Super Salting Steak

Apart from being written by a total moron, there a couple of things he's getting mixed up with:

Brining and salting serve different purposes; if you want to tenderise your meat then brining is the best solution. The moisture is drawn in and the salt dissolves the myosin in the muscle mechanism, that contracts the muscle fibres (depending on salt content) and the muscle fibres swell. The dissolved mysoin acts as a gel and traps the moisture in the meat.
Therefore the meat breaks apart easier, contains more moisture, and doesn't lose it so easily.

Salting makes the surface cells swell, therefore reduces browning and [therefore] flavour. This instantly makes the surface harder to penetrate and it the absorbtion of the salt is extremely slow.

So despite what this chap says on the website, salting the surface for an hour does little to tenderise the meat. In fact in higher concentrations (and a much longer time period), osmosis will draw out the moisture from the cells and cure it (the opposite effect of what you want).

It would be much more beneficial to NOT SALT AT ALL until AFTER the meat has cooked, as this would prevent surface juices from escaping into the pan, which reduces the pan temperature, therefore browning capability.

 

I'll reserve my statement to: It might have some merit. will have to try it someday.

 

Phatch excuse me if I'm misunderstanding you, but are you saying that osmosis (the diffusion of water through a cell wall) is a part of the brining process, yet then claim that no water enters the cell?

It seems like you have a reasonable understanding of this process, but I'm not sure why you're under the impression that no water enters the cell.

Perhaps what you read was slightly outdated.

For an up to date explanation (with sources) have a quick read of this:
Science of Brining

 

This same article was posted on another smoking-bbq forum that I frequent. Several tried the method and the report was expensive cuts of meat ruined!

 

I would never do this with steak, I don't buy "choice" meat for steak and therefore there is no need to experiment.

However...

I recently salted an eye round roast and it did wonders for the meat. This is a tough cut of meat and I had some apprehensions about serving it for a dinner party. But I followed some instructions I saw on America's Test Kitchen and it was fantastic. I very liberally salted the roast (at least 1 cup) and placed it on a sheet pan uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours, turning it a couple of times. When it was time to cook I rinsed it thoroughly, patted dry, and seared it. Then I put it in a very low oven and baked it like a cheesecake (low temp for an hour, then turn off the heat and leave it in the oven for another 40 minutes). It was ridiculously good.

I don't know what this guy is talking about but salting can do wonders.

 

Koukouvagia, I would imagine that has little to do with the salting and alot to do with the low temperature cooking which makes the meat significantly more tender (as it dissolves the collagen surrounding the myofibrils).

 

Not for nothing, people, but the author refers to "my husband." So we can assume it's a she, not a guy, or chap, or other male label.

 

:laser: I promise not to tell Jaden what you said about her the next time I see her (probably in April at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference).

 

So all these years I should have been brining my steaks? I also season before grilling, is that wrong too?

Oh well, it tastes good to me!eace:

 

Very interesting Phatch, so when it refers to the cell, its refering to the myobrils (the muscle fibres)?

However in McGees book it does describe the Cell swelling due to expansion of water, as does such science oriented chefs as Heston Blumenthal in most of his publications about the subject. I'm not a scientist; merely a chef trying to gain a deepened understanding on how and why things work; I don't make up what I'm saying; it all has a source.
Are they all wrong?

 

Would you mind providing a source for your claims? Because your arguments (unless I'm misunderstanding them) are opposing the opinions of such giants in the world of Gastronomy such as This, McGee, Blumenthal...

I'm not saying you're wrong, but that's a lot of muscle for an English major to be fighting.

Perhaps this is a question of semantics, perhaps what they're referring to as the cell is the myofibril (one of the fibres of the that make up the larger muscle fibre). The mysosin and Actin contraction mechanisms are all surrounding these. Perhaps you're referring to something else(?).

 

Phatch, I certainly didn't write that article, and I'm not going to defend it, in fact I didn't read it closely enough to identlfy any mistakes, it simply collaborated what I have read from other sources, if you've seen mistakes, then thats great, but please don't assume it as one of my sources.


Yes they are. Check the back of the book and you'll see a clearly labelled 'sources/references' section.

The fact is you're making claims, yet not providing any collaboration, just semantically attacking any hole you can identify in other people's work. Allow me the same priveledge:

Allow us to take at your original statements, and compare directly to what the professionals say:

Harold McGee:
"A 3% salt solution dissolves part of the of the protein structure that suppports the contracting filaments, and a 5.5% solution partly dissolves the filaments themselves."

Heston Blumenthal (taken from his book 'The fat duck'.):
"Moderate concentrations of salt (from around 3 per cent to about 12 per cent by weight) are good solvents of some of the proteins in meat, especially myosin...some of the myosin molecules actually dissolve in the brine..."

Are they wrong?

McGee:
"the interaction of salt and proteins result in a greater water holding capacity in the muscle cells, which then absorb water from the brine."

Heston Blumenthal:
"The myofibrils also swell making the meet juicier."

Wikipedia:
"Brining makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, and by allowing the cells to hold on to the water while they are cooked, via the process of denaturation."

McGee:
"The meat's weight increases by 10% or more. When cooked, the meat still loses around 20% of its weight in moisture, but the loss in counter-balanced by the brine absorbed"

Is that an assumption, or have you weighed your piece of meat, after brining?



You seem to be focusing more on the physics of osmosis, yet its far from the most important process in brining. Allow me to take another quote from Blumenthal's book to explain it in the manner that I attempted to in my original post:

"When meat is brined, salt solution flows into the myofibrils. As the salt concentration rises, links between myosin and actin filaments - the result of rigor mortis - break and the fibres seperate. Some of the myosin molecules actually dissolve in the brine. This is important for two reasons: first, as myosin dissolves into water the between the filaments, they are pushed apart. This makes the meat less dense and increasingly tender. The myofibrils also swell, making the meat juicier. Dissolved myosin does something else when meat is cooked because it forms a gel, just as the proteins in egg whites form a gell when cooked. Gelled myosin traps some of the water that has swollen in the myofibrils and so retains water even after cooking.
Thus the better a brine is at dissolving myosin, the juicier and more tender it will be."

I'm sorry to use such aggressive tactics, but I feel pushed in a corner here. You're attacking extremely good sources with allogations that you provide no evidence or references for; you instead are focusing on the semantics of osmosis; which as we can see, isn't as important as it may appear.

So you may be right about the physics of osmosis; and if that means I shouldn't of made (a rather fleeting) allogation as "surface cells swell" then I apologise and, if you're right, I would happily retract that statement; we could instead say that surface protetins denature.
Its a very small point that holds little importance to the process of brining.