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[quote=Anonymous]Brining turkey (and most any meat) makes it moister, much harder to dry out in the oven, and also a bit better seasoned. It is a very nice technique.

The downside is that some meat takes on a bit of a pickled/deli meat taste if you brine it for too long. For example, I wouldn't brine pork chops or chicken breast for more than a day. But that's not really an issue for a turkey since its such a huge cut of meat.

There's no exact answer to "how much salt" but most chefs say "until the brine tastes like the ocean."

The way I do my turkey is I fill a cooler 1/3rd of the way with water, add a healthy dose of kosher salt and some sugar, whisk to incorporate, and taste. I make it a little saltier than the ocean, put the turkey in the cooler, and then add additional water to cover.

Then I leave the turkey out on the deck the night before. (Between the fact that its in a cooler, its cold outside, and that the turkey is partially frozen when it goes in, I'm not particularly worried from a food santiation perspective).

A lot of people add seasonings in addition to salt/sugar. I don't do this, because most of the literature suggests that the vast majority of seasonings don't actually penetrate into the meat.

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