How to Season Steak Experiment - When to Salt Your Steaks, INCREDIBLE! 

I grew up on a cattle ranch. We initially had all Hereford cattle. If you don’t know the breeds, it’s a red with white face often curled hair on the face medium to large (for cattle breed) animal. They were gentle and often could become pet like animals that put on a lot of good marbling and fat. In the mid 80’s the media began telling everyone “fat is bad” so the packing houses started asking for Brangus and Angus characteristics. So we began transitioning to the Angus breed with some Brangus. These were not gentile, docile animals. They were incredibly muscular and far more high spirited. We had a lot of cows who would literally do all they could to kill you once we separated them from their calves.... and they would do this with long memories. Anyway, I noticed a massive change in the quality of the meat and fat content from the two breeds. I call it the dark years of meat production. Seemingly over a period of 10 years steaks went from heavily marbled, lots of fat to lean and mean. The Angus netted us more money as a producer but at a cost of needing more feedlot prep to get a good steak. This had two effects on the market. First the average stake house saw a decline in quality while the higher end steak houses saw a large increase in the cost of a properly fatted steer. We found it took 3-4x longer feeding and pampering during the early years of Angus/Brangus breeds to get deep rich marveling and flavor. That’s been 40+ years. Today the selective breeding and years of careful selection has made for a better Angus / Brangus steak. However, I recently ate some prime Hereford steaks and was reminded that it’s hard to beat the gentle and naturally fat generating Hereford. I’ll say this, Europe farmers never really bought into this “fat is bad” campaign as far as beef production goes. They ignored the media and kept producing what they had perfected long ago. Most of the cattle ranches, where I grew up, have a mix herd these days. Their cattle, genetically are a mix of Hereford, Angus, Brangus and Lemoisin. It’s interesting, the females are smaller than Hereford and most Angus cows. In general, their hornless. You’ll see a mix of colors with a lot of white faces. Most of the ranchers are using Angus Bulls and occasionally bringing in other breeds to “see what happens”. Our ranch (sold it in 1992) was in the mountains of NM where the Guadalupe and Sacramento Mountains collide. We found the largest breeds struggled, especially bulls like Lemoisin. Their extreme size and weight made it difficult for them to walk on the loose rocks and stratified outcrops. So much goes into a great steak even before it hits the grill. Fortunately, packing houses and ranchers have learned a lot from their mistakes. I tend to buy stakes from two places. Costco and a local butcher. The butchers steaks are more expensive but I love to support their business. I’ve tried the same experiment. If frozen, I like to thaw the stakes the day before by letting them thaw at room temperature. Then l salt, seal in plastic and then place in the fridge. The next day I’ll pull them out around 1 pm for a 5:30 pm cook time. I’ll season “to order” then either pan fry/sear then throw on the pellet grill until internal temp is 130-135. I’ll then set on table covered for 5-10 minutes prior to serving. Seems to work. Sorry for all the typos. The more I use auto correct the more stupid I become.

The color change is from the oxidization and curing of the meat. The extra tenderness is caused by the fact that the meat was allowed to evaporate all the extra liquids. This means that all the time it was cooking it was rendering those fats in the steak. The other two had to evaporate the liquids first before starting to render their fats. Hope this helps.

I tried salting my sirloin steak the day before I was going to cook it, and it turned out awesome. BEST steak I have had in a long time. Definitely will do this again. Thanks for the seasoning tip.

Good stuff! I've been a 1-hour guy for years, get it out and let it get to room temp. Then season and set aside, prep grill and whatever sides you're having, then cook. I also prefer open flame to skillet, but that's another discussion... Glad I found your channel.

Immediately after salting the steak, the salt rests on the surface of the meat, undissolved. All the steak's juices are still inside the muscle fibers. Within 3 or 4 minutes the salt, through the process of osmosis, will begin to draw out liquid from the beef. This liquid beads up on the surface of the meat. Cooking at this point and you waste valuable heat energy simply evaporating this large amount of pooled liquid and flavor-building browning reactions are inhibited. Starting at around 10 to 15 minutes, the brine formed by the salt dissolving in the meat's juices will begin to break down the muscle structure of the beef, causing it to become much more absorptive. The brine begins to slowly work its way back into the meat. By the end of 40 minutes, most of the liquid has been reabsorbed into the meat. A small degree of evaporation has also occurred, causing the meat to be ever so slightly more concentrated in flavor. That is way it is always recommended to salt at least 40 minutes in advance either for standard or reverse searing.

