GB
Chief Eating Officer
Alix I am not really sure. My thoughts are that brining has nothing to do with Koshering a bird. My mother on the other hand things that I am wrong.
The reason I do not think brining has anything to do with it is this. The reason salt is used in the koshering process is to draw all the blood out of the meat. It is against the kosher laws to ingest blood so this is very important. Pouring dry salt over the meat will draw the liquid out. Brining does the opposite. It draws liquid into the meat.
OK now that I am typing this I am starting to wonder, perhaps both my mother and I are both right. kosher chickens are juicy and saltier than non-kosher chickens. Perhaps they first salt it dry to draw out the blood and then brine them to replace the lost moisture? I am thinking that is probably very likely. So maybe the answer is that it is not done to make the bird kosher, but to make a kosher bird more tasty?
The reason I do not think brining has anything to do with it is this. The reason salt is used in the koshering process is to draw all the blood out of the meat. It is against the kosher laws to ingest blood so this is very important. Pouring dry salt over the meat will draw the liquid out. Brining does the opposite. It draws liquid into the meat.
OK now that I am typing this I am starting to wonder, perhaps both my mother and I are both right. kosher chickens are juicy and saltier than non-kosher chickens. Perhaps they first salt it dry to draw out the blood and then brine them to replace the lost moisture? I am thinking that is probably very likely. So maybe the answer is that it is not done to make the bird kosher, but to make a kosher bird more tasty?