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Equilibrium Brining

tangma27

How do you know when an equilibrium is done? For like..chicken breasts and drumsticks and thighs etc, if I brine them I usually do for a day. I know its probably done before that, but I'm wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to tell/measure if they are at equilibrium

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Chris_Young_80640

If you have a salinity meter (similar to a pH meter) you can use that to measure the decline of the initial salt concentration and watch for when it reaches the expected equilibrium level.

tangma27

Thanks Chris! That makes sense.

matthewmicahhall

This is a fun question. First off, Chris is absolutely correct about a salinity meter (he is presumably referring to an electrode that responds to the ionic conductivity of the brine). Let's assume for a moment that you do not have access to such an electrode -- what could you do instead? Here are a few other possibilities:

1. Do you have an actual pH meter? There are potentiometric methods based on titration that can estimate your brine concentration.

2. Do you have a refractometer? The refractive index of the solution is related to the salinity of the brine. You might be able to track concentration in this way, although it will depend on the ratio of protein to brine and how much change in salinity is actually produced within the brine (i.e., does diffusion of salt within a given volume of protein produce a detectable change).

3. Do you have a reasonably sensitive scale/balance? If yes, you could in theory sample the brine at different time intervals and then dry it out an oven to remove all of the water. A majority of the dry residue should be salt -- you could establish an approximate equilibrium time based on the time it takes to achieve a constant mass of dry residue.

4. There are mathematical models available in the literature for brining kinetics of various proteins as a function of salt concentration, temperature, etc.. It would be really interesting if ChefSteps collate these models in some coherent way for the home cook, but I understand that this is not a trivial request.

tangma27

1. I do have a PH meter! It's finicky tho. I'm also not sure how to go about estimating salinity off of ph either. Though I'm sure I could just google it.

2. No refractometer, but an interesting thought for sure.

3. That would have been the way I would have gone LOL.

4. That sounds like a ton of fun to see and probably work on! But I think in terms of practicality, it's easier to just measure it. But you obviously know that hahahaa idk why i brought that up.

Thanks for all of the tips!!!

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

@Chris_Young_80640 , @Michael_Tang_112985 All the answers below are great but, require special equipment. The short cut to see if it has reached a balanced state (equilibrium) is pictured below...in

this example a chicken breast....

artstype

Rob, you're killing me!!!!!

tangma27

HAHA