My sous chef told me to stop pre-salting steaks before service

Been doing it for 10 years. Thought it helped with crust. He said I was drawing out moisture and making them tough. We did a side by side test with 12 ribeyes last Tuesday. His method was better. Salt right before the grill. Now I feel stupid. Anyone else hold onto a habit for years that was actually hurting your food?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_coleman2814d ago

The real trick nobody talks about is the cut of the meat and what you did with it before it hit the salt. I've found that dry aged steaks or ones that have been sitting uncovered in the fridge overnight already have less surface moisture. So salting early actually dries them out too much and you lose that nice interior texture. But a fresh, wet packed steak from the grocery store benefits from a light dry brine for an hour or two to get that crust going. It's not one rule fits all. You might have had a bad habit because of the specific beef you were buying all those years.

mila39514d ago

Is this like how people think one cooking rule applies to everything when really it depends on what you started with? I feel like that happens with a lot of stuff, like how my mom swears by one cleaning product no matter what the mess is.