A ONE INGREDIENT Secret to TENDER Steak (Even Cheap Cuts)
One of the things on my bucket list is to meet Jill Nystul one day. She’s the creator of the truly helpful site, www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com. No matter your household or cooking conundrum or challenge, she has an answer.
Take for instance her suggestion on how to tenderize steak so even cheap cuts taste incredible. She does start her lesson off with the idea that it’s getting more and more important that we be adaptable when shopping for food.
We may not always be able to find our favorite cuts of meat in this current grocery store environment. Being adaptable will not only make our shopping experience less stressful, it can save us a lot of money as well.
Jill says there are several popular ways to tenderize a cut of meat, and all of them can be effective. These include: beating it into submission (sounds tiring, right?), letting your meat rest after cooking, cooking it “low and slow,” slicing the meat against the grain, and marinating the meat.
She explains that while all of these methods can be effective, they almost all take extra time, which is a luxury you might not always have. Luckily for us, she shared her tried-and-true foolproof method that’s the best of the bunch. She uses a single, secret ingredient.
And that ingredient? It’s SALT! Jill: “The more I learn about cooking, the more I come to realize that the secret is almost always salt. Except for when the secret is butter.” (Me: She must be Scandinavian!)
Yes, salting your steaks for one hour before cooking them will cause a miraculous transformation! From chewy and tough, to tender and juicy.
But not just ANY salt will do! You need to use a coarse sea salt or kosher salt. Coarse salt helps to break down the proteins and muscle fibers in the meat, resulting in maximum tenderness.
If you thought “SALT? “I thought it dried stuff out?” You’d be right. When using it on food, it’s often about the timing.
Over a SHORT period of time (like an hour or even up to overnight,) a layer of coarse salt on a steak will draw out some of the meat’s natural juices. The juices will dissolve the salt, creating a brine. Most of the brine will then be reabsorbed, where it then tenderizes and flavors the meat.
But if left for a longer period of time (like weeks to months,) the salt will slowly pull all of the moisture out of the meat, curing and preserving it in the process. All this said, here’s how to effectively tenderize a steak—even a cheap cut—using salt: First, lay the raw steak out on a plate and cover each side with approximately 1 teaspoon of coarse kosher or sea salt. Use your fingers to gently work the salt granules into the surface, breaking down the fibers of the meat. (For even more flavor, add crushed garlic to the salt.) Let the steak sit with this salt covering for 45 minutes to an hour (longer for thicker cuts).
After the waiting period, wipe away most of the salt using dry paper towels. Pat your steaks until they are good and dry (this makes it possible to get that delicious, crispy sear you want). If you don’t pat them dry, you’re basically steaming the meat, and steamed meat is bland and less flavorful.
From here, you season your steaks per your preference and grill to desired doneness. Then savor your success with every bite!
Take for instance her suggestion on how to tenderize steak so even cheap cuts taste incredible. She does start her lesson off with the idea that it’s getting more and more important that we be adaptable when shopping for food.
We may not always be able to find our favorite cuts of meat in this current grocery store environment. Being adaptable will not only make our shopping experience less stressful, it can save us a lot of money as well.
Jill says there are several popular ways to tenderize a cut of meat, and all of them can be effective. These include: beating it into submission (sounds tiring, right?), letting your meat rest after cooking, cooking it “low and slow,” slicing the meat against the grain, and marinating the meat.
She explains that while all of these methods can be effective, they almost all take extra time, which is a luxury you might not always have. Luckily for us, she shared her tried-and-true foolproof method that’s the best of the bunch. She uses a single, secret ingredient.
And that ingredient? It’s SALT! Jill: “The more I learn about cooking, the more I come to realize that the secret is almost always salt. Except for when the secret is butter.” (Me: She must be Scandinavian!)
Yes, salting your steaks for one hour before cooking them will cause a miraculous transformation! From chewy and tough, to tender and juicy.
But not just ANY salt will do! You need to use a coarse sea salt or kosher salt. Coarse salt helps to break down the proteins and muscle fibers in the meat, resulting in maximum tenderness.
If you thought “SALT? “I thought it dried stuff out?” You’d be right. When using it on food, it’s often about the timing.
Over a SHORT period of time (like an hour or even up to overnight,) a layer of coarse salt on a steak will draw out some of the meat’s natural juices. The juices will dissolve the salt, creating a brine. Most of the brine will then be reabsorbed, where it then tenderizes and flavors the meat.
But if left for a longer period of time (like weeks to months,) the salt will slowly pull all of the moisture out of the meat, curing and preserving it in the process. All this said, here’s how to effectively tenderize a steak—even a cheap cut—using salt: First, lay the raw steak out on a plate and cover each side with approximately 1 teaspoon of coarse kosher or sea salt. Use your fingers to gently work the salt granules into the surface, breaking down the fibers of the meat. (For even more flavor, add crushed garlic to the salt.) Let the steak sit with this salt covering for 45 minutes to an hour (longer for thicker cuts).
After the waiting period, wipe away most of the salt using dry paper towels. Pat your steaks until they are good and dry (this makes it possible to get that delicious, crispy sear you want). If you don’t pat them dry, you’re basically steaming the meat, and steamed meat is bland and less flavorful.
From here, you season your steaks per your preference and grill to desired doneness. Then savor your success with every bite!
Alice Osborne
Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
Email the author! alice@dvo.com
