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SubscribeTuesday, August 28, 2007
Steak Recipe: Turning Cheap “Choice” Steak into Gucci “Prime” Steak
How to Make the Most Tender, Flavorful Steak Recipe
If you are a steak-lover, I hope that the title of this post + luscious photo is enticing enough for you to read though the entire article. Because I promise you that it’s worth it. Even if you don’t eat steak, this is a must-read…as you can impress the hell outta your carnivorean friends (and sometimes, when you’re a vegetarian in a herd of carnivores…it would just be nice to have that extra, “dude….you didn’t know that about steak???!” in your pocket.)
My entire family (including the 2 yr old kid) just adores any type of steak recipe…you could probably classify us as professional steak-eaters. In fact, it is my husband’s life-long quest to hone his grilling technique so that our steaks at home turn out charred crusty on the outside and perfectly medium-rare on the inside. With grill marks for show, of course. Seriously, we are too cheap to eat out and would rather cook a nice steak recipe at home. For the past 4 months, we have been experimenting with how to get full, juicy, beefy flavor of a ribeye with butter-knife tenderness of a filet mignon without feel like getting ripped off buying Prime cuts. And after 4 months of eating steak 2x a week, I think we’ve figured it out. So, my friends, I am offering you a very juicy secret, one that will turn an ordinary “Choice” cut of steak into a gucci “Prime” cut (And yes, I know what “Choice” and “Prime” means – it’s the marbling. The salting doesn’t affect fat content – I’m using those terms as a figure of speech and something people can relate to)
Do you know the joy of buying Choice and eating Prime? It’s like buying a Hyundai and getting a free mail-in rebate for a BMW upgrade!!!
The Steak Secret: massively salt your steaks 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness.
Notice that I didn’t say, “sprinkle liberally” or even “season generously.” I’m talking about literally coating your meat. It should resemble a salt lick.
Here’s two nice pieces of regular ‘ol supermarket steak. They’re about 1.25 inches thick, so I’ll let them salt for about 1.25 hours.
Season liberally with kosher salt on both sides:
And then just let it sit on your counter.
After 15 minutes, it will look like this — you can see how the meat’s water is starting to come up to the surface — and that some of the salt is still on the surface of the steak.
After 30 minutes, you’ll see more water:
After almost an hour:
And now 1.25 hours – see all that water? You can also see that there’s still salt on the surface of the steak.
The next step is to discard the water, rinse the steak really well to rid of all the salt. Pat very dry. Very very dry with clean paper towels so that absolutely no moisture is left on the steak.
Then it’s time to cook.
Before y’all throw a hissy fit, just hear me out. I first learned of this technique from Judy Rodgers’ The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant
Oh, and if the drawings look like a 3rd grader did it, too bad….YOU try drawing with a laptop touch-pad and a glass of bourbon on the rocks.
How Salting Works
All of you who season JUST before grilling – this is what you are really doing to the meat. Did you know that? All the water comes to the surface and if you don’t pat super-dry, you’re basically STEAMING the meat. Plus, your salt just sits on the surface of the steak, leaving the interior tasteless.
Now – note that only a little of the salt gets to go back into the meat. Don’t worry – you aren’t going to be eating all that salt!
Bourbon does that to me too.
I can hear it now..BUT!!! What of all the water that stayed on the surface of the meat? Aren’t you drawing all the moisture out of the meat? Will it taste like a salt lick? (*%!*%!@#!#!!! I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS STEAK RECIPE!!!
Pull your pants back on and keep reading…
Verification on Technique
Cook’s Illustrated January 08 issue (and you can also find it on their paid portion of their website. Just search for “Improving Cheap Roast Beef”) They salt a 4lb roast beef (big, fat, thick meat) and they are using 4 tsp kosher salt – therefore their steak recipe recommends salting for 18-24 hrs. It’s all related: thickness of meat : amount of salt : time.
Salting Steak Recipe Key Points
- Use kosher or sea salt, not table salt <– that is important. It will not work well with tiny tiny grains of table salt. Plus, table salt tastes like shit.
- Use steaks 1″ or thicker.
