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1st off Anita lo is easily one of the best chefs in America if not the world, so to slag her for her opinions is ..kinda weak. cause she would not return the favor.
2nd, I am somewhat of an expert on this subject. I have owned steakhouses for 5 years as well as a high end beef co. I am amazed that nobody has mentioned the following including Mr. This in his last book( great read) when you cook a...+READ
1st off Anita lo is easily one of the best chefs in America if not the world, so to slag her for her opinions is ..kinda weak. cause she would not return the favor.
2nd, I am somewhat of an expert on this subject. I have owned steakhouses for 5 years as well as a high end beef co. I am amazed that nobody has mentioned the following including Mr. This in his last book( great read) when you cook a steak out of the grocery store or at your restaurant it has been "wet aged" this is a process that the accountants of the world have made us submit to. At the end of the day water is heavy and there is lots of water in beef.That being said when you cook a steak you are steaming it!!
In my humble opinion the only way to handle steak is to Dry age it for a minimum of 2 weeks, ensuring to rotate the loin everyday. This allows water "blood" to evaporate from the meat leaving natural salts found in blood behind. mmm tasty... I personally salt after as I like to have more control in over the product. I find that the meat will not loose as much moister if its salted after cooking at the beginning of the resting period.
good eating
cc
---COLLAPSE
Sorry to see this here. I have a couple of strip steaks sitting between towels, well salted and peppered and coming to room temperature over a couple hours. I'll pat them to dryness before cooking and will have my usual, excellent result.
I suspect the chef need only pat dry her (pre) salted meat.
I think the main drawback of salting early is having the meat's surface moist and thus not searing/browning as well. I currently have a chicken a la Zuni in my fridge--I salt them for 2-3 days and they come out very juicy. I also cure a lot of meats--guanciale, pancetta, saucisson--so I know about how salt works with meat.
As for beef, when I making a braised dish, I try to salt 1-2 days in...+READ
I think the main drawback of salting early is having the meat's surface moist and thus not searing/browning as well. I currently have a chicken a la Zuni in my fridge--I salt them for 2-3 days and they come out very juicy. I also cure a lot of meats--guanciale, pancetta, saucisson--so I know about how salt works with meat.
As for beef, when I making a braised dish, I try to salt 1-2 days in advance. Again, I'm a Zuni and Keller cookbook fan. I started doing this with French Laundry's Yabba Dabba Doo thick ribeye steak and have been doing it whenever I have time. When I think about it, I used to salt my Puerto Rican Roast Pork Shoulder (Pernil al Horno) for days even before reading Keller and Rodgers.
Anyway, the salt drying meat out is total BS unless you put a lot (2 tbls per pound or so like if you're curing something).-COLLAPSE
What a ridiculous post by the Chowhound folks. I'm pleased to see that other people think similarly - like JeMange. After having some posts deleted recently for apparently pushing some people's "hot topics" buttons, I would take pleasure in deleting this entire video due to it's pointlessness. Good job, CH...
Salting meat an hour before does draw out some moisture in the short term. It is then, however, reabsorbed back into the meat and the salted juices imparts great flavor.
Salting an hour before cooking does draw out moisture - not enough to measure, probably, but enough to make the surface of the meat weepy. Salting a couple of days in advance on the other hand, the Zuni method (I'm a convert), tends to relax the fibers of the meat, making it at least seem juicier. It's all about the context.
Sorry, Anita but this is one of those fallacies that gets tossed around the culinary world without any real science to back it up. Based on what I've heard after spending time with some of the best grill cooks in NYC and Chicago, salting meat even hours ahead has absolutely zero effect on leaching moisture out of the meat.
Nice try though.
If graphics and music references were enough to overcome science, I think this steamy kitchen site would be terrific. Salt does things to meat - that's clear. The question is how long does it take to do it, and does it depend on the type of meat? Dry-curing beef takes weeks. Most people say that dry-curing a thick porterhouse steak takes a minimum of 5 weeks. Sausages, hams, and all manner of...+READ
If graphics and music references were enough to overcome science, I think this steamy kitchen site would be terrific. Salt does things to meat - that's clear. The question is how long does it take to do it, and does it depend on the type of meat? Dry-curing beef takes weeks. Most people say that dry-curing a thick porterhouse steak takes a minimum of 5 weeks. Sausages, hams, and all manner of salt-cured meats takes months. Curing quicker requires nitrites, and then, a different mechanism is in play. Nitrates are kind of in between - they do inhibit some bacterial growth, but mainly, they turn to nitrites over time.
