If you want to learn more about how we season our recipes, check out our other salt experiment 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 When to Salt Your Steaks: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x2m1xir2Yrw.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
You needed to measure the salt by weight. Kosher salt has a very low density, which is why it is considered so good. I presume the other two salts have a similar higher density. Weigh a cup of Kosher and compare to any other salt 👍
The flavored salts (Himalayan, smoked, etc) are usually considered 'finishing' salts that are added just before serving so they add their flavoring to the item being served. Not used as much as 'ingredient' salt. Example may be bread, salt is used to control yeast production. A flavored, or mixture salt that isn't 100% can change the outcome as an ingredient. The science level of cooking/baking. Sea salt is also considered a finishing salt. The typically larger, flakier crystals are added before serving so they provide an extra burst of flavor when you crunch into them. They stand up better and will last longer with moist foods because of their size and texture vs fine table salt that would simply dissolve on contact. Also why the more correct measure is by weight rather than volume. Coarse/Kosher is the general 'goto' salt for both ingredient use and finishing use. Generally preferred over table salt because the coarse structure holds up longer. Exception is probably canning where you want a fine salt that dissolves more quickly in the liquid, especially cold liquids. Blue box coarse salt also has a very noticeable flavor/potency difference from the white/red box coarse salt. 90% + recipes for rubs and things on the BBQ recipes are based on the blue box coarse/kosher salt But I'm definitely going to use this form of testing to give a legit reason for putting multiple steaks on the grill and trying them all - by myself. Testing!!
Yup, I was just going to comment about blue box kosher salt being more potent :) I found my steaks lacking when I used other salts after being used to blue box kosher.
@@don951 as do I. I was hoping he would do at least an hour. In my experience, any less, and you’re only going to taste the salt from the surface but you won’t taste how it actually affected the taste of the meat.
Great video, I have a preference for pink salt. Chef Pierre has a nice video on this steak subject and he recommends 24 hours of salting to get a crust effect on the outside.
Your mistake may have been to use volume (1 Tbsp), instead of weight, as the grains are different sizes. 1 Tbsp of iodized table salt is a lot more salt per volume than Himalayan. You should try the same weight instead, such as 15g each
The whole point of different salts is that they have more or less surface area by volume, which means less or more overall salt mineral by volume (Himalayan and Kosher are pointless to use for soups etc IMO because all the advantages of surface area and crystal size/shape is lost once the salt is aqueous). So in my opinion you are absolutely correct.
I should add that Himalayan salts have other compounds in them that make that pink color (sulfides, maybe?). I'm doubtful that they impact flavor at all in a situation like this, but I've heard they are useful for curing and so on.
@@inthefade I really doubt they taste any different. They're all sodium chloride and so they're going to taste the same. So far as I know pink curing salt is its own thing not from the himalayas. I don't think that stuff is good to eat straight
I've tried lots of different salts and my favorite is light grey celtic sea salt. it has a noticeably yummy flavor. himalayan pink is good but isn't as salty, IMO.
I'm not any kind of salt cop but I've always been told to get equal amounts of salt for comparison you have to weigh it. Salt is salt to me. Great steaks!
Now that is an interesting point and tactfully presented as well. From other tests we knew fine salt would deliver more salt per pinch so tried to get near equal coarse grinds but, again, solid point
There is obviously more salt and less air in fine so I looked it up, 1 3/4T course is equal to 1T of fine or be more scientific and weigh it. For the 1 hour or 1 day steak I doubt you would be able to tell what was used as long as you reduced the quantity of the fine. I typically only have fine around and will probably go with that, give it at least an hour to dissipate from the outside surface, and reduce the amount course is used n the recipe.
Because of the shape of the Kosher salt flake, you get less salt per volume and more air. In canning they recommend adding an extra 30-50% by volume if using Kosher salt.
I hate to hear myself saying it, buy since I've been using pink Himalayan salt for the last just about 2 years, I'm enjoying food so much more seasoned with this salt, than with any salt I've used before - I still feel like saying, don't be stupid, salt is salt, but I'm pretty sure I can taste an improvement - I've tested salts on grilled cherry tomatoes and, my goodness, the pink stuff makes the toms so delicious! Not sure why people don't grind the salt - you get a much more even application with the finer grain - it all absorbs - don't know why you'd want most of your course grains to fall off of the food. Since the covid lockdown I bought myself a 8 hexagon burger mould, so each burger is exactly the same same shape and weight - the mould has a lid, so less evaporation, which means that when there is more liquid on top of one burger than an other, that is almost certainly down to the wetter one having more salt than the others - just thinking that it just about impossible to have identical test food subjects. And like in the other timed salt application youtube, beef burgers salted for more than an hour tastes delicious, without being too salty. I'm fresh out of burgers :( Burger it, I'm off to a local pub that does "takeaways" - technically the beer is taken away (internally), I just spend a long time in the take away process.
