Hello & equilibrium brinning FAIL

Hello all! New to this forum but I've been dabbling in modernist cooking for about the past two years. My wife and I have really appreciated the results we've received from cooking sous-vide.

I've been equilibrium brining my chicken breasts at 1.25% for two days with good flavor and moist results. However, I purchased a refractometer in order to determine if I really needed that second day of brining or not. I calibrated the refractometer and confirmed it's accuracy through testing. .

After brinning the chicken for 24 hours, the results read 5%. After an additional 24 hours the results still read about 5%. It's my understanding that the water should read 1.25% if the equilibrium brining is complete. Any ideas why I would not be getting a 1.25% reading?

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lfmichaud

First welcome to the forum. To try to understand your problem I have a couple of questions for you. I never used a refractometer for brining but I know how they're supposed to work. What's the reading before putting the chicken in the brine? Is it only salt in your brine? What was the quantity of chicken/water/salt?

tshewman

Similar and additional questions:
1. What was the weight of the breasts?
2. Boneless or bone in?
3. Weight of water added and total chicken breasts and water?
4. Initial reading of the solution water and product?
5. Any other compnents added?

FoodMuppet_85753

Thank you both for taking my question. Sorry for the delay, I was out of town.

Louis-Frederic answers:

1. I didn't take a measurement of the brine solution before putting the chicken in because I add the salt after I have combined the chicken and water into a bowl so there isn't really that opportunity, but I'll try that next time.

2. Yes, I only used salt in the brine this time as to make the results more controlled.

3. Chicken+water= 5824g. Salt= 72.8g

Todd Shewman answers:

1. I only have the combined weight with water: 5824g.

2. Boneless.

3. See #1.

4. No initial reading was measured, but I should do that next time.

5. None.

I'm pretty confident in the accuracy of this refractometer. As a test, I added 5% salt to water, mixed it thoroughly, and the refractormeter displayed 5%.

prince_of_porcelain

Was the chicken pumped before you got it?

Was there sufficient water to dissolve all the salt at the beginning of the process?

Have you tried measuring a 1.25% salt solution with the refractometer?

tshewman

Hi Louis,
As I understand it for the equlibrium brine, it should be water weight plus food weight (minus bone -which is not an issue here) but food weight was not included here and thus I am uncertain how we might expect an equalibrium brine in this case? Also, because of no recording of the initial salinity, I'm uncertain what would elevate it to the degree you mention. Sorry am at a bit of a loss here.

Chris_Young_80640

@FoodMupet — I believe I see you're error, and I'll try to explain. At equilibrium, you should reach 5% because you've added 5% worth of salt to the combined weight of the water and the meat. If you had measured the salinity of the water alone, right when you started brining, you would have seen that your starting salinity was higher because all of the salt was in the water at that point. But after time, the salt is distributed evenly through the water and the meat, and you would expect to read the calculated 5% salinity at that point.

Said another way, if you want a 1.25% salinity at the finish, then you need to multiply 1.25% against the total weight of water and meat. Add all of that salt to the water (which will result in a salinity higher than 1.25% depending on how much water you are using), and then wait. Example:

Weight of chicken 1000g

Weight of water 1000g

Salt to add for 1.25% brine = 1.25% * 2000g = 25 g

Initial salinity of water 25 g into 1000 g of water = 2.5%

Final salinity of water after the salt is evenly divided between the chicken and the water = 1.25%

Brendan_Lee_56950

@chris I think this type of error is something I see, and have to explain a lot to people who are new to using % style recipes. I think if you guys could do a poster (a la the microwave poster) explaining parametric recipes and how to use the bakers percentages that would go a long way in helping people utilize the recipes.

Chris_Young_80640

@Bredan Lee — Good idea. I'll put it on to our list.

tshewman

Thanks Chris! Louis, I apologize, I missed the Chicken+water and had assumed it was water only.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

Hmmm... planting season here and it's been a very long day so I may not be looking at this correctly....but I don't see where he added 5% salt to the combined weight of the chicken and water????

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Couldn't the issue be that refractometer isn't just measuring the level of salt in the brine solution, but also any dissolved chicken bits that are drawn out by the brine? Brine tends to become cloudier over time.

SteveM_20803

I'm with @DiggingDogFarm here. It seems like the 5% is the salinity of the brine and the calculations are correct for a 1.25% equilibrium brining. What doesn't make sense is why the salinity hasn't dropped after 48 hours. I think that is the point FoodMuppet is making.

lfmichaud

@FoodMuppet‌ - Even if you don't have an exact number. In what ballpark was the chicken to water ratio? Does 5% make sense for an initial concentration? (Something around 1.5 kg water and 4 kg chicken) Was the chicken too salty or correctly seasonned?