Hey, one thing I noticed you should try experiment again: The 1 day steak had a different process than the other outside of the salting timeline. By stashing in the refrigerator exposed, salted or not, meat will be dried out, concentrating the flavor. It's kind of home done dry aging. I would suggest doing this again, keeping all 3 pieces on the same tray at all times, and only vary salting time. This would even out testing parameters such as temperature and moisture differences since all would be subject to the same movements at all times. Salt 1 steak 1 day prior Stash all 3 open shelf in refrigerator. Pull all 3, salt 1 hour prior on second steak Let all rest room temp together. Salt last steak 1 minute prior. Bonus for you... MORE STEAK!!!!

Great results, salting the steak 24 hours before and letting it sit uncovered in the fridge is the exact same way Kenji does it and he's a master

Very well done, and yes salting the day before is the way to go. As a 40 plus year meat cutter and part time grill cook i say great video. Another thing to consider, we used to let a whole ribeye sit in the walk- in cooler for 1 week. They were so much more tender than ribeyes that were cut the same day. I always sold those ribeyes to myself only because of inspectors, i didn't think they would approve of the practice but the difference was unbelievable. Ty for the video

The cool part of this is I went to 13 minutes in, 1½ minute left, and learned to salt at least an hour before and preferably a day before.

Finally I can prove to my wife that salting and ageing meat makes a huge difference. Thanks n keep up the quality work.

When you salt it a leave it over night, it’s called dry brining, and in my opinion is the best way to salt meat.

You had me very anxiously waiting to see what you thought of the taste. I will definitely start salting more than one minute before which is how I've always done it.

Steak 1: “great steak” Steak 2: “great steak” Steak 3: “great steak” Fantastic analysis lol

I tried this method tonight - the one hour salt version - with a 3/4 inch porterhouse steak. It came out just great. My wife and I each had half of the filet and half of the rest (I got to gnaw the bone). Thanks so much for helping me create this great meal!

Yes! 🙌🏻 I've been salting my steaks a day ahead of time for years! I use a coarse salt and cover them for 24 hours. Remove. Pat dry. Then soak in a mix of worcestershire and soy sauce for another 24 hours. Remove. Pat dry. Get to room temp. Season with cracked peppers. Sear all sides in a pan with butter, garlic and rosemary. Into the over to finish off. Down the hatch! 🤤 I learned this from a chef at a nice country club. Never looked back lol

Well done. Excellent video. I really enjoyed the honest expert analysis. 10/10!

Omg, thank you for doing this experiment! I bought some steaks on Thursday and didn’t get around to cooking them that night, I remembered your video and decided to salt them so they would be ready to go. I wound up leaving them salted for 48 hours and they were probably one of the most flavorful and tender steaks I’ve had in a while. This will now be my new method and your channel has move to my top favorites. Thank you for doing what you do!

This video is 10 minutes longer than it needs to be.

I think I have always known this, but I appreciate seeing the experiment. Well done

Well crafted experiment. I’ve researched this subject a fair amount. Preference is of course the rule of thumb, but I agree with Mr. Brisket’s final conclusion. As an addition, when it comes to salting, one should either salt one minute prior to cook or wait at least 45 minutes, in between that time frame is not recommended. The explanation is that salt on meat triggers the moisture inside to rise to the surface, that begins to happen after about a minute of salting. That salted moisture then gets drawn back inside the meat and diffuses through the inside until about 45 minutes after salting. So if you cook in between that time frame you’ll end up cooking off a lot of that seasoned moisture before it has a chance to make its way back inside and you’ll end up with a dryer steak. At the minute mark you’re still good because that moisture is still inside, though you’ll end up with a blander inside with a saltier crust, nothing wrong with that, but my preference is definitely at least an hour to a day. Hope that might help any curious cooks out there.

