Dry brining 
Discussion
Why you be putting all that salt on there?!?
To extract the moisture from the steak
But I like a moist steak!
I just pat it down with paper towels, wasn’t sure if you did it for taste or something
there's a reason why most of the plastic tray shrink wrapped style packaging of meat has those quite thick pads under them, it's to absorb the blood
if you shop at a proper butcher, they array the meat out in the display refrigerator on top of grills and the blood is mostly drained out by the time you buy anything in there
an excess of blood in meat is unpleasant and it does change the flavor and it changes the way it cooks, the dry brining is actually basically about drawing the blood out more quickly, but simply hanging it works fine
also, it takes at least 3 or 4 days in warm dry room temperature air for there to be any risk of meat becoming infected with something, a day or two draining is perfectly fine
in the game Ghost of Tsushima, you visit many mongol tents and one of the almost universal items found in every mongol tent is a huge piece of some animal, usually cow, dangling on a hook, looking quite dry
the shit they do to meat in many places now is awful, like, the bacon and pork in the UK when i was living there, was so ladened with nitrite salts that it totally fucked up the flavor and way it cooked
i don't know why people don't complain about it but the big supermarkets have basically driven traditional butchers to the margins and it's only there you get meat that has been handled by experts, the shit in supermarkets is factory, and usually corn fed, you can smell it especially in offal like chicken livers when you cook it, people just have no fucking idea and so they get away with it and the quality of life continues to slide downwards
Is there a different way?
IMO most meat is still ridiculously so full of blood and it messes with the taste of it, the salt removes some of it but letting the meat drain and dry a little tiny bit is better IMO, i almost always hang my beef up to drain out for half a day or so - i only get it frozen so it's basically killed and stuck in a freezer wrapped in plastic immediately
The blood drains itself well enough when cooking and when resting me thinks
well idk what your sources are but the blood is constantly leaking out of the meat and forms a scum all around the pan when i cook it... the more i drain it the less it does this and the more tasty it is at the end, as well
I Salt my steak 24hrs before cooking & then again right before. Gives it amazing flavour
what’s the process?
Put lots of salt, leaves in fridge 6-8 hours uncovered, pat dry with paper towels and remove excess salt before cooking
Less salt & more time is how I like mine, especially for thick cuts.
Next step on my journey is a good fridge for dry aging. Never would have guessed controlled spoilage of meat would taste so good! 🤤
Something I learned last summer: Canada has way higher quality beef than the States, generally. I’m sure there are some great providers out here in the states, but, in general, the meat quality here is sub par.
It's extremely noticable to me
That’s interesting to learn. What stateside providers, if any, would you say come closest to Canadian quality beef?
Great question! maybe we could ask nostr:npub12pl4h7pk0svg8ug4mhu7a90hn6nf83eqadd94pccgsafn73s392qpt42wq
Have steak, but feeling short THAT steak..
🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