We have tried this with Hanger Steaks, Rib Steaks, London Broil… Man, oh man! The toughest steak begins to melt in your mouth after a little bit of salting.
“Salting?!”
Yes, Salting. Strange idea, huh?
Let me break it down as best as I can:
You must use sea salt or kosher FLAKED salt – No exceptions. Table salt just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Salt the Steaks 1 hour for every inch of thickness.
Season thoroughly. If you are used to using regular table salt, this may look like a ton of salt, but just remember that kosher and sea salt flakes are 2-3x the size of table salt.
Let it sit. Watch what is going on – More and more water is being drawn out as time goes on.
After the designated time (our’s was one hour exactly) rinse the extracted water.
Completely rinse the steaks, leaving no salt behind.
Pat entirely dry. ENTIRELY.
Cook
I know, this goes against a lot of what you know – right? Isn’t salting supposed to dry it and make it tough?
Yes, After a verrrrrry long time.
Stick with me just a little bit longer:
The salt initially draws out the water within the steak. (When you season right before grilling, you sort of steaming your steaks).
The water dissolves the salt, and with a little help from Osmosis – Get’s sucked back into the steak. Taking the salt deeper than just the service.
This is the cool part – The salt does this thing called “denaturize” to the protein cells. This creates the wonderful T E N D E R steak that (maybe you got from the store?) would be expectedly tough otherwise.
Tip: You Can add flavoring during this salting process to have the most impressive steak on your street.