Great job on the video. I have been salting steaks at least 45 minutes before cooking for years. Once you try it you will never go back. The flavor is better, the tenderness is better, and the outside sear is better. It just works. Cheers!

I’ve always salted at least 1hr, pat dry, add seasoning (no more salt), sear on grill for 3-5min per side...perfect rare/mid-rare. Turns out fantastic; flavorful & tender every time.

I've started seasoning my steaks right when I take them out to warm up to room temp - about an hour, give or take. Glad to see my method is sound. Thanks for the experiment!

Dry brining has been my go to method ever since discovering it. It works extremely well for thicker steaks.

One thing I noticed that might throw the results off a bit: The 1 Day Salted Steak was put unwrapped into the fridge, while the other two were wrapped and pulled out the next day for cooking. I would think that would allow the outside of that steak to dry more than the others and thus increase the Millard Reaction to allow more browning of that steak over the other two. Perhaps you could re-do the experiment and put all three steaks on the wire rack over-night. Also, I recently saw a video that said to get the proper reaction from salting a steak, it must be allowed to rest for a minimum of 40 minutes before cooking, otherwise, you've just wasted the salt.

Thanks for information because I did NOT know how important salting steak was but now I DO. Thanks again!

We tried this method for the first time today. Only did the 1 hour, then added garlic pepper and onion powder about 30 minutes prior to grilling. OMG.. haven’t had a ribeye that delicious in quite some time. I’m sold.. you got me. Thanks for the info and happy grilling.

Great video thanks, really enjoyed the experiment. There's an easy 'steak hack' that we use in competitive steak competitions that your subscribers might find of interest. Get a big cheap box of coarse kosher or pickling salt ( no iodine in either) and pour a cup or so in a glass or ceramic tray lay the steak on top with full contact then pour a cup on top so it's fully covered. Leave it for one hour then thoroughly rinse it off with cold water, dry well with paper towels, lightly coat it with any high-heat oil, and season as usual (but just a little less salt if that's all you are using). Grill as you like and let rest for 15 min under tented foil. This technique has wins a ton of comps and is great at home to super-tenderize your beef in only an hour. Someone here will no doubt know the organic chemistry on this but I forgot the little chem knowledge I had back in the 80s lol

Great video. New suscriber. I once did a pork tomahawk with this dry brine method, although I used a rub of spices as well (I keep my salt and spices separated). Once it was ready, I cooked it on a charcoal grill with indirect heat at 400 °F, until it reached a core temperature of 138 °F, then rested it so carryover cooking rised the internal temperature all the way to 145 °F. At the end, I decided to sear it, although it was not necesary at all. If anything, it developed something between a steak crust and a BBQ bark. It was crunchy, smokey and delicious. Greetings from Sonora, México.

We had kind of figured this out on our own a few months ago. But it is nice to see that it's not just our imagination. And, great taste in beer!

I wasn't even looking for this video, but it was straight forward and informative without all the fluff. Thanks for this.

💯🔥 Great steak grilling info, presentation and definitely will try the 24hr salted method. Look forward to looking up your other vids, subbed up here and notifications are on. Keep this good energy going • Be well

The salt denatures the proteins within the meat, making it a lot juicier. Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat is a great book to read

So I only started cooking a few months ago at 28. I also am an ex-vegan as of a month ago. I have to say, this was the perfect way to eat red meat for the first time all over again. I did a 20 hour brine (missed for a few hours but we couldn’t wait lol). I seared it in cultured butter rather than avocado oil. It has a high smoke point and adds a bit of tang. No other seasonings. It’s also the first time I’ve made something in my new cast iron pan. Just awesome. If my boyfriend doesn’t propose to me now, I don’t know if anything will work. You’re the best, thank you so much.

I always treat my meats with their seasoning, rubs, or marinades the day prior, and refrigerate overnight. It makes a huge difference in flavor and tenderness, especially on wild game.

