Brine vs marinade is when you treat food with coarse salt or brine, which preserves and seasons your meat. This process enhances tenderness and adds flavors, especially when you decide to use herbs sugar or vinegar in the brine.
You submerge the cut of meat in a brine solution, which is just salt and water solution. Brine works in that it adds more moisture in the meat, and when some are lost while cooking, the meat won’t be dry. All meat loses liquid when cooked, but brined meats start with more giving them an advantage over the heat. It also dissolves some of the meat’s muscle fibers turning some of the solid parts of the meat into liquid.
That explains the softness of the meat once it is cooked. The most common meat to be brined are lean meats like beef and turkey, which tend to dry out real quick, but pork chops, pork loin, and pork tenderloin are also candidates for brining. Pork chops and pork tenderloin are super lean cuts of meat and dry out quickly when cooked. Most people opt to marinade rather than brine, but what that does is add flavor to the surface o the meat but leaves the meat dry. You can brine pork, but make sure that your pork tenderloin is not labeled enhanced if you buy pre-packaged because that means it has already been injected with a brine solution.