Years ago I went to a steak restaurant in Vegas and instead of sauces they had 5 different types of salt you can sprinkle on your steak. The steak was cooked but unseasoned. The best was a pink salt (I don’t remember where) but the restaurant purchased 5 bricks of it. I sliced my perfectly cooked rib eye in 5 pieces and tried each salt. I really enjoyed the experience.
I use long metal tongs and a dish rag super wet to clean my grill works perfectly fine, well by dish rag i mean small strong towel home owners probably consider this to be a hand towel.
I have found that the pink salt isn’t as salty as the others. They say to use more and it won’t hurt you. It’s not like the iodized that can raise your blood pressure
There's some experiments on that which are out there and indicate that finely ground salt can result in over-salting bc you actually get more salt / pinch. That seems to reflect our own off-camera experience as well but ya know what, we might have to add it to the video production list, thanks for your feedback!
The difference in "saltiness," might be due to the different (slightly) size of the grains. Perhaps you should repeat the experiment wit each salt dose weighed instead of measured by volume.. ;-)
Last time I bought himalayan pink salt i ended up with "sandy" eggs which makes me think that some of my course salt grains were actually ROCKS! Now I only use Celtic Sea Salt, light grey.
when it comes to what it does to your body, yes salt is salt. When it comes to how it effects flavor no salt isn't just salt. The problem this guy had was he clearly didn't salt his meat enough. I can see that in the video. Its way under salted.
I feel like the pink and sea salts were actually too coarse. I feel like too much of the salt probably flaked off. I like how the kosher salt is somewhat smaller and flaked and flat. It sticks a little better. Would probably be ideal to slightly grind the big salt in a grinder, or lightly mash it in a mortar. Would’ve interesting to see if any extra flavors would be released by trying this.
Appreciate your feedback, provided in a thoughtful way. We tried to get similar size coarse salts which was tough. Good idea on the mortar, duly noted!
I grind and use both pink and sea salt. I like the pink for its milder salt flavor and how it pairs with garlic powder. If you just want straight salt or salt and pepper I would probably go with the sea salt.
If you don't mind, I'd like to provide some information regarding the pink Himalayan salt. Only the white portions are salt. That which is pink consists of other minerals that are not water soluble.
From what I've always heard is that the difference is more in the composition of it. Like more of the mineral than that mineral and stuff like that. It's all the basic composition of salt it's just the stuff that adds to it.
Try smoked salt! Tried some of it a year ago and I can't go back to regular salt. It's just so, so good(although, not all smoked salts are created equal...).
I wasn't what you'd call a serious cook until some pandemic changed our lives. Long story short I watched various videos on sausage making and started seasoning steak 12 to 24 hours before cooking or mincing. I recon it made a hell of a difference (for the better). I did use pink salt.
I can tell a bit of a taste difference with different salts, and put them on different meats that I think they pair with better. For chicken for example I like to use Himalayan salt.
Nice experiment, I’ve always wondered which is best ... but when u let it sit in the fridge for 24hrs ur dry-aging the steak - that’s why it’s more tender than the other two ... thanx!
It's fair that you said these salts weren't distinguishable. Salt is salt. The difference in mineral content other than sodium is not detectable under the strong beef/NaCl flavor.
Kosher salt and sea salt are exactly the same and Himalayan crystal salt contains certain minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium. It is believed to contain as many as 84 trace minerals and because of this has a milder salty flavour.
I make my own Italian sea salt each year and I can taste the difference in the different salts Italy is very well known for it it’s beef and grilling of beef and sea salt that’s all I use I have tried Himalaya it’s very hard for me to get kosher salt in Europe but she saw they feel is the best
I find a much more pronounced difference in taste not by the type of salt used but how long it is on the steak before grilling. I presume you are salting yours immediately before grilling. Lots of folks do that but I salt mine with coarse kosher salt one-hour ahead of grilling and the flavor is WOW! One can also salt their steak 12 hours ahead of time for a mellower flavor and a richer texture. Things to think about.
Flipped too early, gotta wait till the blood surfaces, then flip, more sere = sealed in juices. I also noticed on the first flip it was a diamond pattern, how exactly was that the "first flip" ?
It all comes down to the cut of the steak. I like to grill the Argentinean way which Brazilians and Uruguayans tend to be very similar when it comes to "seasoning". "Sal parrillera"
How long do you suggest to let the steaks sit with salt on them before bbq’ing? 10 minutes? 24 hours? In the fridge covered or un covered? So many people saying 10,000 different things.. thc
Really need to try the Ava Jane sea salt, it’s mined out of a cave so no micro plastics and it has the other minerals in it. Pretty awesome different tasting salt
I think your experiencing the same problem I have had using Himalayan salt, it tends to be a softer or more subtle flavor. I really like the way the kosher salt absorbed into the meat, more intense salt flavor per bite.
