Chef Jacob, I wanted to respond to your comments but thought they would be better discussed in its own thread. CJ "It sounds like you have the same approach as me. Dry salting and wet brining are both important techniques, and I agree, I think when roasting a whole chicken, dry "brining" in most cases is better than wet brining.
I'm also with you on the gradient brine. I've played with equilibrium, and it simply takes too long. The only context in which I could see myself using an equilibrium brine would be in a mass production facility that had more resources in space and time than vigilant cooks.
For my basic 5% brine, I'll use 3% sugar. I find this is a good baseline of sugar to balance the salt and provide some overall flavor to the end product, without making it noticeably sweet. You can also add 0.5% baking soda, which will give the protein an added amount of tenderness, and more robust, aromatic flavors when browned.
I don't recommend an alkaline brine (baking soda) with sea food, as it's already tender and it will soften the texture. Alkaline brines work especially well for chicken, pork, and tough cuts of beef that you plan on roasting."
So in full disclosure I wanted to offer my go to brine. I start with a 5% salt solution and add, (1000g h2o + 50g salt), add 10 grams of sugar, 2 grams of baking soda, 1 gram of sodium erythrobate (SE) (brine facilitator). If I doing seafood, sometimes ill add 0.01g phosphate blend (AMES). As noted, if brining fish I leave out the baking soda. Curious what your experience with SE as a facilitator, stabilizer and antioxidant?