In A Pickle

Barbecue neophytes and brining are a little like teenagers and sex: the minute they learn how to do it, nothing else seems to matter. Brining may seem like a relatively modern technique, but it’s centuries, if not millennia, old. In fact, that’s the origin of the English word pickle—pockel was the Old English word for brine. Brining has the dual advantages of keeping intrinsically dry foods, like pork chops and chicken breasts, moist on the grill, and it also adds an extra layer of flavor. In this show you’ll learn all about brining and marinating, including a wine-brined butterflied leg of lamb, bourbon-brined pork chops, and a “brine” you actually inject into a turkey with a hypodermic needle.