- Follow my timetable (below)
- If you are Harold McGee, a member of Alton Brown’s research team or Mr. Burke my high school chem teacher…..and think I’m full of B.S…. please let me know. But guys, none of this was in your books. I had to formulate, extrapolate, hypotholate and guesstulate based on your stuff. Highly mental activity.
- I know this sounds awfully like salt-curing, which dries out meat (like beef jerky). But with salt curing, you use A LOT more salt and leave it salting for A LOOOOOONG time. We’re talking about a little tiny nap here – not weeks – just enough to break down the proteins and flavor the steak throughout.
- Again, don’t worry about all that salt. Just enough of it gets absorbed into the meat. Most of it gets washed down the drain when you rinse off. Really.
- I know you’re going to ask…so I’ll answer it for you. Why not brine? You could if you really want water-logged diluted-tasting crappy steak.
I understand that this method will cause chaos, confusion and controversy in your household. But I encourage you to experiment: try adding spices, crushed garlic and rosemary sprigs to the salt, which will then act like Christina Aguilera dragging its entourage of flavors with it into the meat. If confusion in the household becomes unbearable, just whack’em with the hunk of salted steak..
Grilled Steak Recipe with Garlic-Herb Butter
Revised 9/13/10 to make salt ratio and timing easier to remember
1. Buy a good sized Choice steak. I like mine 1.25 to 1.5 inches thick. Any cut of steak: Filet, Sirloin, Rib Eye, Porterhouse, T-Bone and NY Strip – they all work. Though, please remember to get steak that you’d normally buy to grill. Don’t go buying some weird cut like the cow armpit and expect it to taste just like a NY Strip. You can do this with steaks less than 1″, just really watch your timing. If your steak is already superbly marbled – cut back on your timing and your salt! The fattier (more marbled) the meat is, the faster the salt works its way through the meat.
2. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of kosher/sea salt PER SIDE. Use the photos at beginning of the post as guide on how much salt. For every inch thickness of steak, let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Less than 1-inch steak: 30-45 minutes
- 1 inch thick steak: 1 hour
- 1.25 inch steak: 1 hour and 15 minutes
If you don’t have that much time — well then, add more salt, cut back the time it sits. It’s all related:
Thickness of meat : Amount of Salt : Time
And vice-versa, if you need to stretch your time, use less salt. Example: the above steaks that are 1.25″ thick – I should salt for 1 hour 25 minutes. But if my timing works out that I’m not grilling for 2 hours – then I’ll cut back on the salt and let it sit for 2 hours.
If you want to salt for more than 2 hours or overnight – sprinkle the steak with 1/2 the amount of salt that I’ve instructed (look at photos for reference), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Rinse all salt off on both sides, pat very dry with paper towels on both sides <- that part is important. Season with fresh ground pepper (no more salt is needed). Grill to your liking. Top with Garlic-Herb Butter immediately to let it oooooze and aaaahhze all over the steak.
Garlic-Herb Butter Recipe
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened (not melted, just softened)
handful of fresh herbs (any combination is fine. My fav is basil and parsley)
1-3 cloves of garlic, smushed in garlic press
To make the Garlic-Herb Butter, combine all ingredients. Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap. Spoon butter mixture on wrap. Roll and shape butter into a log. Refrigerate to firm up for 30 minutes. Slice into 1/4” disks to top the grilled steaks. You can make butter up to 3 days in advance. Make sure you use unsalted butter – the steak is seasoned perfectly already.
Another use for herb butter? 
Notice the consistency in ingredients (first photo and the one below): perfect steak always go so well with homemade shoestring fries or homemade potato chips. The green stuff is just to give color to the plate. Unless it has garlic-herb butter slathered all over it too.
Other steak recipes you might enjoy:
How to dry age steaks at home with Drybag method
Watch me talk about Kobe Beef Burgers on CBS
Artisan Steak Tasting – taste test of 6 steaks from small artisan ranchers
Skirt Steak Tacos Recipe & Parking Adventures of La Tacqueria
No Knead Bread – so easy a caveman 4-yr old can do it
Negative Calorie Chocolate Cake
Garlic Truffle Shoestring Fries
Tropical Island Salmon: cooking fish low ‘n slow creates the most dreamy, silky fish
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SOUNDS GOOD, BRAH.
love the green centipede! will definitely try this technique with the salt and post my results on my site. (sorry, its the only site i have
)
I tried this tonight with a 1.5-inch steak and one hour resting time with salt. The cooked steak was tender and very good, but noticeably too salty. Any tips?
try less salt or shorten salting time ~j
Wow! Great technique for steak. Entertaining recipe to read too…most clever! ha
tekjock that’s the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard. You just put salt on it, of course its going to taste a little salty, you should have tried cooking it, I did two using this method and had various other herbs and spices and they were the best steaks I’ve ever had.
