But not just ANY salt will do! Table salt is NOT recommended — you need to use a coarse sea salt or kosher salt. During the dry brining process, coarse salt helps to break down the proteins and muscle fibers in the meat, resulting in maximum tenderness.
You can rub it in or just let it sit for approximately **15 minutes (or up to 45 minutes for thicker cuts). The salt breaks down the muscle fibers and connective tissue to maximize the tenderness and texture of the steak. Being a coarse variety, it also draws out and dissolves some of the juices of the meat.
Put the table salt away; those grains are too tiny to have an impact on your steak goals. In order to perfect your salting technique, we recommend working with kosher or sea salt in order to really have enough materials on your meat to break down the proteins and bring out the flavor of your meat.
DES' TIP: Do not use table (iodized) salt. Because of its fine grain it will dissolve too much into the steak and make it too salty.
Seared Steak with Pan Sauce
The first thing you need is kosher salt. Not super-fine table salt. Not the iodized stuff. We use kosher salt (Diamond Crystal in our test kitchen) for seasoning steaks, because its crystal size allows for prime absorption into the outer layer of the steak.
The difference in salt is more related to how the salt is being used. So for the purpose of quickly salting before cooking or at the table any type of salt will do.
Moral of the story: If you've got the time, salt your meat for at least 40 minutes and up to overnight before cooking. If you haven't got 40 minutes, it's better to season immediately before cooking. Cooking the steak anywhere between three and 40 minutes after salting is the worst way to do it.
Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Wet aging is done by vacuum packing the meat and letting it age in its own juices. Wet aging is done by more than 90% of fine steakhouses.
You'll want to pat them dry with a paper towel again to wipe away juices and moisture from the salt. The steaks may look a little dry, but that's just the surface of the steaks. The dry surface will form a crispy brown crust after grilling. You can then season the steaks with some black pepper right before grilling.
Iodized Salt
It's also highly processed and has a weaker salinity and flavor, so it definitely isn't the best option to cook with. If you're at a restaurant and need to add a bit of table salt to your food, it definitely won't hurt, but in general, it's best to stick with something else in the kitchen.
Kosher salt is our top choice for seasoning meat because the large grains distribute more easily than fine table salt and cling better to the meat's surfaces.
Rinse the meat using hot water, "give it a really quick re-grill or sear, let it rest, and then serve," Southern says. But if your rinsing rescue mission fails, you can still save the meat by slicing and tossing it into a hardy salad, suggests Massachusetts chef Jim Booth.
To properly tenderize a steak, lay the steak out on a plate and cover each side with approximately 1 teaspoon of coarse kosher salt or sea salt before cooking. Use your fingers to gently work the salt granules into the surface, breaking down the fibers of the meat.
Adding salt to the exterior of a piece of steak draws out the moisture in the steak. The salt then dissolves in this moisture, creating a brine that is then re-absorbed back into the steak. In this process, the lean muscle proteins in the meat are broken down, made juicier and more tender. All thanks to salt!
In Chinese cooking, proteins like beef, pork or chicken are velveted first before stir-frying them. There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. This is what tenderizes the meat, especially cheaper, tougher cuts.
Adding butter to steak adds extra richness and can also soften the charred exterior, making a steak more tender.
To better understand this, let's look at the three main methods of tenderizing meat: mechanical, thermal, and enzymatic.
Briefly soaking meat in a solution of baking soda and water raises the pH on the meat's surface, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it's cooked.
After the steak is dry, brush with a bit of olive oil and pat down with a generous sprinkling of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Seasoning your beef or lamb with salt or a salty spice rub helps to draw out the protein-rich juice that dries on the surface during cooking, creating a crisp, deeply seasoned crust. However, salting too soon or with too heavy a hand can easily ruin a dish.
Salting meat and leaving it overnight in the refrigerator allows time for the salt to travel deep into the meat, thoroughly seasoning it and changing the protein structure so that it can hold on to more juices during cooking.