I have had steak without enough salt and it is terrible. I think it is amazing how adding enough salt makes steak so much better. Why is this and how do we it better?
Putting enough salt on a steak brings out the umami flavor. When you put enough salt on a steak before you cook it, the steak will absorb some salt and become more dry on its surface.
When the steak absorbs the salt, it causes it to have a better flavor throughout the piece of steak. This is because of that umami flavor and I will write more about all of that and plenty more questions and information below.
Why is salt important for steak?
Salt is a flavor enhancer and the umami (deliciousness) flavor that is in beef is brought out more when you add more salt. This is shown in a post by sciencefocus.com which you can find here. I pulled a quoted from the article below.
Salt is used as a universal flavour improver because at low concentrations it will reduce bitterness, but increase sweet, sour and umami
sciencefocus.com
It also says in the post that recent research shows that all of the different tastes (bitter, sweet, sour, salty, and umami) interact with each other. Sometimes they will enhance certain tastes and sometimes they will suppress other tastes depending on the concentration.
What salt does at low concentrations is increase umami flavor! This is the same flavor found in meat, beef, and steak!
I also talk about how salting your steak can make it taste better as well as other things in my post here.
What type of salt is best for steak?
I’m general, kosher salt is best to use when salting a steak. Kosher salt has larger salt crystals than fine salt but they are smaller than coarse salt. Kosher salt has the best size crystals to absorb into a steak.
The size of the kosher salt crystals causes the salt to be able to penetrate into the steak more without falling off the surface of the steak. Other sizes salt doesn’t work as well but still can work good.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use sea salt or table salt (fine salt) when cooking a steak. I actually use fine salt, have never used kosher salt, and the steaks that I make still taste amazing!
The brand of salt that I use is Redmond’s real salt. I like this salt because it is from an ancient mine in Utah that has not been polluted. Plus, this salt has the highest amount of minerals that I could find.
A picture of it is below and it is the same salt I am holding at the beginning of this post.
Should you salt both sides of a steak?
You should salt both sides of a steak. The salt gives the steak more flavor and you don’t want more flavor on only one side of a steak. The salt that you put on one side of a steak does not go through the steak to the other side.
You have to put salt on both sides of a steak to get the most flavorful steak.
How much salt do you put on steak?
In general, a teaspoon of salt per pound of steak should be enough. This can vary based on how much surface area the steak has. For example if you have a really thick filet mignon then you may want to use a little less salt.
You want to shoot for one nice layer of salt evenly covering the entire steak and yes it is good to salt the sides of the steak as well. Do not put multiple layers of salt on a steak because that will most likely be too much.
How do you store a steak after salting it?
Store a steak in the fridge after you salt it if you are not going to cook it for more than an hour. If you are cooking the steak within an hour then allow the steak to stay out of the fridge and come up to room temperature.
Allowing the steak come up to room temperature can help you cook the steak more evenly than a colder steak.
I like to let the salt that I put on a steak sit on there at least for an hour before I start to cook it. By allowing the salt to sit on the you are doing what is called a “dry brine.”
The salt will be absorbed into the steak and you will get a nice flavor that goes deep inside and is not just on the surface. It also drys out the surface a little which is good because it will help you to get a nice sear on the surface of the steak.
The sear on the surface of the steak is what causes a Maillard reaction, giving it an extra amount of flavor.
Why do you salt steak overnight?
Salting steak overnight in the fridge allows you to give a steak a “dry brine.” This allows the salt on the steak to get absorbed deeper into the meat and thus giving more flavor throughout.
You want to make sure that you put the steak in the fridge when you salt steak overnight so it doesn’t go bad. Allowing the steak to be salted for more than an hour before cooking will give it even more flavor.
Should you salt steak twice?
It is better to salt a steak only once. You are more likely to salt a steak too much when you salt it twice. You can always add more steak but not take it off. If you decide to salt a steak twice, you should only put very light layers of salt on.
Usually when you salt a steak twice you are salting at the beginning and at the end when you are cooking. This may be ok if you did not give the steak a “dry brine” beforehand.
A good amount of the salt that you put on the steak at the beginning of cooking will most likely fall off the surface of the steak. This can allow you to put on another light layer without the steak becoming too salty.
Should you rinse the salt off steak before cooking?
Salt should not be rinsed off of a steak before cooking. The salt should stay on the steak because it is what gives it a boost of flavor. When you “dry brine” a steak some of the salt is absorbed into the steak.
The only reason you may want to rinse the salt off of a steak before cooking is if you put too much on. If you didn’t put too much on then there is no reason to rinse the salt off, it will only cause bad results.
What happens if you salt a steak too early?
The steak can become dry if you salt it too early. If you salt the steak more than a day in advance then the steak will most likely end up too dry especially on the surface. You can salt a steak overnight to allow the salt to get a good absorption into the steak.
Salting a steak at least an hour before cooking is a good starting point. If you want to plan ahead and salt the steak overnight then that can give it better flavor.
How long is too long to salt a steak?
In general, you can salt a steak before you cook anywhere from 1 to 24 hours. If you salt a steak for more than 24 hours then the salty flavor may be too strong. This is because too much salt can get absorbed into the meat.
It all depends on how much salt you put on the steak. If you want to try to let it sit on there for more than 24 hours then I recommend using less salt.
Less than 1 hour and the salt may not be absorbed enough into the steak to get if that nice flavor.
Should you refrigerate steak after salting?
Steak should be refrigerated if you are salting a steak for over an hour. You don’t want the steak to go bad but if you leave it out for less than an hour to let it come up to room temperature than it should be fine.
By letting the steak come up to room temperature for an hour, you will be able to cook the steak more evenly once you cook it.
Should I put salt on my steak before grilling?
You should put salt on your steak before grilling because this will give it more flavor than salting while you are cooking the steak. Salting the steak while cooking it doesn’t allow for the salt to absorb into the meat to give it that extra boost of flavor.
If you’re in a time crunch and you didn’t plan how to cook your steak ahead of time, then don’t fret about it putting salt on it while you are cooking it is an OK thing to do.
When should you salt a steak?
Putting salt on a steak, at least an hour before hand is the best way to salt a steak. The earlier that you salt a steak, the more time that the salt gets to absorb into the steak and the more flavor the steak will have.
Conclusion
I can’t imagine having steak without any salt or simply just not enough salt. I think it is terrible that way. I want to encourage everybody to salt their steak before hand. If you do this, you will find a great difference in the flavor of the steak.
It is a good idea to experiment with the amount of salt you want to put on the steak as well as the amount of time you want the salt to sit on the steak. Everybody else’s recommendation might not be the right recommendation for you.
Below is a list of tips that I have pulled from this post for salting a steak.
- Use kosher salt
- Salt both sides
- Put a teaspoon per pound
- Store salted steak in the refrigerator if cooking more than an hour later
- Salt only once
- Do not rinse the salt off of the steak
- Do not salt a steak more than 24 hours ahead of time