I tried cooking a steak a few days ago. Having watched quite a few videos on YouTube, many of them suggested to salt the steak and leave it uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours or so, on a cooling rack.
Any video I've seen says to salt liberally, and that if you think that you've put enough, you didn't. I salted my steak liberally, and I don't think it was too much, it certainly seemed to be a lot less than what those videos showed. The idea is that with a very long period with the salt, it will draw out moisture, and some of the moisture will be reabsorbed, but with higher salt content, thus seasoning the deeper part of the steak as well.
At the end I managed to get a beautiful crust and an incredibly salty steak. It wasn't disgusting, but it was on the upper limit of what I'm willing to eat.
I am guessing that the main failure is the difference in weight. Most of the videos are cooking one of them huge steaks, 500g slabs of meat, or even more (I'm not counting the weight of the bone in tomahawks, clearly). My steak was about 250g or so.
Is there a formula, or some suggestions, as to what would be a good amount of salt based on the size of the steak, so that the next time it won't be terrible? And how would that formula change based on the length of the dry brining process? I understand that an hour on the counter is very different from 24h in the fridge.
Best Answer
I've seen reference to 1/2 tsp kosher salt per pound. For a steak, I'll do a few hours at most, but more often salt right before cooking. For a roast chicken, I salt and leave uncovered in fridge for up to two days. For the steak, salting far in advance leads to a more "cured" texture that I don't enjoy. For the bird, salting in advance gives me a more enjoyable texture, flavor, and crisp skin.
Perhaps semantics for some...but it is not brining, which, in my book implies a liquid environment...it is simply salting. I do realize that good folks will differ on my interpretation, but all you have to do is look up the definition of "brine."