Do I Salt a Roast Beef



I of the reasons I started my blog was and so that I would have a place to discuss in detail some of the basic techniques and processes of cooking. Ofttimes I am asked questions in class that I can't respond in as much particular as I would similar...but because at that place isn't time. Existence able to refer people to my blog gives me a chance to be a improve teacher.

For most of Nov and Dec I have devoted my blog to seasonal recipes rather than techniques—considering that tends to exist what people are in need of at this time of year. Every bit nosotros motility into the winter months, I volition over again make an endeavor to occasionally postal service tutorial-type posts explaining basic techniques. Observant readers may accept noticed that a few weeks ago I added a folio to my weblog that volition index posts on basic techniques to make them more readily accessible.

Today I want to talk a little bit about a technique that will make whatsoever piece of meat that you gear up meliorate—whether you are roasting, pan-frying or grilling...whether you are working with beef, pork, chicken (and other fowl) or lamb...and whether you are cooking a large roast, a whole bird or a smaller steak, cutlet or chop. Meat is expensive, information technology is of import to be able to make certain the meat you purchase tastes as good as it can.

The technique—pre-salting—is straightforward and easy to sympathize, execute and incorporate into daily food preparation. If yous are a seasoned cook, yous take probably already heard of and are using this technique. But perchance not. Likewise often I assume people know more they practise. I was reminded of this when I was helping a relative ready some beautiful, prime quality rib-heart steaks that they had purchased for Christmas dinner. This was someone who cooks for their family unit—from scratch—regularly, just they were not familiar with pre-salting.

Pre-salting is exactly what it sounds like. It is applying salt to the meat alee of time. For years the standard advice to cooks was not to salt until immediately before the meat went into the pan or oven. Some Chefs and cooking teachers went so far equally to advise non salting until the cooking procedure had already begun, or was over. Salting before the last minute was thought to dry the meat out. If you take ever salted a piece of meat and immune it to sit on the counter for a few moments y'all have noticed beads of liquid beginning to puddle on the surface of the meat...the salt is indeed cartoon the liquid out of the meat.

If cooked at this point the meat will in all likelihood be dry (much of its moisture is on the surface rather than the interior). Furthermore, the meat will not brown well—the moisture on the surface encourages steaming or poaching rather than browning. To obtain meats that are well-browned, the surfaces should always be dry before being put in the pan, in the oven, or on the grill.

If the meat is allowed to continue to sit down for a longer menstruation of time later information technology has been salted, it will brainstorm to reabsorb the (now salty) liquid. The amount of fourth dimension can exist as curt as a few hours....or every bit long as a twenty-four hour period or ii for very large roasts or birds. My relative was very surprised when he pulled his steaks out of the refrigerator, a day after salting them, to notice that the surfaces of the steaks were dry out.

The obvious question of course is—why would you get to the trouble of doing this? Well, I find that meats that have been pre-salted are well-seasoned throughout and consequently much more flavorful. If you apply herbs or pepper and other spices to the meat when you salt information technology, you will as well find that the salt helps these flavors to permeate the meat more fully. Ultimately, flavor lone makes pre-salting a worth-while practice equally far as I'grand concerned.

Judy Rogers in her Zuni Café Cookbook makes the case that pre-salting makes meats juicier and more tender. Because I don't accept the science background to explain why this may or may not be so (I happen to retrieve it probably is), I won't argue these points here. Rather, I would encourage those interested in a more than all-encompassing treatment of pre-salting to get her book. It is a wonderful cookbook—total of good recipes and written by a chef who wants her readers to sympathize what they are doing...not just blindly follow her recipes.

To pre-salt a piece of meat: Remove it from its packaging, rinse and dry out it, if necessary, salt the meat evenly all over, place it in a non-reactive container (glass or stainless steel are both fine), encompass it loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until about an hour or ii before y'all plan to cook information technology. Pulling the meat out of the fridge an hour or and so before it will be cooked allows the meat to come to room temperature and will aid it to cook more evenly. Information technology is not necessary to rinse the meat right before you cook information technology. If at that place is any wet on the surface, simply blot it with a paper towel. Pre-salted meat does not need to be salted once more before it is cooked. Other than that, the meat may be cooked every bit usual.

The amount of salt yous utilize when you pre-salt is really up to your palate. I like to use about 3/four teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat—if role of the weight is os, then perhaps slightly less common salt. For smaller cuts of meat, salting tin be washed several hours ahead (maybe before you go out for piece of work for a steak, chop or cutlet to be cooked that evening). For a large roast or a chicken (or turkey), a day or ii is fine.

My habit and preference is to use kosher salt. Y'all may substitute another salt—preferably a sea salt of some kind rather than iodized tabular array table salt. But since salts vary in saltiness, according to their source and how coarse or fine they are, if you choose to employ something other than kosher salt, y'all volition need to experiment with the corporeality per pound that you lot like to employ.

Yous will notice that in all my discussion of pre-salting, I accept never mentioned fish or beat fish. This is considering I don't pre-common salt fish. Judy Rogers says that she does—normally a few hours in accelerate. I have never had skillful luck with this. I discover that pre-salted fish is a bit chewy—almost tough.

Finally, I don't e'er pre-salt. If I'm thinking ahead, or planning a dinner for a client, I always do because it always improves the flavor. Sometimes though, I'm just trying to get dinner on the tabular array. In which case, I simply follow the time honored do of salting the meat correct earlier I cook it.

I tin can't close this post, which has been largely devoted to the employ of table salt, without adding i last thought about table salt. Delight don't be afraid of it! I firmly believe that the excessive level of sodium in the boilerplate American diet is not due to the table salt that is added to meats and fresh vegetables that are cooked from scratch in a abode kitchen.  If you table salt your dwelling cooked, fresh foods with a sufficient amount of salt to please your palate, you volition savor your home cooked foods more and will be far less probable to consume prepared and processed foods that already have more common salt in them than you can possibly imagine.

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Source: http://www.forloveofthetable.com/2010/12/process-of-pre-salting-meat.html

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