That was not long after Year One of turkey brining, or what many people refer to as 1999. That year, Alton Brown put forth a brine in his Food Network show “Good Eats,” and newspapers on both coasts suggested a fussy, sugar-salt brine developed at Chez Panisse to their readers for Thanksgiving.

One, seasoned with star anise and fennel seeds, came from the New York Times reporter R.W. Apple, who delivered a recipe for a turkey brined for 72 hours after he ate Thanksgiving dinner with the chef Alice Waters.

The other was in The San Francisco Chronicle, where staff members (including me) roasted nearly 30 turkeys and declared that the best way to prepare a bird was using a slightly shorter version of the Chez Panisse brine, flavored with four juniper berries, five crushed allspice berries and a head of garlic.

“It’s essentially koshering,” said Miriam Morgan, the food editor who oversaw the newspaper’s project. Now retired, she will be brining again this year, as she has ever since that recipe was developed.

“The reason I think it all started was because back then pretty much all we had were mass-produced turkey, which had no flavor, so you were trying to put more flavor and moisture back into the turkey,” she said. “The turkey is delicious, so end of story.”

Other food editors quickly jumped on board. Ruth Reichl, formerly of The New York Times, Gourmet magazine and The Los Angeles Times, can’t remember when she first advocated brining. She is not a fan of turkey, and has worked to forget all the ways she cajoled readers to prepare it; one unfortunate year, she suggested squishing the stuffing under the skin in a vain attempt to keep the breast meat moist.

“You’ll try anything,” Ms. Reichl said. “‘ Put it in the oven and take it out’ is my basic belief on this, but I did feel that once you started brining them, they tasted better.”