A lot of your videos are the "I'm trying to be scientific about how they taste". It would be great to try to do a blind-taste test with a friend or two at the end of the video!
Joey- what about throwing a steak into a bag of sea 🌊 salt overnight? Would you be able to save the remaining salt afterwards- or does it have to be disposed?
I think salt is salt. It just comes down to the coarseness of it. Kosher salt is a widely used salt in cooking because of ease of handling with your fingers. A real fine salt like regular table salt would be best for measuring salt that is meant to be mixed into something, and like i said, course salts are best used for salting meats as they are both easy to handle and visually see the coverage you have on the surface of the meat. Another person on her commented correctly that you shouldn't be measuring the different salts, but weighing them to get even amounts. Kosher has a vastly different grain shape than the pink and sea salts and will not measure the same in a spoon. So one steak might actually be saltier tasting because you added different amounts of salt to each steak.
I salt then plastic wrap my meats over night have you tried that vs like what you did in your last video where it was salted and open air in the fridge for 24 hours? I also lightly rub my steaks in veg oil before i salt n pepper them before i wrap and fridge them for 24 hours, take them out let them stand 1 hour room temp before i cook them. I may change my oil seeing you said some have higher smoke tolerances.
As I understand it, all salt have the same chemical molecule makeup or arrangement (like oxygen has two oxygen molecules and one hydrogen), so there aren't any differences between all three salts, chemical name Sodium Chloride or "NaCl" I would think that if there are "minerals in with the salt" it wouldn't technically be "salt," and the name Sodium Chloride would change, too, because the arrangement of the molecules change, turning the salt into another compound altogether... So, to get ANY taste differences, it would have to be how long the salt has to absorb... The other variable would be the size of the grain... Would the smaller grain and a short absorb time taste the same as a large grain with a longer absorb time, or would it be the same? Try adding the different size grains at 24 hours before cooking, then try a couple of hours, and then maybe 30-45 minutes (for most grillers, that's about the length of time the steak goes from the refrigerator to grill, with in between time for prep, and allowing the meat to warm to room temperature). I hope you're hungry for this one!!
Hymalian salt has less sodium, thats why you though it wasnt seasoned properly. It does bring out more of the natural taste of food and less the taste of salt.
Thanks brother! I love your backyard! I'm hoping to get some Tomahawk Ribeye's at our local Berkot's One day only flash sale tomorrow, $9.99 a pound! What kind of coals or hardwood did you use?
Pink Himalayan coarse every time, 24 hours before grilling. The minerals in the Himalayan add depth to the flavor. And to be fair in your test do the salt by weight, not volume
Chemically speaking the salt we eat (sodium chloride) is basically the same stuff. Doesn't matter how or where you get it. The real difference is in what minerals and "other" stuff comes with it. I've found the more unrefined minerals in one salt was "saltier" to my taste than others that have been processed more or with less minerals. Others I was not able to detect a difference. Between my friends, we've also seen what I think is salty is not as salty to others. Some are able to taste the minerals where others not so much. In the end it really depends on your own personal tastes. Yeah, change things up the next few times you grill and see which you personally like better.
New sub, just thinking maybe if you combined your most recent salt experiment with this one to get a better taste variance? Maybe salt each of the steaks a day in advance?
NEVER use a serrated edge knife when cutting steaks, especially filet or ribeye or the prime cuts. They tear the meat rather than cut it. There is actually a difference in the flavor and texture when using a sharp straight blade steak knife. Now when cutting the "select" grade steaks (lower grade) have at it because it won't matter.
The salt doesn't penetrate the steak if you salt it in advance like that, it just draws out some moisture from the surface allowing for a better crust. Marbling and cook time are really the only things that affect tenderness
You really need to read salt, fat, acid heat by samin nosrat. Different salts have a different levels of saltiness so 1tbsp of the different salts make a big difference
Interesting to know. We just started buying the Himalayan salt ourselves. If I could share any tip about the video is it seems 6 to 7 minutes of it is all just talk and adverts for his other videos. I say get on with what your title says the video is about and maybe I would have time to watch some of your other videos. Don't get me wrong though, I think you are very good on camera and have interesting info. I gave you a thumbs up so you know.
I use a lot of very fine salt like popcorn salt. I find you get the taste without as much salt getting into your system, It seems that a grain of salt effects your tongue the same big or small just less sodium for those with blood pressure problems.