Thank you for keeping it honest! Night before marinade or rubs give time for more FUSION/flavor to permeate. Analogy: It's like the staying power difference between body paint vs tattoo

I really like the salt crystals on the surface, and pepper too. I would like to try seasoning for hours and then with kosher or fleur-de-sel right prior to cooking, but I wonder what the risk of over-salting is. I'd have to experiment with quantities. It's fascinating because I worked in a high(ish)-end French bistro for a year and sold thousands of steaks; The procedure was to take out the steaks and salt/pepper them as the appetizers were ordered, and usually cook them at least one hour, sometimes two hours later. I NEVER knew that this was making much of a difference or why I was doing it, and my sous-chef and the head chef never mentioned it so I doubt they did either. They were just doing it the way the original French chef from the 80s had been doing it-the guy who made the place famous. Some knowledge has been around for a long time, it just needs to be shared more widely.

Such a great comparison video! I used to dry brine(salting) over night in the fridge often. When I succeed the dry brine properly, the finished product is far superior than "salted one minute before steak" However, I failed couple times because I over salted and made the steak super salty and dry as a cardboard. After those couple failures, I stopped dry brining it. But when I watched your video, I wanna do that again.

Great video. I will try salting an hour out and as I have time a day out. I was trained to salt just the top side, sear the steak, flip - now the salt is on the bottom, it pulls the juices back through the steak. Danny & Lynn

I'm not sure where I picked it up, seasoning my steaks a day before cooking, but I've been doing this for years. That little bit for prep goes a long way in putting love into the food!

I have been retired for one year now and have since been learning more and more on how to improve my cooking/grilling skills. I just discovered your channel today,where have you been lol, and like your style and have hit the like, subscribed along with the notification bell. I learned something today, always a good thing.

Dry aged meat usually cooks a bit faster than not. When you’re salting it and putting it in the fridge, you’re doing a bit of dry aging for that steak. It wouldn’t really have any impact if you did it with a roast and then cut the steak from that roast, but individual steaks dry age very quickly. I typically cook to a lower temp when I cook dry aged meat or a steak that I’ve salted the day before. If I’m doing a sous video it’s probably 2-4 degrees lower before going and searing it.

Yes... I just started doing this... omg what a difference... I only dry brined for an hour... next time I will try for a day! Thanks for the vids!

I sometimes put my favorite rub the day before and set it in the forage for twenty four hours, always comes out good. Awesome video everyone should watch this video.

I agree with a lot of the comments, me specifically I wasn't even looking for food. This salt idea came up in conversation the other day and your title was spot on for sparking my interest and i watched the entire video not realizing 14 minutes just passed by. Great video! Great test! Will be trying and recommending this video to people in my future conversations! :)

This is lit. I tried a 48hrs salt and pepper marinade vs. 3 hrs, and the result are evident The 48 hrs has more flavor and tastier compared to the latter. This is really amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty glad you liked the 24 hour method. I've been sticking to that as much as I can whenever cooking steaks and I've even noticed the big difference in flavor impact throughout the steak for years. My most recent steak was only 1 hour, but like you said, that 1 hour makes an enormous difference. Cheers!

Good video. Might try the 1 day, 1 hour, 1 min test next time. Sometimes I do reverse sear, others, 2 1/2 min each side high heat on grill. Love them all. Thanks.

Oh yum. I'm making steak this weekend for sure! I honestly like the way you did the reverse sear method, never tried it that way before. They looked perfect! Thanks!

I always salt my steaks ahead of time. at least 15 minutes per quarter inch of thickness to give it time to soak in and help tenderize also.

12 to 24 hours is amazing. I’ve got my strips in my fridge right now for dinner tomorrow, can’t wait!

I just realized that when you got to 1 hour steak testing I was already drooling ...:) on my way to butcher shop!

In Sweden we eat gravlax as some of you might know. But you can do the same with tenderloin and just rub salt and sugar into it and keep it in the fridge for three days - comes out wonderful without any cooking at all!

I learned something new. I was always under the impression that salting meat before cooking it made it tougher. Great video. New Sub.

