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Last night was the second time I did this preparation of steaks. Again, every person could not believe how good they were (cheap sirloins at ~$6/lb).

the steak secret: massively salt your steaks 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness.

Notice that I didn’t say, “sprinkle liberally” or even “season generously.” I’m talking about literally coating your meat. It should resemble a salt lick.

Article

The salt drawing the moisture out is the reason I never salted until it was on the dinner plate. I will definately try it out though. The last time I took cooking advice from this forum I learned how to debone a chicken and it was awesome.

Hey Bux-- you ever get into sous-vide?

Turd, no. Once I started looking into the cost/time I lost interest

Cheap sirloin $6 a lb? Just last year sirloin could be had for 1/2 that, food costs are going crazy.
I've been doing steaks this way for years and another thing to point out is to let the steaks sit out and get up to room temperature before grilling and then after grilling give them five minutes to rest.

I also do standing rib roasts this way, coated in kosher or sea salt and cooked on a bed of salt in the roasting pan, comes out really moist this way.

I knew about salting liberally, never knew the rule of thumb. It's good to have a rule of thumb.

Jesus, that article just made me so hungry.

You want to really kick it up a notch?

salt and leave in the fridge for three days. Poor mans aged steak.

You wanna take it up 3 notches? Marinate in ghost chili extract for a couple of days, then coat in crushed red pepper flakes and grill. In-tense.

tzg wrote:I knew about salting liberally, never knew the rule of thumb. It's good to have a rule of thumb.

The rule of thumb has been extensively discussed here.

This is how meat is kashered, which is why kosher salt has its name (table salt is kosher as well).

Can't wait to try this. Question - would doing this to fillet / chateaubriand be stupid / unwise or make them better too?

Gorbachev wrote:Can't wait to try this. Question - would doing this to fillet / chateaubriand be stupid / unwise or make them better too?

You can. Tenderloin isn't a super-flavorful cut to begin with, compared to similarly priced cuts. It gets lots of points for texture and is usually sauced. So if you do this, you're risking compromising the texture by dehydrating it, without as much benefit as you'd get with steaks served without a sauce. I'd test it with an individual filet rather than get into doing a larger section of tenderloin.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:you're risking compromising the texture by dehydrating it

I think you're missing the scientificals of salting.

It's not the water that makes the steak flavorful...Flavor and juiciness comes from the breakdown of protein and fat

Salt does something funny to the protein cells ["relaxes" them]...when cooked, the relaxed, tangled proteins trap liquefied fat and meat juice

BucketHead wrote:

Grandpa's Spells wrote:you're risking compromising the texture by dehydrating it

I think you're missing the scientificals of salting.

It's not the water that makes the steak flavorful...Flavor and juiciness comes from the breakdown of protein and fat

Pulling water out yields a dryer result than leaving it be or adding water via injection or brining. Fattier cuts of beef can handle this. Sirloin is fine since it's not particularly tender to begin with. With filet I'd experiment first.

I do something similar when I grill porkchops. I use a rub that is 8 parts brown sugar 3 parts kosher salt and 2 parts chili powder. Apply liberally and let it soak in for 45 minutes to an hour on 1" chops before grilling.

I usually use Montreal seasoning on my steaks anyway, next time I'll use some extra salt and let them rest for a while.

BucketHead wrote:

Salt does something funny to the protein cells ["relaxes" them]...when cooked, the relaxed, tangled proteins trap liquefied fat and meat juice

In the camping world, this is known as the 'Shape effect.'

Turdacious wrote:

BucketHead wrote:

Salt does something funny to the protein cells ["relaxes" them]...when cooked, the relaxed, tangled proteins trap liquefied fat and meat juice

In the camping world, this is known as the 'Shape effect.'

Did this with a few ribeyes for some family that is visiting from Hawaii and heading back this weekend. I'm actually pretty good on the grill and with the weather we've been having, I've been firing up the Weber pretty often, but this was easily the best meal of the week.

