When to salt your steak

So how about just before or after grilling?

You can get away with seasoning your steak just before grilling if you season generously JUST before putting it on the grill. The salt will stay on the surface of the meat without dissolving and the meat juices stay within the muscle fibers for a juicy steak. For this to work properly you will need to immediately grill the steak at a very high temperature. Doing so will allow the steak to form an evenly distributed and crispy brown crust. Seasoning after, but not before, grilling won’t get you any points with purists, but if you have a really good cut you can theoretically get away with searing the steak without salting it at all beforehand.

If you’re adding salt solely for seasoning, and not to influence the grilling, then the best time to do it is at the end of the grilling. That way, the salt crystals hit your palate directly, and you get the greatest flavour impact with the least amount of salt. An added benefit is that it’s easier to salt to taste and avoid oversalting.

The salt you use matters

Regardless of whether you are salting for flavour or tenderness, the type of salt that you use matters. Table salt isn’t as ideal as the grains are too tiny to have an impact on your steak. Instead, you want to look at something with bigger flakes such as sea salt in order to really have enough materials on your meat to break down the proteins and bring out the flavour of your meat.

Salt liberally

While using large amounts of salt may cause some people to worry about drying their steak out too much, if you stick to the timing technique we’ve outlined above (one hour per inch of steak thickness) then isn’t anything to worry about. As such, you shouldn’t be afraid to rub enough salt on your steak to make a difference. Even when you’re using a lot of salt not all of it will be absorbed into the meat, and once you’ve washed the excess salt off post-sitting, you should have a flavour that is noticeable, elegant, and not overpowering.