Interesting! I'm having tenderloins for dinner and had them sitting in the fridge unsalted until I watched this video. I just went and salted and seasoned them and put them back in the fridge. Four hours to cook time so I get to try out this pre-seasoning technique. I might even post sear them for good measure. Thanks for the tips! Worst part of watching was seeing you taste each steak.

Great video. Loved the detail and concept. Thanks for sharing.

Gave you a thumbs up for the show! Alton Brown did a Good Eats show explaining salts effect on meat. And in his Good Eats norm, it went to the molecular level of how it breaks down proteins to provide a better meet.

I have to agree with alchwarrior. I cannot believe how good this was. RU-vid suggested it to me I believe because I have been investigating a Komado style grill. Good call, you are awesome... now to catch up.

Man, I am so glad I found your channel. Trying the reverse sear method for the 1st time. I have typically been salting and letting the meat sit for many hours but I'll have to try at a full day the next round of steaks.

Just stumbled across this. Great test. I have never done a side x side. The one thing I have noticed about doing 24hrs is that you need to sear the sides as well as the top bottom otherwise that harder rubber texture stays. Have you been doing more salting since this? Have you noticed what I did?

Awsome experiment. Red meat prepared perfectly is a thing of beauty.

The result makes sense. It's conceptually the same as drying fruit. Removing excess water concentrates flavour. With less water, the heme is going to be more pronounced giving it a beefier, meatier taste. Plus, the salt has time to denature connective tissue making it more tender. Giving it more time with salt also allows for more dewatering by osmosis and hypertonicity. I love the fact that either the way the steaks are great, but it's great to get confirmation that salting in advance makes steaks even better.

I agree 100% with the results of your test. The only thing I would add is that the process of salting draws some of the juices out of the meat. If the steak is allowed to sit for an hour or overnight (my favorite), the extracted juices are allowed to retract back into the steak. Salting just before cooking lets the extracted juices cook off into the pan (or other cooking medium) thereby making the steak less juicy, less tender and less tasty. I'm amazed at how many good cooks don't know this. Good work!

Thanks, very good video and the results are pretty much what I expected. I subscribed to your channel.

Doing this for years and 4 hours is sweet spot and 24hrs is usually the max. So sit the steak to defrost after breakfast. Dry pat and salted. By 4 hours it absorbs enough salt and evaporates enough air it dries out the surface moisture. This develops a better crust, taste better, and tender, and salts evenly. It gets better at 24 hours, the steak gets really solid and firm before cooking but IMO I don't like waiting that long, the difference is slight.

I'd absolutely recommend using ghee as it's butter still but with a much higher smoke point. I'm from a butcher family, my father hipped me to this. For me, it's better than any oil.

Glad I found your video. I only had some T-bone steaks and I salted them this morning before work. 10 hours later, I wasn't sure if I should wipe off all the salt and re-season or just use what was still on from this morning. Well, I ended up wiping just a little off and added black pepper...Mind you, my steaks were only like 1-1/2 inches. Thanks for teaching me the reverse sear!

I always try to age my steaks a couple weeks then while bringing them to room temperature I add the seasons... with the kosher salt I add black pepper and garlic powder... makes for really happy steaks!

Starting with a good dry surface of the meat in the pan will greatly increase the sear in my experience at any rate

Nice. I've been doing this for a few years. I thought it was common knowledge :)

First time I've viewed a video of yours, but seeing you're a Read Meat Lover, have you ever cooked sous vide, followed by a reverse sear? We love (especially) steaks cooked sous vide, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts. Great video, I'll catch more of yours.

Great video. I really enjoy the scientific approach to cooking. The only thing I'd do differently is to cook a steak that wasn't salted. That would answer the question of whether or not leaving the steak in the fridge uncovered is responsible for any differences.

I'm rarely one to say this bc I don't think channels "deserve" followers, but your production quality is so incredible. I assumed you'd have at least a million subs.

it's actually because he did a short term dry aging process to the 24 hour steak, been doing it for years. When I do a prime rib, i let it sit uncovered in the fridge for 3 days, works great

Love it! Great video, keep em coming.

