Why is it bad to salt a steak directly?

Question

I heard Huey(Huey's cooking club on Australian tv) say never salt a steak directly but he never said why. Can someone fill in the blanks?

Answer 1

Never salt any meats you are going to grill because it makes them tough.  Just use pepper and other seasonings.

Answer 2

My favorite steak is NY Strip and I either grill or pan sear it then finish in a hot oven.  I also season it with kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper and have never had it turn out tough or less juicy.  You really do have to let the meat rest so the heated juices distribute back throughout the steak.   Marinating in a soy sauce based marinade is the same as using salt just in liquid form and many people marinate their steaks.  

I don't think you should use table salt it's too fine and hard to control where kosher or sea salt is larger and you can see where and how much you use.  It doesn't take much on a good cut of beef to enhance the flavor.  That's just my thoughts:)

Answer 3

I believe it draws too much liquid from the meat when it is cooking, but i have seen people on ready steady cook put salt on meat so who knows?

Answer 4

Too much salt also raise your blood pressure.

If you can leave salt out of all cooking.

Answer 5

Supposedly it shrinks the steak. We've already experimented with this in our restaurant several times from steaks cut from the same  strip ( identical steaks) and we found no difference at all.

In fact when I was being taught to cook years ago, we were taught to sprinkle some salt in the frying pan to keep the steak from sticking( and that works).

I know a lot of chefs say it's true and a lot of chefs say it isn't true.

I agree with the latter.( Not true).

Answer 6

I know this sounds awfully like salt-curing, which dries out meat (like beef jerky). But with salt curing, you use A LOT more salt and leave it salting for A LOOOOOONG time. We’re talking about a little tiny nap here - not weeks - just enough to break down the protiens.

Again, don’t worry about all that salt. Only a bit of it gets absorbed into the meat. Most of it gets washed down the drain when you rinse off. Really.

I know you’re going to ask…so I’ll answer it for you. Why not brine? You could if you really want water-logged diluted-tasting crappy steak.

And yes, I know what “Choice” and “Prime” means - it’s the marbling. The salting doesn’t affect fat content - I’m using those terms as a figure of speech.  

Answer 7

the salt draws out the juices ,leaving the steak less tender.

however , if making soup ,stew or casserole,the salt draws the flavour into the liquid ,making it more tasty.

ps steak is really nice  if u add sea salt after it's cooked.