How to Season Steak Experiment - When to Salt Your Steaks, INCREDIBLE!

In this video, we'll explore how to season steak experiment using salt and applying at different times - 1 min, 1 hour, and 1 DAY before cooking. The results were surprising!

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[TheXfams]

The color change is from the oxidization and curing of the meat. The extra tenderness is caused by the fact that the meat was allowed to evaporate all the extra liquids. This means that all the time it was cooking it was rendering those fats in the steak. The other two had to evaporate the liquids first before starting to render their fats. Hope this helps.

[bret]

I grew up on a cattle ranch. We initially had all Hereford cattle. If you don’t know the breeds, it’s a red with white face often curled hair on the face medium to large (for cattle breed) animal. They were gentle and often could become pet like animals that put on a lot of good marbling and fat.

In the mid 80’s the media began telling everyone “fat is bad” so the packing houses started asking for Brangus and Angus characteristics. So we began transitioning to the Angus breed with some Brangus. These were not gentile, docile animals. They were incredibly muscular and far more high spirited. We had a lot of cows who would literally do all they could to kill you once we separated them from their calves.... and they would do this with long memories. Anyway, I noticed a massive change in the quality of the meat and fat content from the two breeds. I call it the dark years of meat production. Seemingly over a period of 10 years steaks went from heavily marbled, lots of fat to lean and mean. The Angus netted us more money as a producer but at a cost of needing more feedlot prep to get a good steak. This had two effects on the market. First the average stake house saw a decline in quality while the higher end steak houses saw a large increase in the cost of a properly fatted steer. We found it took 3-4x longer feeding and pampering during the early years of Angus/Brangus breeds to get deep rich marveling and flavor.

That’s been 40+ years. Today the selective breeding and years of careful selection has made for a better Angus / Brangus steak. However, I recently ate some prime Hereford steaks and was reminded that it’s hard to beat the gentle and naturally fat generating Hereford. I’ll say this, Europe farmers never really bought into this “fat is bad” campaign as far as beef production goes. They ignored the media and kept producing what they had perfected long ago.

Most of the cattle ranches, where I grew up, have a mix herd these days. Their cattle, genetically are a mix of Hereford, Angus, Brangus and Lemoisin. It’s interesting, the females are smaller than Hereford and most Angus cows. In general, their hornless. You’ll see a mix of colors with a lot of white faces. Most of the ranchers are using Angus Bulls and occasionally bringing in other breeds to “see what happens”.

Our ranch (sold it in 1992) was in the mountains of NM where the Guadalupe and Sacramento Mountains collide. We found the largest breeds struggled, especially bulls like Lemoisin. Their extreme size and weight made it difficult for them to walk on the loose rocks and stratified outcrops.

So much goes into a great steak even before it hits the grill. Fortunately, packing houses and ranchers have learned a lot from their mistakes.

I tend to buy stakes from two places. Costco and a local butcher. The butchers steaks are more expensive but I love to support their business.

I’ve tried the same experiment. If frozen, I like to thaw the stakes the day before by letting them thaw at room temperature. Then l salt, seal in plastic and then place in the fridge. The next day I’ll pull them out around 1 pm for a 5:30 pm cook time. I’ll season “to order” then either pan fry/sear then throw on the pellet grill until internal temp is 130-135. I’ll then set on table covered for 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

Seems to work. Sorry for all the typos. The more I use auto correct the more stupid I become.

[gtrfreak]

Great results, salting the steak 24 hours before and letting it sit uncovered in the fridge is the exact same way Kenji does it and he's a master

[donaldpruett]

As a young child growing up in Indiana I spent the summers playing around my dad's meat packing house. I'd watch the kill floor operation and clean up. I grew up knowing what fresh beef smelled and tasted like. Today I'm closing the door on 79 (born 1944). The only seasoning I put on my steaks are basically salt and pepper. I have grown fond of McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning. Used sparingly. Basically, it is coarse salt, black pepper, a not-so-noticeable red pepper and garlic. I love the taste of medium rare to rare beef too much to bury it under a heavy layer of stuff. Your salt treatment is worth remembering. I always used my salt & pepper right before they went on the grill. Looks like a change is in order.

[i_have_ur_loot]

Yes! 🙌🏻

I've been salting my steaks a day ahead of time for years! I use a coarse salt and cover them for 24 hours. Remove. Pat dry. Then soak in a mix of worcestershire and soy sauce for another 24 hours. Remove. Pat dry. Get to room temp. Season with cracked peppers. Sear all sides in a pan with butter, garlic and rosemary. Into the over to finish off. Down the hatch! 🤤

I learned this from a chef at a nice country club. Never looked back lol

[michaelkane]

Good stuff! I've been a 1-hour guy for years, get it out and let it get to room temp. Then season and set aside, prep grill and whatever sides you're having, then cook. I also prefer open flame to skillet, but that's another discussion...

Glad I found your channel.

[joshuabates]

Hey, one thing I noticed you should try experiment again:
The 1 day steak had a different process than the other outside of the salting timeline. By stashing in the refrigerator exposed, salted or not, meat will be dried out, concentrating the flavor. It's kind of home done dry aging. I would suggest doing this again, keeping all 3 pieces on the same tray at all times, and only vary salting time. This would even out testing parameters such as temperature and moisture differences since all would be subject to the same movements at all times.