About 4 years back, I bought a prime rib from a meat shop. The guy behind the counter recommended that I season it and let it "dry age" in the fridge for a week prior to cooking. It was by far the best prime rib I have ever experienced.

New drinking game: take a shot every time he says “candidly”

These steaks looks SO good

Great video! We have dry brined with kosher salt for 2 days and then grill!

Great vid. Just time all of your processes to finish at the same time :)

8:42 And now its time for my favourite part. (Obviously, like most RU-vid vids,this is where the advert kicks in.)

When you came around the at the end of the video to "give us a bite" it made my mouth water. That is really not fair! ; )

I tried the 1 day dry brine on a prime ribeye and a prime New York. It turned out pretty good. I used a little too much salt though, next time I think it will be better.

I am going to try this over the weekend. Looks fantastic.

I already commented halfway through but after finishing I really have to say....man this is really well produced. Outstanding.

This randomly popped up in my recommendations today. Earned a sub. Nice work and I look forward to exploring your content.

So happy i stumbled upon your video, and im even happier to subscribe. Ive tried several methods of cooking steaks , and each one is an epic FAIL. i will try this reverse method now. Thank you! I cant wait to try again! 😎 Fyi, i want the meat the color of theae steaks, but i tend to over cook or under or over salt. Then ive tried salted and unsalted butter, and it comes out with little flavor. I follow so many directions on the oven temp, but its been to high. Thank you for the detailed info.

Salting/Dry Brining the day before is awesome, the salt permeates throughout and the enzymes of the steak breaks down making it more tender. Great experment, thank you. 😊

for ribeye: dry brine four hours before, reverse sear cooked to internal temp. of 100F (130F seems far too high), the taken off and blotted dry so the meat doesn't steam on the grill or frying pan. Then sear so that the exterior is very seared, final internal temp. around 120 - 125F, take off, let sit for another ten minutes as the internal temp. continues to rise. if this is on the grill, I'd add a handful of hickory smoke pellets directly on the briquets.

If you want to learn more about how we season our steaks, check out our other steak experiments videos here! How Long Should you Dry Brine Steak: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kBhEyzL86mc.html Which Salt is the Best on Steak: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G5ENoJHGQMA.html Big Tasty Steak Rub Recipe With 5 Steak Recipes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9hUcH40nW5A.html

First time viewer, great presentation...you had me at having a beer and talking conspiracy theories... but watching the color change and texture was interesting. I always try to let my dinner come to room temp and season it for about an hour before putting it on the grill. This was good. Thank you.

Read “Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat” if you want to understand about salting. The author does a great job of explaining the science behind why the salted stuff is juicier and more tender.

As 'alchwarrior' stated " I can’t believe it took me so long to finally come across your channel. New subscriber! Awesome content". Fantastic video and now I gotta go get me some steaks...

I was told by an Italian Chef that I should always oil my steaks before salting them so that the the salt doesn't draw any moisture from the meat but helps create a great crust. You may intensify the flavour but you will dry the steak out too.

Going to try your method with an hour salting and oven. Thanks for publishing this video.

Great follow-up as about 2 weeks ago or more I watched Jean Pierre do a review of something the stakes a day ahead

I was taught to marinate overnight or at least 30-60 minutes before. Thanks for the comparison. The Italian Chef Marcella Hazan says not to be afraid of using salt and to use it not for the salty flavor, but to bring out the flavor of the food, thus you see the moisture coming out of the steak while marinating. The steak that was salted just before cooking had some surface spice taste. Here's a thought. For the marinated steaks, sprinkle some spice just before cooking and you'll get the best of both worlds, inside and outside taste!

I've been salting my red meats for over 30 years. Two hours on the counter in a heavy coat of kosher salt, rinse, pat dry, season grill to sear, complete in the oven. Great every time! Keep up the good work! RML, If you want a great grill recipe for an eye roast on the grill, reply to this comment!

Totally agreed with Vamdemar Duarte. Osmosis is the key to tenderness and flavour

Great video, very interesting results.... following as of now