To think that salt tenderizes beef in an hour, as claimed on this site, is nonsense. First, she claims that this makes Choice meat into Prime. Well - the only way to do that is to increase the amount of fat marbling in the meat. You could lard it - take a larding needle and thread strings of fat into the meat. But even that wouldn't create the fine marbling. that Prime beef has. Marinades are acidic and Tenderizers are protein-digesting enzymes. Both work faster than salt, in different ways, but severely affect the texture and flavor. You would certainly not create Prime from Choice. Brining, which is mostly salt, does allow the cells to retain more water - so if you have a dry meat, (chicken, turkey, or today's commercially available pork), brining can help - although while the meat retains moisture better, the meat is somewhat mushier and the juices are salty, unusable for pan gravy or sauces - so there's a trade-off. As far as beef goes, especially steaks of 2-3" thick rib or top loin (strip) of either choice or prime grade, there is simply no need to brine for the sake of moist meat.
Hervé This had this to say:
"The nature of meats is so varied that the more subtle effects of preparation and cooking may make themselves felt only insofar as they suit our desires and answer to our illusions. 'Nature', in the sybilline words of Leonardo da Vinci (anticipating Hamlet), 'is full of infinite reasons that were never in experience.' This does not mean that experimentation must be abandoned. It means that experimentation must be carefully designed so that the fire of truth may be discovered beneath the smoke of subjective and individual opinions."-COLLAPSE
what about this? seems to work when I've tried it, even on cheap steak:
http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/08/28/how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks/
I salt the day ahead. But I mostly cook chicken rather than beef. I haven't run a statistically meaningful study but it seems to help tenderize the meat. I got the idea from Zuni too, rockfish42.
Typo. I always though you SHOULDN'T salt meat until right up to cooking. Here's a related link.
http://www.emilykaiser.com/text/000421.php
I always thought that you should salt meat until right up to cooking. Then I read the French Laundry cook book by Thomas Kellar where he actually says that he salts a steak the day before. I was floored. This was against everything I've learned. My mom has been doing the same for a long time and her steaks taste fine. I don't think it affects it that much unless you treat it like the dried hams...+READ
I always thought that you should salt meat until right up to cooking. Then I read the French Laundry cook book by Thomas Kellar where he actually says that he salts a steak the day before. I was floored. This was against everything I've learned. My mom has been doing the same for a long time and her steaks taste fine. I don't think it affects it that much unless you treat it like the dried hams where it's covered in salt. If you're only seasoning it to taste then there's too little salt to do anything.-COLLAPSE
Caramelization? Meat? You mean Maillard/browning reactions? Big difference in complexity and chemistry between melting sugars and a sequence of reactions that include complex carbs and amino acids. Read McGee's On Food and Cooking, (revised edition) page 778.
OK - the salt issue. Anita needs to read Hervé This's Molecular Gastronomy, Chapter 10, Seasoning Steak. There, in carefully controlled...+READ
Caramelization? Meat? You mean Maillard/browning reactions? Big difference in complexity and chemistry between melting sugars and a sequence of reactions that include complex carbs and amino acids. Read McGee's On Food and Cooking, (revised edition) page 778.
OK - the salt issue. Anita needs to read Hervé This's Molecular Gastronomy, Chapter 10, Seasoning Steak. There, in carefully controlled experiments using x-rays, careful measuring of weights, extruded volume of liquids, etc... you know... the science stuff... he shows that meats like beef extrude very little liquid (chicken otoh does lose as much as 1% of its weight in the first 30 minutes). Salt has no notable effect on beef. Even to the understanding of salting before or after cooking, it turns out that very little of the surface salt is absorbed into the fibers prior to or during cooking. In other words - salting before does very little in terms of both losing water and adding flavor.
Anita needs to read more This and McGee to understand the science of what she preaches.-COLLAPSE
I think comments like "don't salt too early" are so ambiguous that they just tend to confuse rather than clarify suggestions. Is "too early" 5 minutes prior to cooking or 5 seconds? Does it matter how big the chucks of meat are vs. a steak vs. a roast? I personally salt a 6 - 8 oz steak about 10 minutes prior to searing, grilling, or broiling. I think the released meat juices that form on the...+READ
I think comments like "don't salt too early" are so ambiguous that they just tend to confuse rather than clarify suggestions. Is "too early" 5 minutes prior to cooking or 5 seconds? Does it matter how big the chucks of meat are vs. a steak vs. a roast? I personally salt a 6 - 8 oz steak about 10 minutes prior to searing, grilling, or broiling. I think the released meat juices that form on the outside help to get a nice crispy crust. But of course I cook my meat med rare to rare, so there's little chance on it drying out!-COLLAPSE
This isn't always true, pre-salting a piece of meat and giving it time to release liquid, then reabsorb it, is generally tasty. For instance Zuni Cafe's roast chicken recipe, or CI recipe for cheap roast beef.