Salt 1 steak 1 day prior
Stash all 3 open shelf in refrigerator.
Pull all 3, salt 1 hour prior on second steak
Let all rest room temp together.
Salt last steak 1 minute prior.

Bonus for you... MORE STEAK!!!!

[stuckhere]

I tried salting my sirloin steak the day before I was going to cook it, and it turned out awesome. BEST steak I have had in a long time. Definitely will do this again. Thanks for the seasoning tip.

[ag]

Very well done, and yes salting the day before is the way to go. As a 40 plus year meat cutter and part time grill cook i say great video. Another thing to consider, we used to let a whole ribeye sit in the walk- in cooler for 1 week. They were so much more tender than ribeyes that were cut the same day. I always sold those ribeyes to myself only because of inspectors, i didn't think they would approve of the practice but the difference was unbelievable. Ty for the video

[duartevaldemar]

Immediately after salting the steak, the salt rests on the surface of the meat, undissolved. All the steak's juices are still inside the muscle fibers.
Within 3 or 4 minutes the salt, through the process of osmosis, will begin to draw out liquid from the beef. This liquid beads up on the surface of the meat. Cooking at this point and you waste valuable heat energy simply evaporating this large amount of pooled liquid and flavor-building browning reactions are inhibited.
Starting at around 10 to 15 minutes, the brine formed by the salt dissolving in the meat's juices will begin to break down the muscle structure of the beef, causing it to become much more absorptive. The brine begins to slowly work its way back into the meat.
By the end of 40 minutes, most of the liquid has been reabsorbed into the meat. A small degree of evaporation has also occurred, causing the meat to be ever so slightly more concentrated in flavor. That is way it is always recommended to salt at least 40 minutes in advance either for standard or reverse searing.

[rmfeder]

So I only started cooking a few months ago at 28. I also am an ex-vegan as of a month ago. I have to say, this was the perfect way to eat red meat for the first time all over again. I did a 20 hour brine (missed for a few hours but we couldn’t wait lol). I seared it in cultured butter rather than avocado oil. It has a high smoke point and adds a bit of tang. No other seasonings. It’s also the first time I’ve made something in my new cast iron pan. Just awesome. If my boyfriend doesn’t propose to me now, I don’t know if anything will work. You’re the best, thank you so much.

[stevetarrant]

I've never managed to own a steak for 24 hours.

[kin]

Well crafted experiment. I’ve researched this subject a fair amount. Preference is of course the rule of thumb, but I agree with Mr. Brisket’s final conclusion. As an addition, when it comes to salting, one should either salt one minute prior to cook or wait at least 45 minutes, in between that time frame is not recommended. The explanation is that salt on meat triggers the moisture inside to rise to the surface, that begins to happen after about a minute of salting. That salted moisture then gets drawn back inside the meat and diffuses through the inside until about 45 minutes after salting. So if you cook in between that time frame you’ll end up cooking off a lot of that seasoned moisture before it has a chance to make its way back inside and you’ll end up with a dryer steak. At the minute mark you’re still good because that moisture is still inside, though you’ll end up with a blander inside with a saltier crust, nothing wrong with that, but my preference is definitely at least an hour to a day. Hope that might help any curious cooks out there.

[vycman]

Great video thanks, really enjoyed the experiment. There's an easy 'steak hack' that we use in competitive steak competitions that your subscribers might find of interest. Get a big cheap box of coarse kosher or pickling salt ( no iodine in either) and pour a cup or so in a glass or ceramic tray lay the steak on top with full contact then pour a cup on top so it's fully covered. Leave it for one hour then thoroughly rinse it off with cold water, dry well with paper towels, lightly coat it with any high-heat oil, and season as usual (but just a little less salt if that's all you are using). Grill as you like and let rest for 15 min under tented foil. This technique has wins a ton of comps and is great at home to super-tenderize your beef in only an hour. Someone here will no doubt know the organic chemistry on this but I forgot the little chem knowledge I had back in the 80s lol

[LnWlfBlck]

When you salt it a leave it over night, it’s called dry brining, and in my opinion is the best way to salt meat.

[Lfiero]

The cool part of this is I went to 13 minutes in, 1½ minute left, and learned to salt at least an hour before and preferably a day before.

[dansmith]

Finally I can prove to my wife that salting and ageing meat makes a huge difference. Thanks n keep up the quality work.

[BOOMER-rsqn]

I always treat my meats with their seasoning, rubs, or marinades the day prior, and refrigerate overnight. It makes a huge difference in flavor and tenderness, especially on wild game.

[joedeertae]

I’ve always salted at least 1hr, pat dry, add seasoning (no more salt), sear on grill for 3-5min per side...perfect rare/mid-rare. Turns out fantastic; flavorful & tender every time.

[MsCmbernal]

Omg, thank you for doing this experiment! I bought some steaks on Thursday and didn’t get around to cooking them that night, I remembered your video and decided to salt them so they would be ready to go. I wound up leaving them salted for 48 hours and they were probably one of the most flavorful and tender steaks I’ve had in a while. This will now be my new method and your channel has move to my top favorites. Thank you for doing what you do!