Dude
Try VINEGAR marinade first, vinegar is acetic acid, which breaks down proteins. Allow to marinate for several hours-overnight even, then salt for 1 hour. Rinse and cook, you will NOT taste the vinegar, but will taste the salt. Vingar works on all kinds of meat, ribs are my favorite-marinate overnight for fall-off-the-bone tenderness.
Scott
we made this tonight and it was FANTASTIC!! thanks so very much!
we made it AGAIN TONIGHT! my husband is sooooo happy. thank you!
It is great to see this.
I tried this recipe last night and it was delicious! I would recommend it! I absolutely loved the garlic herb sauce for the corn! Thank you!
SALTY STEAK!!!
OK, I was all excited about trying this.
I followed the directions EXACTLY and the steak tasted like a salt lick. We could hardly eat it.
Never again.
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Tonight I tried this technique for the third time (this time with 1″ top sirloin) and it came out perfect. This is a well written and funny article, but it isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. For my first two attempts I let new york strip steaks sit in the salt for almost an hour. The meat was way too salty even after rinsing thoroughly. Today, I only left the meat in salt for 30 minutes and I rinsed it well. If your grilling something really savory (like a porterhouse) only leave for 15 – 20 minutes tops.
This is way better than those 24 hour marinades. Good luck.
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1 TEASPOON of salt for a 1 1/2 inch thick steak???!!! I don’t think so – look at your own picture. I hardly think the amount of salt on that thing is a teaspoon!!! I’d suggest at least a quarter to half a cup per side!!!
I used 2 teaspoons. It was a porterhouse. Did you read the instructions??? Bigger the steak, more salt. My porterhouse was huge. ~jaden
Worked like a charm. We tried 1/2 our 4 steaks with and 1/2 w/o. Wife was nervous. Made very good steak better. We used 1″ Black Angus ribeye. My wife said hers was good but mine done with salt was better. I used 1 tablespoon per side for appx. 35 min. Finished mine off with a small squeeze of parkay and sprinkle of mixed seasoning (pepper, dried onion, dried garlic). Thanks for the tip, I’m telling all my steak lover friends!
we made it AGAIN TONIGHT! my husband is sooooo happy. thank you!
This technique is AWESOME. My steak was phenomenal, and the time it took to tenderize the meat, I could prep and cook sides. A+++++++
Curious how this technique help a cheaper cut of steak like flank?
It will do the same – add flavor throughout the meat and tenderize. Esp for flank. But you have to still make sure you cut across the grain for flank or skirt steak. I use this technique all the time for flank. ~jaden
I ordered some certified angus steaks from texasfoods.net they were 10oz new york strips.. i tried one set the regular way i cook them. then i tried 2 more the next night using this recipe it definitely made them more tender. kudos on the tip..
Interesting article. However, Im always leery of anything that uses a salt crust on it, whether you remove it before cooking or afterwards.
The comments are basically split on the taste: some say it was wonderful, some say the steak was salty. I assume the salty contingent is like me: we never put any kind of salt on a steak (I always need to specify no seasonings at steak houses, or its inedible; even then, sometimes its salty, so I suspect they use your method to tenderize the meat).
When supermarkets first started injecting broth into their meat, I had a very unpleasant surprise with the very first steak I cooked: it was salty! And I knew I had not used salt on it, since I never do. Unfortunately, Id purchased several packages of meat, and there was no returning them. The upshot was that I had some very expensive stew until I finished all the meat Id bought (with lots of potatoes to leech out the salt, which were also wasted, since I had to throw them out — yep, dont salt potatoes either).
All food has sodium in it to varying degrees, and most has more than enough for taste, so theres no need to add salt when cooking it.
