Whipping siphons for brine injection

I've noticed that ISI sells needle attachments for their whipping siphons to inject whipped cream into pastries or brine into meats. I don't bake at home much (and am more inclined to make my own bread than creampuffs if I do bake) but I roast whole chickens at least once a week and would probably get some use out of a brine injector. Since I came across this site, I equilibrium brine almost all of my white meats before cooking except for whole birds because the skin gets soggy and flabby. Injectors are the obvious solution to this problem because they allow you to brine the flesh without making the skin soggy. Anyone used a siphon for this purpose? Good results?

Siphons aside, what percentage salinity should one aim for with an injection brine? I imagine it's higher than an equilibrium brine, but perhaps lower than a standard immersion brine. Some guidelines would be appreciated.

Finally, would a standard brining syringe (no siphon) work well for caviar spherification purposes? I've been using a plastic condiment bottle for this purpose, but don't get as much control as I'd like with it. It'd be nice to have a multitasker for this purpose instead of having separate devices for brine and spheres.

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

Re: Percentage salinity on the injection brine.
Consulted MC@H and their recommendation was 6% salinity for the injection brine in the roasted chicken recipe. I really should look things up before I go asking on forums :-)

Chris_Young_80640

@Brandon — One of the most important things to keep in mind with injection brines, is that injecting alone tends to give uneven results. Most commercial meat processors that inject brine also submerge the meat in a brine and let everything even out. It gives a much better result. Also, there is no reason not to use an equilibrium brine for injecting. Calculate the amount of salt you want in the meat, add it to about 5 to 10% of water relative the weight of the meat because that's about as much water as you can reasonably inject. Then soak the meat in a brine that's already at the desired equilibrium salt level (say 1%) and wait. It gives a pretty darn good result.

Samuel_68313

I guess one of the cool advantages of using a siphon as well is the ability to do an instant infusion as well to make a flavoured brine.

Though truthfully it seems a bit of a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I just ordered some of the injector needles for my ISI, so I'll report back on my experience. For $15 (roughly the price of a dedicated brine injector) it seems like it might be a decent value if it works well on proteins. If not, I'll have something for the off chance I want to make creme puffs!

@SamuelG: I didn't think about the possibility of doing infusions in the siphon, but that's a good idea. My plan was to simmer/boil a flavored brine on the stove top, chill it down, and then transfer to the whip, but the prospect of doing it all in the siphon is very appealing. I'd have to strain it after the infusion and charge again, but it would take less time. We'll see what happens.

@Chris: Thanks for the feedback. I didn't realize that an equilibrium injection brine was a possibility. Interesting to hear that a combination of injection equilibrium brining and immersion brining is a possibility. I knew that injection brining could yield uneven results but hoped that doing frequent injections would solve that problem. Scott Heimendinger's video about injection brining suggested trying to inject meat so that no point on the protein was more than an inch or so from an injection site. That seems like a lot of injection points, but still it would be faster than brining a whole chicken carcass via immersion.

darrenernest

After brin8ng try air drying in the fridge for a few days then roast. No issues with soggy skin. Amazing crispy skin and moist tender meat.