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I saw a recipe that called for brining a Turkey in order to retain the moisture, but when you cook with salt it causes the foods to get less moist - Why?

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3 Answers

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For the brine, it's because of osmosis When you have a semi-permeable membrane, like a cucumber skin, water will tend to move from the higherlower solute mixture (the salt water) to the lower higher solute mixture (the water with organic material inside the cucumber). This will cause the cucumber to absorb water AND some salt, until the point where the water in the cucumber is as soluble as the surrounding brine.

When you add solid salt to an item, steak for example, Osmosis is no longer at work. Instead, you're dealing with absorption , a completely different chemical process.

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up vote 4 down vote

Actually, osmosis would work exactly the opposite way of how Mike Sherov suggests: it would draw water out of the cucumber (or the turkey) and into the brine. (Close reading of the Wikipedia article bears this out.)

(Sorry for posting this as an answer - apparently I can't reply to Mike's answer directly, yet. I don't know the actual answer.)

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Erik, you're absolutely right, I mixed up the details, but my answer still arrives at the right conclusion. Amending now. – Mike Sherov Aug 5 '10 at 16:28
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I think I understand now. I found a great explanation at cookingforengineers.com/article/70/Brining. What I failed to understand is that salt passes the semipermeable membrane fairly easily, and thus the osmotic pressure from salt itself (which would force water out of the cells) is fairly low. On the other hand, the salt entering the cells breaks down some proteins which can't pass the membrane. These guys cause osmotic pressure into the cell, which is what makes the meat juicy. I think that's what you said in your answer, but with more words :) – Erik P. Aug 5 '10 at 23:22
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what mike says is correct. This process can be used to make meat more tender, if you put meat in saltwater for some hours it will absorb about 10% of its weight in water. So if you put a 100gr piece of meat in saltwater it will absorb about 10g of water. It will leave the meat salty, but more tender. Removing salt from the other components of the dish will hopefully balance things out.

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