Rosemary and sage brine for pork, turkey or chicken

This brine goes particularly well with pork, and lean cuts such as tenderloin or a boneless chop really benefit from brining to help keep the flesh moist during cooking. You can play around with flavourings depending on what you are making: the woody, earthy flavour of the herbs would complement venison nicely, for example – try adding some juniper berries and switch the cider vinegar to red wine vinegar to pair with the potent flavour of game. You can play around with flavourings for brines as you please, just ensure you stick to the 10% ratio of salt to water.

This recipe makes 3 litres of brine. As the meat needs to be totally submerged in the solution, make sure this quantity will be enough to cover it before you make the brine, and scale up (or down) as required.