What Does brine Mean
The first meaning of the term brine mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) refers to water that has dissolved salt . By extension, the liquid released by certain salty things and the preparation that is made with water, salt and other ingredients to preserve food is also known as brine .
If we focus on the level of chemistry , we can say that the brine is H2O that has a high concentration of NaCl that is dissolved. If this concentration is very high, as it happens in certain lakes, it does not allow life in the water.
Thanks to its properties, brine has multiple uses. It can be used for cleaning tasks as the salt helps to purify the materials. Because it has a very low freezing point, brine is also used as a secondary refrigerant in some systems . The brine, on the other hand, helps to melt the snow that covers the roads, facilitating the movement of vehicles.
The most common use of brine, however, is in the field of food . Brine can cure and preserve food and is even used to make certain products .
It is important to know that, within the gastronomic field, it is increasingly used as a method to find other nuances of flavor to dishes and recipes than as a method of preservation.
In the same way, in this field, we must establish that there are fundamentally two different types of brine:
-Wet brine . Through it, what is done is to introduce a food in question in salt but that is dissolved in water. It can be done both by immersion and by injection, directly applying the specific solution to the product. In addition to all the above we cannot ignore that this procedure is used, above all, to carry out the brine of the olives, to dress them.
-Dry brine. It basically consists of introducing a specific product in salt, to "immerse" it, with the clear objective that part of the water it carries can be extracted. By means of this technique, which is carried out with sea salt and which requires that the food be perfectly covered on all its sides, for example, the preparation of the smoking of any fish is undertaken. Sometimes, in addition to the aforementioned salt, other spices are also used.
The list of products and recipes that are presented having been prepared with the brine method is very extensive, since it is used in many corners of the world. Specifically, among the best-known and most flavourful proposals are the anchovies in brine or the baked brine knuckle.
Pickling is the name given to food that remains submerged in brine. This modifies its flavor and allows the shelf life to be increased. This brine typically includes more than water and salt, featuring vinegar, pepper, garlic, and other ingredients.
In some regions , for example, a brine made from water, salt, crushed garlic cloves and bay leaves is used to marinate the beef while it roasts.