just for this project. Food safe is critical. Do not use a large garbage bag or a regular bucket designed for use while mopping I don't care how new it is.

Add the ice water to the brine starter and stir.

Remove the goodie bags from the turkey, rinse and dry it by wiping it with paper towels.

Then add the turkey and make sure it is pushed into the liquid so that it runs throughout the cavities.

Cover and place in the fridge overnight. The next morning, remove the turkey and drain off the excess brine and pat dry with paper towels.

Cook as usual except for one thing - you won't need to baste! Because you won't be opening the oven door all the time letting out the heat, you will find that the turkey cooks a bit faster - by about 30 minutes.