Give Your Meat Brines A Zing With These Tart Citrus Peels

If you're tired of playing the guessing game as to whether your roasted meat will turn out dry or tender, it's about time to try a meat brine — a salty solution that's proven to boost moisture and flavor. But whether you choose a dry brine with salt and spices or a wet brine, there's one ingredient that can keep things moist and add a tart zing: grapefruit peels. The tart and slightly bitter citrus peels not only add brightness and flavor to a variety of meat recipes, from turkey to roast beef, but their acidity also helps in further tenderizing the meat.

To give your meat brines a sure-fire zing, simply grate the citrus peels and combine with salt, sugar, and aromatics in a dry brine before applying it to a turkey or cut of beef. If you're making a wet brine for a super juicy whole chicken, toss in the peels from a couple of grapefruits into a mixture of water, salt, sugar, and spices like cloves, nutmeg, and peppercorns before simmering it to infuse the citrus and dissolve the sugar before cooling it. Then brine the meat for about 12 to 24 hours, remove it from the liquid, pat it dry, and get roasting.

An important note: Too much time in a wet brine will make the meat too salty. About an hour of brine time per pound of meat should be plenty to infuse the citrusy flavor and moisture.

Using grapefruit peels to add flavor and tenderness to your meat is a great way to give your pulled pork a unique flavor and to make use of leftover rinds from breakfast, which otherwise would probably be tossed in the bin. You can even freeze citrus peels to extend their shelf life and use them at a later time. While grapefruit peels can be substituted or used in conjunction with other citrus, like lemons, oranges, and limes, grapefruit's tart, slightly bitter flavor pairs especially well to provide balance to hearty meats like roasts, steaks, duck, and brisket. 

And of course, if you have the whole fruit on hand, you can cut it into wedges and add it to your brine before simmering the mixture. Compared to infusing the brine with the essence of the peels, this method will result in a more "juicy," sweet brine, like you'd get if you subbed some of the water in your wet brine for apple cider. Once you see the utility of grapefruit peels to tenderize and add tang to your meat, you won't want to throw them away. So go ahead, add them to your brine, and get curious about other creative uses for grapefruit peels, like candying them, infusing them into teas, making citrus curd, or adding tartness to baked goods.