The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 1082

allowing dissolved proteins to cross-link with each other This is the main principle behind sausage making— dissolved proteins can bond with each other, creating a pleasantly bouncy, tender texture By brining a chicken breast or a pork chop, you’re in effect giving it a very light cure—the same process that converts a raw ham into a supple prosciutto • Third, as the brine slowly works its way into the meat, it seasons it beyond just the very surface An overnight brine will penetrate a few millimeters into the meat, giving you built-in seasoning before you ever get to the breading Brines also improve juiciness by increasing the muscles’ ability to retain moisture My normal brining for chicken breast is anywhere from 30 minutes to hours In this case, however, a much, much longer brining time was necessary in order to completely mitigate the effects of high-temperature frying, delivering a uniquely smooth, juicy texture to the meat A full 6 hours submerged in salt/sugar water produced the beauty below Weighing the meat confirmed that an overnight-brined-then-fried bird loses about percent less moisture than an unbrined bird does and is significantly tastier Unbrined chicken on the left versus brined chicken on the right I’ve experimented with tossing certain animal preparations with a mixture of baking powder and salt a day in advance in order to improve their crispness (see All-Belly Porchetta, here) The salt acts as a brine, while the baking powder raises the pH of the skin, causing it to brown more efficiently and the thin film of protein-rich liquid around it to form microbubbles that can add crispness I tried this method on my fried chicken, but it ended up drying the skin out too much, making it tough to get the breading to remain attached down the line Knowing that I’d be soaking my chicken in buttermilk the next day anyway, I wondered if I’d be able to kill two birds with one stone by replacing the water in the brine with ... in advance in order to improve their crispness (see All-Belly Porchetta, here) The salt acts as a brine, while the baking powder raises the pH of the skin, causing it to brown more efficiently and the thin film of protein-rich... method on my fried chicken, but it ended up drying the skin out too much, making it tough to get the breading to remain attached down the line Knowing that I’d be soaking my chicken in buttermilk the next day anyway, I wondered if I’d be able to kill two birds...Unbrined chicken on the left versus brined chicken on the right I’ve experimented with tossing certain animal preparations with a mixture of baking powder and salt a day in advance in order to improve their crispness (see All-Belly