Thanks for the heads up on this Bux.

baffled wrote:.....some family that is visiting from Hawaii...

My sympathies.

One of my favorite cuts is something a local butcher calls "Tenderlean," which is a cut from the Teres Major, also sold as 'mock tenderloin' elsewhere. This cut, if you're not aware of it, is amazing. It's got tons of beef flavor (unlike Fillet) and is almost as tender as a good beef tenderloin/fillet.

I bought two yesterday with the intent to try BB2/75 3 day salt ageing but my gut told me it's a bad idea for this cut and I was correct. I ended-up taking one of them and salting the fuck out of a small, glass baking pan with Kosher salt....about 3 ounces, I'd guess. I covered the meat on all sides with the salt and let it sit on the counter for 90 minutes. Rinsed the steak and patted dry while my cast iron pan was getting nice and hot (I had cooked a half pound of locally smoked bacon and then carmelized onions and some mushrooms in that same pan. These were of course removed and set aside.) With the pan nice and hot and the oven preheated to 425, I gave the steak a light dusting of a spicy 'gourmet' salt and quickly seared it on two sides and then threw it in the oven for 20 minutes. After that, I removed the steak, placed it on a rack and allowed it to rest for another 20 before cutting it paper thin with my Shun carving knife that I got for Christmas.

Now i make this all the time for my family as it's essentially super high quality roast beef for 8 bucks per pound, which is way cheaper than Boar's Head, as one example, and probably a lot healthier. But the heavy salting was a change and an outstanding one at that. The only adjustment I need to make the next time is since the salt wicks so much moisture from the meat, cooking time should be reduced to around 15 minutes in the oven.

This is a great technique for the psuedo-serious home chef and I am going to try it with a rack of spare ribs tomorrow.

EDIT: to clarify, I did this with an intact tenderlean steak, which is about a pound and resembles a trimmed, pork tenderloin in shape. Not individually cut steaks or medallions.

I might try this with the last bit of elk I have...

High Velocity Lie-Nap! wrote:One of my favorite cuts is something a local butcher calls "Tenderlean," which is a cut from the Teres Major, also sold as 'mock tenderloin' elsewhere. This cut, if you're not aware of it, is amazing. It's got tons of beef flavor (unlike Fillet) and is almost as tender as a good beef tenderloin/fillet.

I bought two yesterday with the intent to try BB2/75 3 day salt ageing but my gut told me it's a bad idea for this cut and I was correct. I ended-up taking one of them and salting the fuck out of a small, glass baking pan with Kosher salt....about 3 ounces, I'd guess. I covered the meat on all sides with the salt and let it sit on the counter for 90 minutes. Rinsed the steak and patted dry while my cast iron pan was getting nice and hot (I had cooked a half pound of locally smoked bacon and then carmelized onions and some mushrooms in that same pan. These were of course removed and set aside.) With the pan nice and hot and the oven preheated to 425, I gave the steak a light dusting of a spicy 'gourmet' salt and quickly seared it on two sides and then threw it in the oven for 20 minutes. After that, I removed the steak, placed it on a rack and allowed it to rest for another 20 before cutting it paper thin with my Shun carving knife that I got for Christmas.

Now i make this all the time for my family as it's essentially super high quality roast beef for 8 bucks per pound, which is way cheaper than Boar's Head, as one example, and probably a lot healthier. But the heavy salting was a change and an outstanding one at that. The only adjustment I need to make the next time is since the salt wicks so much moisture from the meat, cooking time should be reduced to around 15 minutes in the oven.

This is a great technique for the psuedo-serious home chef and I am going to try it with a rack of spare ribs tomorrow.

EDIT: to clarify, I did this with an intact tenderlean steak, which is about a pound and resembles a trimmed, pork tenderloin in shape. Not individually cut steaks or medallions.

SHUGOY my friend, that sound delicious.

Gorbachev wrote:

baffled wrote:.....some family that is visiting from Hawaii...

My sympathies.