About Brining Meat

Brining is a method of submerging a piece of meat in a mixture of water and salt before the meat is cooked.  Along with water and salt, other spices and seasonings may be added to the brine to impart a desired flavor.  Common additions are sugar, garlic, whole black pepper corns, bay leaves, thyme and many more.   The purpose of brining is to allow the meat to absorb water so that it does not dry out during the cooking process.  During the process of brining, the salty solution is absorbed into the meat which will increase the weight of the piece of meat.  The processes of diffusion and osmosis are the driving forces that cause the meat to absorb the solution.  Diffusion occurs because there is a higher concentration of salt in the surrounding water which will diffuse into the meat until there are equal concentrations of salt in the brine and in the meat.  Osmosis works in a similar fashion as there is more water in the brine on the outside of the meat there is on the inside cause the meat to take on water.  The solution is retained in the meat because the proteins in the meat become denatured by the salt.  Denatured proteins are proteins that have become unraveled by some outside force—in this case it is from the salt in the brine.  Denatured proteins with form a barrier that prevents the moisture from the leaving the cell during cooking.  This causes the meat to retain much of the water during cooking resulting in a juicy well-seasoned piece of meat.  Poultry, pork and some seafood benefit the most from brining, although sometimes beef is brined to make some wet-cured meats such as pastrami.