Salt the meat the night before

The opposite, and some people report it working. Some people salt meat well ahead of cooking and let it rest, and say it comes out juicier, better seasoned through and better textured than meat salted at the pan or soaked in a wet brine. The mechanism, in people’s words with their own corrections applied: salt on the surface draws moisture out, dissolves in it, and the salty liquid is drawn back into the meat, where the salt changes the proteins so they hold on to more of their water during cooking; the surface, meanwhile, dries, which is why one person says a dry-brined chicken skin crisps far better. Some people correct the word people use for this — the salt moving in is diffusion, from where there is more to where there is less, and the water first drawn out is osmosis — people’s correction named only the first, and this page carries both halves, and the person who described it as salt ‘wanting to balance itself like air pressure’ was corrected more than once; the result stands, the explanation was wrong. Others give the timings as theirs: a steak wants hours, a roast or a bird overnight, a large piece for smoking eighteen hours or more, and one person says twenty-four hours is no better than eight to twelve — the decider is the cut. One person says a dry brine reaches about a centimetre into dense meat like beef while a wet brine goes deeper but can over-season if left too long, and that pork and chicken take it up more readily. One point, from one person, is the one that ruins dinners: coarse kosher salt and fine table salt are not equal by the spoon — a recipe written for kosher salt needs about half the volume of table salt, or the bird is inedible; this page checked, and it is true. One person warns over-brining makes meat salty rather than seasoned, and one person says brining takes the bite out of a texture you might want firm — a chicken sandwich, say. And one person skips brining altogether and uses a probe thermometer to pull the meat a little before its target temperature, which is the other way to keep it juicy.

Because the steam goes up into the jar, and some people say that is how a jar of paprika becomes a brick. The moisture condenses on the powder, the powder clumps, and the flavour goes with it — one person warns garlic powder goes stale faster than anything else in the rack. The fix is a hand or a spoon between the jar and the heat: tip the spice into your palm or a teaspoon, then into the pan. Some people say they know this and will keep shaking anyway, and that the clumped jar is the price; the decider is your tolerance for throwing spices away. One person warns, and it is about your face: powdered spice dropped into hot oil can form a lump that pops and throws an irritating cloud — add powders to the food or off the heat, not into bare hot fat. One person warns dried aromatics — garlic and onion powder, oregano — scorch in a hot pan, and another that spices sprinkled on the outside of meat burn on a grill, which is a reason to season the meat early and let the surface dry rather than dust it at the last second. One person says the television habit of tipping pre-measured spices from little bowls is what keeps the jars dry; another says whole spices ground fresh, or spices from a restaurant-supply shop, taste of more than an old pre-ground jar. One thing people asked that went unanswered, which this page names as the gap it is: how to rescue a jar that has already gone to brick.

It is wet, and some people say so in the same words: pat the meat dry before it touches a hot pan, because surface moisture turns to steam and the meat steams in its own cloud instead of browning. The browning — the crust, the flavour that makes a steak taste of steak — cannot begin until the water has gone, so a pan full of damp meat spends its first minutes boiling. The dry brine from the first question helps here, because a night uncovered in the fridge dries the surface; even so, pat it again with kitchen paper before the pan. One person adds that for a whole chicken the skin must be dry or the oil will not sit on it and it will not crisp. Two more habits from individual people: bloom ground spices in the hot fat for a moment before the liquid goes in, so their aromatics open rather than poach into dullness; and rest the meat after cooking so the juices settle back before you cut, or the board gets them. One person says the fat matters more than the salt for juiciness — a fattier mince, a spoon of butter or dripping — and one person warns lean turkey mince is dry whatever you do to it. One point people made about themselves: the cause of dry meat, a food scientist among them says, is overcooking before it is anything else — which is why the thermometer story in the first question is not cheating.

Early for the meat, in layers for the pot, and taste before every addition — people argue the layering, so here are both sides. Some people say salt should go in at particular moments for particular reasons: early, so it penetrates meat and vegetables; in stages through a long dish, so the flavour builds in depth rather than sitting on top; and never all at once at the end. Some people argue the ‘salt at every stage’ rule: one person calls it a revelation that helps a novice become a better cook, others say it is how a novice over-salts a dish, and that some vegetables cook differently if salted early — one person adds that salting onions early draws their water and softens them gently rather than frying them, which is exactly what you want for a soup base and not for a crisp edge. People’s own decider is what is in the pan and the texture you want, and their correction of the rule is the rule: taste as you go. Others give the clock as theirs: dried herbs about ten minutes before the end, fresh green herbs about three, salt at the start and again at the end after tasting; pasta water salted generously, because it is the only seasoning the pasta will ever get. Some people draw the line between a marinade and a rub that one person says people miss: a marinade is acid or enzyme and its job is to tenderise — lemon on fish will half-cook it, pineapple will turn meat to mush if left — while a dry rub or a spice mix is for flavour, and using one for the other’s job gives you dry meat or muted spice. One person points out, for anyone brining in a spice blend: only the salt in the blend goes into the meat; the rest stays on the surface, so a blend is a rub that happens to brine. And one person says sugar is a seasoning in savoury food — sauces, barbecue, bread — not a dessert ingredient that wandered, which is part of the next question.

The burger question is argued and belongs mostly to another page; the restaurant question has an honest answer and a health caution. Burgers first, briefly. Many people argue whether salt goes into the mince or only on the outside of the formed patty: some people say sprinkle it on top, because salt mixed through dissolves proteins and turns a loose patty into something closer to sausage; others say mix it in, because a burger seasoned only on the surface is under-seasoned inside, and one person with professional-kitchen experience says they seasoned during mixing without dry results. Some people settle what can be settled: it is specifically salt that changes the texture, not spices in general, so other seasonings can go in freely; dryness comes from overcooking before it comes from seasoning; and eggs do not bind a patty, whatever your grandmother said. People’s decider is the burger you want — loose and juicy, salt late and on the surface; firmer and seasoned through, salt early — and never press the patty in the pan; the page on dimpling the patty has the rest. Now the restaurant. Others say the honest reasons a dish out tastes of more are fat, salt and sugar in quantities you would not use at home — butter hidden in a red sauce, a stack of savoury depth from soy, fish sauce, tomato paste, aged cheese or plain glutamate powder — plus spices that are fresher because the stock turns over. People argue whether to copy that at home, and some people warn, as this page does: eating at restaurant levels of salt, sugar and fat every day is linked to the conditions the safety line names, so copy the technique — the brine, the dry surface, the bloomed spice, the rest — and leave the quantities to the restaurant. One person notes that whether a slab of butter or a head of garlic is welcome depends on the cuisine, and one person says salted butter is fine to cook with, its salt being modest — this page carries that as theirs.