by Paul Helbert

Brine
    per quart of water:
         ¼ c salt
         1 T  or more sugar
        garlic & fresh herbs
Soak a roaster 48 hours in refrigerator.
Rombauer uses ¼ c per quart for 6 to 8 hours or half that strength for 12 to 18 hours, which also produces good results.

Cook bird at low temperature (<= 250 F) in convection oven. Raise heat in last half hour to brown it.  Bob says brined bird cooks faster than non brined.  I'd  usually give a stuffed bird this size two hours in 350 F conventional oven or an hour and three quarters in a cast iron (camping) dutch oven.

December 14-16, 2001

4# 7oz Delaware x Hubbard pullet from 12 October out of deep freeze (Frozen below zero F for less than three months).
2 qt. water
1/3 cup table salt
2 t sugar
2 t garlic powder
¼ t dried rosemary

Put all in bag in bowl in  fridge 8:30 p.m. Friday night.

This is half way between Bob's and Rombauer's long soak brine strength. One of Bob's radio callers thought it too salty at a cup of salt per gallon of water, but Bob said the caller admitted not normally using any salt in his cooking. I agree with the caller.  To my taste Bob's brining produces a noticeable salty end product.

Brined 38 hours, starting with frozen bird. Rinsed, dried and allowed to stand open about an hour. Cooked three hours (two and a half at 300 F in conventional oven and finished at 350 F in conventional oven). Used 2 cups of cider in bottom of vessel. Used no rack. Turned bird and kept basted with unsalted butter.  Breast skin separated from meat and tented up and got a bit over browned. Drumsticks never did get really loose, but internal temperature of breast, thigh and stuffing all got to at least 180 F. Let stand fifteen to twenty minutes more before serving (family was late). It was delightfully moist and perfectly well done; but then, we've never had a dryness problem with these birds in the past. Still, I'd say the moistness was remarkable given the long cooking time. Garlic and rosemary flavors were right but, yes, I could taste the salt. Don't know that I'd cut the salt, though. Use of cider may have been a waste but it sure smelled good cooking.

Stuffing was southern (not sweetened) cornbread, eggs, celery, onion, salt, pepper, cayenne & spices.

Served with vegetable / potato stir fry and buttered rolls.

Lemon sauce pudding for dessert used up a few more of our unseasonable surplus fresh eggs!

24 December 2001

7 month old Orpington cockerel. Skinned, disjointed. Bagged, brined full strength & packed in ice @ 11:00 a.m. for Christmas day cookout. Slow roast (stew) with veggies & dumpling in cast iron dutch oven. Serve with southern (not sweetened) cornbread.

Cornbread: That's another story... Corn (maize) is already naturally sweet. Any recipe for cornbread calling for additional sweetener is really a recipe for corn cake.
 

Memorial Day weekend 2002

Four pound seven ounce chicken from deep freeze used as ice in small cooler for the weekend. On Saturday morning added three or four handful of salt, one of sugar, half a handful of garlic granules and water to make a brine. About 2:30 drained and put the bird breast down into #12 Dutch Oven. Sprinkled liberally with paprika, pepper, cayenne, garlic. Added half a can of rather tasteless lite beer and added charcoal above and below calculated for 350 F. Checked after one hour and turned chicken onto its back. Checked again forty five minutes later and leg bones practically fell out of drumsticks. The breast was the moistest ever.* Served with vegetables roasted over charcoal on skewers, followed later with Cherry Jumble.
 

Beer Can Chicken

* November 2002: Maybe no longer was this the moistest ever. This season I discovered "beer can chicken". This method steams the bird from within which moistens the breast while allowing the thighs to cook completely. Skin is delightfully crisp. I may do an article on this later, but for now, you can search Google for "beer can chicken".

Rub recipe for Beer Can Chicken

The basic rub is four equal parts;

Coarse salt (kosher salt, sea salt)
Paprika (sweet paprika)
Brown sugar (light, dark or add molasses to cane sugar)
Black pepper (fresh ground is best)

The basic rub alone will give excellent results but we always add lesser parts of garlic, onion, cayenne, mustard and other ingredients.