Do brined meats take longer to cook?

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buckytom

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I was wondering if anyone else has experienced when you cook (grill, bake, or broil) brined meats that it takes longer to cook them vs. regular/non-brined meats.

I recently brined some pork chops with my Caribbean style brine (been working on reproducing a recipe for almost 20 years, but I'm slow), but since I had a couple of bone-in chicken breasts that needed to be used up, I brined them in it as well.

I ate the breasts last night, and after eating the outer slices (they were huge breasts), I noticed the center of the chicken was raw. I mean bright pink raw.

I know I cooked the breasts in a grill pan for the same time I've done similarly sized, un-brined ones, so I wondered if it was the brine that caused the extreme difference?
 
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I don't think brined meats should take longer to cook. Brining replaces existing fluids with flavored ones. It doesn't add moisture.

Could the breasts have been partially frozen?
 
Thanks, Andy. I doubt they were frozen as they weren't to begin with, plus they were in the brine in the refrigerator overnight.
 
Herein lies the lesson touting a meat thermometer.

Bucky, were they really raw or just the colour of raw. I can see where brining might change the colour.

But I have brined both chicken and chops and the cooking times remained the same. Perhaps yours were just even bigger/thicker than you originally thought?
 
Thanks Andy, dragn, and GG.

I know what you mean, dragn. But this was really raw, just in a spot in the deepest center. Like crunchy raw.

It was still good, though. I was so hungry that I took a chance and ate some raw bits. No ill effects today,.

Yes, a meat thermometer is a better idea, but I'm lazy.

The only thing that I can assume is that I didn't cook it long enough for how big they were.

Again, thanks.
 
I've been puzzled by this since you first posted Bucky, and thought I'd wait to chime in. I'm a big believer in brining both chicken and pork and I can't believe brining has anything to do with with cooking times, as it's not been my experience, but that's just my 2 cents.
 
Oven trmperature

Something I've suspected but never bothered to confirm. I'm not sure all ovens are consistent in their internal temperatures. It seems at times that something I've done the same way forever occasionally yields different results.

I'd love to have an oven with an internal monitoring outside reading thermometer. Perhaps with a probe attachment.
 
My brined Thanksgiving turkey cooks faster than it should ....

Other than that I haven't noticed a difference. But I cook to temp not time
 
I'd love to have an oven with an internal monitoring outside reading thermometer. Perhaps with a probe attachment.

I've had several ovens with the probe. bleh.. I even bought one, sits on the counter, wire goes into the oven, into the food.
It worked the first two times I used it... then the temp started climbing so fast passing the set temp, and buzzing to let me know it was done - in 5 minutes!

But when I would let the food cook, took the meat/food out and used the remote one outside the oven - it was perfect! I can only conclude that it was the wire passing thru and thereby touching the door was registering the heat. I made sure the wire didn't touch anything inside the oven - just the food.

Al three of the ovens I had were different makes... so I don't bother with them at all.
 
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I brine chicken and lean pork all the time, and have not noticed a difference in cooking times. Of course, my casual observations are not scientific, but if it does matter, I haven't noticed it.

I use probe thermometers, like others here do. I have my probe-on-a-wire thermometers for big meats, except for rotisserie meats -- that only works for a few rotations. :rolleyes: :LOL:

I use a cheap instant read digital thermometer for smaller meats, like chicken parts.

CD
 
Bucky did you even out the thickness of the breasts with a mallet before brining?
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Craig, they were split breasts (on the bone). Really thick ones.

I guess I need to find my instant read thermometer. That disappeared in the move 2 years ago.
 
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