When to Salt Steak Before Cooking

Question

I have perused the websites looking for how best to cook a good steak. There is a lot of commonality in their methods, albeit times may vary. The one thing I found that differed was some liberally salted the steak before cooking and others thoroughly disapproved of salting until after the cooking was done. Any words of wisdom from the kitchen on salting or not?
Cheers,
JB

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

Hi John - At Milk Street, we are strongly in favor of salting steak before cooking. Food scientist Harold McGee, who wrote the book, On Food and Cooking, recommends this because the small amount of salt used to season meat has a hydrating effect - salt helps the cells hold onto water. There is further debate about how far in advance to season steaks. At Milk Street we almost always season right before cooking. If you've got the time and want to season and rest the meat for more than 40 minutes, you will get a drier surface and slightly more concentrated flavor. But, the flavor here can be pretty subjective. Some people prefer the cleaner flavor of a steak with more surface seasoning (seasoned right before cooking) while others prefer the "aged" flavor of a steak seasoned more than 40 minutes in advance. My opinion? Save yourself the time and season right before cooking. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

When to Salt Steak Before Cooking

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