I tried this recipe and it was not salty. In fact, I wished I would have added salt as a seasoning after I washed the initial salt off. I must say, the steaks were more tender than the ones I usually make. Now, I don’t know if it was from the salt tenderizing it or if it was the more expensive cut of meat that I usually buy. Nevertheless, adding the other spices and herbs made it more flavorful throughout the meat. I will try it again with a less expensive cut for comparison.
wat if u bake the steak will this still work?
SteamyKitchen replied: — July 31st, 2009 @ 5:17 pm
I have never baked a steak.
OMG it really works! I bought an incredibley cheap slab of rump steak and coated it in heaps more salt than instructions said (huge grains too) as I couldn’t really remember what I had read. All along I was trying to convince my husband that this was going to be ok, although I wasn’t really believing it myself. We barbequed the said piece and honestly couldn’t believe what we were eating – the best piece of rump we have had for years! Do try it – freaky method but brilliant!
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I’m just finishing up my first dry aging experiment on a prime rib. 32 days dry aged. Would you recommend trying this salt process on dry aged steaks?
I know dry aging tenderizes the meat REALLY well…but is “really tender” ever tender enough? The quest for even more tender makes me want to try this process.
thoughts?
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 5th, 2009 @ 11:40 am
Yes, I use salting on dry aged meat.
Dry aging tenderizes but more importantly creates more complex flavors for the steak.
Superb.
Take a glass of cognag (a SMALL glass, mind you), pour it over, ignite.
Brilliant!
Oh mAAaaaAan!
(
The steaks mentioned in the drawings on the article (t-bone, porterhouse and NY Strip) are already incredibly tender steaks and I’d never salt one of those cuts down before grilling them.
My problem is that my idiotic husband brought home 2 cows worth of London Broil that was on sale at our local grocery market.
London Broil. Now THAT is a steak that needs some major marination or… geez, I don’t know what… But I was so excited to find this article, only to read on that the steaks being salted are awesome cuts.
Anyone have any help for someone with a freezer full of (gag) London Broil? It seriously is a horrible cut of meat in my opinion.
Thanks so much!
)
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 19th, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Do it with London Broil!! Actually salt any type of cut.
2 cows worth! Wow, that’s a ton of London Broil!!!
Well, I’m going to try this tomorrow. I’ve never made steak period, but I’ve never failed a recipe yet, so I’m hoping I can get this right. We have steak in the freezer we need to use soon, and this sounds pretty good! I’ll have to let you know how I do
Using this method, my son said for the first time, “These are the best steaks we’ve ever had”. Since then, I’ve never made them because I forgot the recipe and link. Thanks to google, I found the post again. Great explanation and it really works. I have kosher sea salt in abundant supply.
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:07 pm
Hey thanks for finding me again!
I do not see anything about using tenderizer tools. So I guess a one inch thick london broil will not need it, just salt for 30 minutes and “vol”, sirloin tenderness….
A little skepticism here, but will try tonight. Thanks for the tips.
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 24th, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
I don’t use tenderizing tools because it rips apart the meat. Love the salt technique because it’s gentle.
OK. It’s me again. My challenge on the fresh London broil was a success story. Good flavor, tender, but not as tender as a fresh sirloin.
I had to admit my skepticism did not allow me to go with only the Kosher salt. I used a small spike tenderizer on my London broils, then used around one and a half teaspoons on each side and let is “soak” for 25 minutes. Washed and dried the steaks then grilled them on medium-high heat to kind-of-sear each side, 6 minutes each side for medium taste (pinkish in the middle).
Next time will try with a Porterhouse to confirm.
Best regards and thanks for the tips!
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 25th, 2009 @ 8:22 am
lol – trust me, it works!!!
we made it AGAIN TONIGHT! my husband is sooooo happy works!!!
I tried this tonight and the steak was very tender, I rarely eat steak, I mean rarely like once every three years. I saw this article and decided to try it. It was very tender ,
I also seasoned it with Sazon Completa by Badia and garlic. GREAT STEAK!!!
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Using this method, my son said for the first time, “These are the best steaks we’ve ever had”. Since then, I’ve never made them because I forgot the recipe and link. Thanks to google, I found the post again. Great explanation and it really works. I have kosher sea salt in abundant supply.thenx you
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 28th, 2009 @ 7:43 am
Thank you! I’m glad Google came through for you!
