Why does this lemon-herb brine smell like feet to me?

July 3, 2021 7:37 PM

I made the lemon-herb brine from this Thomas Keller’s fried chicken recipe. But it smells likes feet, and I don’t know why.

I made the brine tonight in advance of putting the chicken in tomorrow morning to fry tomorrow evening. All the equipment I used was clean, all the produce was clean and fresh, nothing burned while bringing the brine up to a boil, but as the brine was cooling, it seems to smell like lemon, garlic, and bitter feet. I don’t particularly like the smell of thyme. Did bringing this concoction to a boil with the thyme in it unleash a super unpleasantness in the thyme that just doesn’t sit well with me? Would you take a chance and brine the chicken in it tomorrow? I don’t have time to remake a brine in the morning.

posted by msladygrey to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

That's a strange recipe for brine. I'm not surprised by your results.

Normally, the whole point of using fresh herbs is to add them at the very end so that their fresh aromatics don't get cooked off. Cooking fresh herbs just boils off the delicate aromatic compounds and gives you a dull - often bitter - vegetal flavor and aroma. Just looking at the recipe, I'd expect it to have quite a bit of a cooked spinach/over-cooked asparagus flavor. Is that the "feet" you are talking about?

When I need to add fresh herbal flavor to something that's being cooked/boiled, I'll use the highest quality dried version I can find. It infuses better in hot liquids and comes out tasting more like fresh herbs than actual fresh herbs do.

Also the "bring to a boil" step is a big red flag. Without knowing what someone's setup is, this could mean "cook for 15 minutes, then steep for 30 minutes" or "cook for 45 minutes, then steep for 20 minutes". The amount and character of flavor extracted from the herbs and spices and imparted to the brine will vary considerably.

A better recipe would ask you to put the brine ingredients into an appropriate vessel, pour a volume of boiling water over them, steep for a specific amount of time, then cool rapidly. This would provide consistent results.

If you really hate the taste/smell of the brine, I suggest tossing it and using a gallon of water with 1 cup of kosher salt and 1 cup of rice/red/white wine vinegar. Looking at the rest of the recipe, I don't think that you'll really be missing anything in the final product. You just want some salt and acid in there - especially in the breast and thighs.

Good luck!
posted by Anoplura at 9:38 PM on July 3, 2021

It seems a pretty typical brine to me. I don't usually bring the entire brine water to a boil, just a portion. So, for a half gallon brine I bring 4 cups of water to a boil then add 1/2 cup salt and 1/4 cup of sugar, fresh parsley, fresh thyme, fresh sage, crushed garlic cloves, dried bay leaf, black peppercorn, stir and let steep until cool. Then I add remaining water and meat.
posted by shoesietart at 10:16 PM on July 3, 2021

I agree with Anoplura about the better robustness of dried herbs for this sort of thing, but think you're also right that it's specifically the thyme that's the prime culprit. I read the recipe from the front page before reading below the fold, and picked out thyme as the likely main problematic ingredient independent of you. There is a human muskiness to thyme, which gains something of a silage sweetness if it is bruised, boiled or frozen (I suspect that extensive rupturing of the cell walls is the prime trigger). It also has some sharply smokey scents. Given these things, it can easily evoke bodily odors, particularly in a complex mixture with other scents (I suspect the sulphur compounds in the garlic are contributing to your perception too).

I think you're likely to experience some feetiness even it you use dried thyme as a substitute, although probably not as much. In is often a problem when you've picked out a "wrong" scent in something. Smelling an odor in a particular jumble of different scent notes is like hearing a melody: it's much easier the second time, and sometimes it sticks in your head. The particular pattern of chemical triggers is present (among many others) and, once you're aware of that, it starts jumping out, particularly when its a smell with negative connotations.
posted by howfar at 5:45 AM on July 4, 2021

Thanks everyone! I think Anoplura has it. It was a dull, bitter, vegetal scent. This morning, I pulled the overcooked bunch of parsley out of the brine before putting the chicken in. After brining for 10 hours and rinsing the chicken, it turned out okay. Had a very strong lemon and herbaceous flavor, not awful but not quite what I wanted for fried chicken. Since I have lots left over, I’m going to pick off the breading, pull the chicken, and make a King Ranch Chicken casserole with the rest.
posted by msladygrey at 4:46 PM on July 4, 2021