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Brining A Larger Turkey

Asked by saintspenny. Answered on 17th December 2018

Full question

Our turkey will be a fresh 7.5kg bird. I have never used Nigella's Christmas brining recipe before as have always used a ready basted frozen turkey. I see in the recipe, it says top up to cover using water, but that’s for a 5kg turkey, do I need to scale up the recipe by 1.5x or 2x to get the right result?

Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey
Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey
Photo by Lis Parsons
Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey
By Nigella
  • 14
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Our answer

Nigella's Spiced And Superjuicy Roast Turkey (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is brined in an aromatic salt and sugar solution. The turkey absorbs some of the water and salt during the soaking time, meaning that when the turkey is cooked it is moist and well seasoned rather than dry.

Nigella's recipe gives enough brine for a 5.5kg turkey. If your bird is slightly larger then you can just top up the container with a bit of extra water (up to 1 litre/4 cups), so that the turkey is completely covered. If your turkey is significantly larger then it may be better to make some extra brine, as if the brine becomes too diluted it does not work as well. For a 7.5kg turkey we would suggest making 1.5x the quantity of brine. Also bear in mind that the brine will take longer to penetrate a larger bird, so try to allow 2 days for brining if you have somewhere that is cold enough to store the container for that amount of time. For extra festive feasting ideas go to Nigella's Seasons Eatings.

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