WTF – in this day and age of health awareness you are advocating the use (or more aptly abuse of salt?) whats up this whis whole thread? Surely there must be a better tenderizing agent for meat such as for example Papain?
Can someone please bring some rationality into this freakin’ blog?
SteamyKitchen replied: — August 29th, 2009 @ 8:19 am
yeah. don’t eat steak.
kc replied: — August 29th, 2009 @ 5:46 pm
I agree…then don’t eat it! But unless you’re eating steak every day of the week, a little salt won’t hurt. (Besides, did we miss the part where you wash away the salt before grilling?) Reminds me of Thanksgiving, when some people feel the need to cook healthy for that one day instead of the other 364 and use all kinds of weird substitutes that never work. Use butter! Use real cream! Salt galore! Throw calorie-counting out the door, just for the day, and make it special.
love2bbitten replied: — August 31st, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
OMG chill out dude! Its not like you’re eating a cup of salt here! A couple teaspoons on a huge steak isn’t insane. Also, like kc said, you’re rinsing the dang thing anyway!
I bet you watch tv shows that you hate instead of just changing the channel! LOL…
Jaden, I’m going to try this tonight on london broil… so excited!
Awesome post! Probably one of the best post/ article/ writing about steak and how to marinade it properly for grilling and such!
Thank you!
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I tried this once with a cheapo piece of meat for like 15 min. and it worked great! The second time I used filet and it was so salty I could barely eat it. What do you think went wrong? Thanks!
OK- let me get this straight : You’re writing style is like a cool dude from Askmen.com, you totally turned my steak world upside down, and you’re HOT?? What sin have I committed, that I will never know a woman like you?
Anywho, I can’t wait to try this! Unfortunately, I found this site after the fact : I already slathered my cheap steak in marinade, and was looking for tips on cooking it (heard something about high heat- then low). But my next 16 oz. , $4.00 steak awaits this technique. Thanks!
Lol…just had to say your website cheered me up……after hours of trying to find authentic northern English meat and potato pie recipes for my English boyfriend….I decided to just make some cheap steak (Just craving comfort food right now). Loved the illustrations and more so loved the bourbon induced commentary! Thanks!
Love,
On a beer induced, football Sunday,
Jody
have you ever tried using red wine vinegar on a steak? it also tenderizes the meat. we like to put salt, pepper, olive oil and just a sprinkling of red wine vinegar on both sides of a steak and then let it sit in the fridge in a bag for at least 4 hours.
Yes, I use red wine vinegar in my skirt steak marinade along with soy, garlic, salt and pepper -jaden
This does indeed work. I’d never thought to try it with chicken, but I think I will.
I loved this post!! Very imformative. Will be checking you out more often. Good stuff for my class.
I am sitting here covering a detention class at a middle school in Portland, OR. I was checking out my e-mail and one routed me to this site. It was a hoot to read your description of making this steak and I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for making my detention coverage so enjoyable!
Hello
I cooked steak last night, I dry-rubbed 3 pieces, but we only decided to cook 2. So I wrapped the 3rd one using foil and put it into a bag, I don;’t have machine for vacuuming. I am so worried about my steak.
Will my steak go bad?
Thanks
Gaogao
It’s fine. Salt acts as preservative. ~jaden
BEWARE – Don’t try this on thinner steak! I did this with two pieces of rib-eye that were 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick for about 30 mins and they were much too salty to eat – even for me and I love salt! I ended up soaking the meat in water for half an hour the next morning (treating it like salt cod) and frying it up for steak and eggs which was fine but it certainly ruined Friday night steak night in our house.
LOL – oh no!
jaden
Well, didn’t I warn in the post and recipe….like multiple times not to do this on thinner steaks?!
The super serious diagrams and tasty pictures, with your witty commentary left me amused and feeling like I could actually cook this competently. I’ve done the red cooking wine thing with steaks (thin strips and I only soaked them for 10 mins each) following a guideline for various marinades and tenderizers (scientific explanations lol) and they turned out great. I have a positive feeling about your method and will try it out tomorrow.
I’ll return with the results.
Great photography and food styling for your site! I love your “laid-back” description of how salt helps break down the proteins. Keep cooking!