The Perfect Steak
As a meat lover, I can’t help but crave the best cuts of steak available. Kobe, Wagyu, filet mignon, prime rib… so many delicious options that all cost so much money…
Unfortunately, all I can afford is some skirt steak or some chuck. Though they’re delicious, they aren’t nearly as tender or as flavorful as the expensive cuts.
That is unless you know one easy trick that turns any cut of steak into steakhouse quality meat.
What is that trick, you ask? It’s much easier than you’d think, and you definitely have what you’ll need to make the steak perfect.
So, what do you need? Easy! Salt.
This Is How It Works
It may sound simple, but you can use salt for more than just seasoning the beef. In fact, if used correctly, you can use this salt to tenderize your meat and make it feel like a higher quality cut.
But how does it work?
More expensive cuts of meat have less tendon and muscle fibers than the cheap cuts, and therefore are more tender when cooked. Salt has a chemical reaction with cheaper meat, breaking down these fibers.
As salt sits on the meat, it dissolves into the muscle fibers and breaks them down, making the meat feel as if there are less tendons and muscle fibers.
Further, these pockets of tendon and muscle actually capture the fat and juices as the meat cooks, keeping the beef moist. So how do you do it?
How It’s Done
Begin by arranging your steaks and covering them with a very generous amount of salt, particularly kosher salt, sea salt, or coarse salt. Smaller grains will not tenderize, they will just make the steak salty.
Keep in mind that you’ll be removing the majority of the salt before you cook the meat, so you can really cover it in the stuff. After salting, let it sit at room temperature for at least one hour.
If it’s a particularly large piece of beef, salt it, then put it in the fridge for an hour before letting it sit at room temperature for an additional hour. Then, rinse your steak and remove all visible salt.
After this, the steak should look a bit darker and feel completely different. Pat this steak dry so the steak can develop a beautiful crust. Season your steak however you’d like, sans salt.
Now cook your steak however you’d like and you’re done! Who knew salt could do so much?