THE INGREDIENTS
HOW TO SEASON YOUR MEAT WITH SALT
Salt and meat have a long history together. Everyone will tell you to “season before cooking” and “never add salt just before serving!” Just for fun, what if we looked into what actually happens, scientifically, when you season meat with salt?
DOES THE SALT PENETRATE THE MEAT?
Here’s the real question we need to answer first. It seems so obvious that we don’t even wonder.
I know that when we put salt onto meat, we think it’s going to penetrate it. However, the fact is that during cooking, the penetration of the salt is laughably minimal.
IF I ADD SALT BEFORE COOKING ANYWAY, WHAT HAPPENS?
UNIVERSAL GRAVITY
You’re familiar with the law of gravity? This law also applies to the salt added to meat. It falls off during cooking. Exactly how much falls off is a mystery, but basically you’ll never know how much salt stayed on your meat and how much of it ended up at the bottom of the cooking dish. That’s the first problem.
FAT
You know that salt dissolves in water but not in oil. If you brown your meat in oil or butter, the fat will coat some of the grains of salt and will prevent any contact between the salt and the humidity of the meat. It won’t be able to dissolve. That’s the second problem.
EXPULSION
During cooking, the surface of the meat contracts, dries out, and expels some of the juices it contains. On a grill or in a frying pan, this is very violent: the steam exits with such force that it pushes some of the grains of salt away. In an oven, this isn’t as brutal, but the same thing happens. Again, some of the salt sprinkled onto the meat serves no purpose. But how much of it? It still isn’t measurable. We haven’t got the foggiest idea. Problem number three.
AND IN A STOCK?
This is different. If the stock was salted before you added the meat, the salt will stop the meat juices from being released into the stock. The meat will be more flavorful. It’s the same for braised meat if you sprinkle the exterior with salt—but the salt won’t actually penetrate.
Adding salt just before cooking is essentially pointless. Sorry!
THE SPEED OF SALT PENETRATION
FOR THE SALT TO PENETRATE BY ⅓ INCH (1 CM), JUST ONE TINY CENTIMETER, IT NEEDS ABOUT:
This is 1 cm. And it’s not a lot…
This is the amount of time necessary for the salt to dissolve before it penetrates the meat, like…
a skinless chicken thigh, a pork rib, a lamb cutlet…
a rib of beef, a rib-eye steak…
a steak, a beef roast, or a leg of lamb
THE TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SALT
SALT CAUSES THE MEAT TO RELEASE JUICES.
Yes! That’s true, it’s been proven. But it depends on which meat and which part of the meat: it’s faster for poultry and pork, and a lot slower for veal or beef. But in both cases, it takes quite a long time.
SALT IS A FLAVOR ENHANCER.
We’re often told this, but it’s completely false. Salt doesn’t enhance flavors, but modifies them. In many cases, salt reduces the acidity or bitterness of a dish even better than sugar does, like for a tomato sauce, a grapefruit, or chicory, for example.
THE MEAT BOILS IN ITS JUICES.
This is another thing we often hear: “I don’t add salt to my meat because it’ll boil in its own juices.” It’s just that the pan isn’t hot enough or isn’t big enough for the juices to turn into steam. These juices remain beneath the meat, and boil it. It has nothing to do with salt.
SO, WHAT’S THE POINT OF ADDING SALT?
During the cooking process, the proteins inside the meat twist and release juices.
So, for a juicy piece of meat, these proteins need to twist as little as possible. And for this to happen, there’s one infallible thing: our beloved salt!
When the salt seeps deep into the meat, it modifies the structure of these proteins. Once it has caused them to deteriorate, they’ll twist a lot less and so will release far fewer juices.
When you wring a wet cloth, you expel the water it contains. It’s the same for proteins; the effect of the heat causes them to twist and expel the water inside the meat.
DO YOU ADD SALT BEFORE, DURING, OR AFTER COOKING?
Take a good piece of meat. Here are the different solutions and explanations to help you season it with salt.
3 WEEKS BEFORE
BENEFICIAL
A protective crust forms: the meat can then age slowly, without the risk of putrefaction.
2 DAYS BEFORE
DIVINE!
The salt penetrates the meat and lightly dries out the exterior. The meat will better retain its juices during the cooking process and will crisp up on the outside.
4 TO 5 HOURS BEFORE
VERY GOOD
The salt slowly penetrates the meat: the exterior turns slightly dry. The meat will be juicier and the outside will crisp up faster.
1 HOUR BEFORE
GOOD
The salt slowly dissolves and begins to slightly penetrate the inside of the meat. In the areas where the salt has soaked through, the meat will be juicier––but only in those areas.
JUST BEFORE
POINTLESS
The salt won’t have had time to dissolve or to penetrate the piece of meat. Most of it will fall or be pushed off. The worst-case scenario.
DURING
POINTLESS
The salt won’t have had the time to humidify or dissolve, so it won’t stick to the meat and most of it will fall into the cooking dish.
AFTER
ALSO GOOD
This way, you know exactly how much salt there is on the meat. The salt stays crunchy and this stimulates the taste buds. Not a bad solution.
HOW DO I EFFECTIVELY SEASON MY MEAT WITH SALT?
SEASON BEFORE COOKING
The trick is to add salt well in advance, a long time before cooking—up to two days.
I know, it sounds crazy. You’ll say, but won’t the salt make the meat release some of the juices? Yes, that’s true. But then the meat will reabsorb them, and it will be more tender and a lot juicer once it’s been cooked.
SEASON AFTER COOKING
This is better, because you know exactly how much salt is on your meat. There are two solutions: either you season before the meat has rested, or you season it afterwards.
Before resting: a large quantity of the salt will dissolve and the outside of the meat will be evenly salted.
After resting: the salt won’t dissolve and when you chew, the little grains of salt will crack beneath your teeth and stimulate the taste buds.
THE CLASSIC ERROR TO AVOID
If you coat your meat in oil before you season it, the oil will form a light film that will prevent the grains of salt from coming into contact with the humidity of the meat.
The result: the salt will have great difficulty dissolving and most of it will remain in the cooking dish.
THE DIFFERENT SALTS TO USE
Forget fine salt, that’s the one you can get everywhere. It’s a salt that doesn’t have a particular taste and hasn’t got any personality. There are many salts with different textures and surprising flavors. Don’t hesitate to switch between them depending on their qualities and on your recipe.
All cooking salts are composed mostly of sodium chloride. It’s what they contain besides the sodium chloride that makes the difference, as well as the shape of the salt crystals. Here’s a short list of salts to try.
FINE SEA SALT
Collected from salt marshes, this is the most common salt after fine salt. Tastier, it’s the most basic salt to have for seasoning cooking water. It’s better unrefined (slightly gray) so as to benefit from all of its natural mineral salts.
COARSE SEA SALT
Like fine salt, but… coarse. It’s usually a grayish color because its falls to the bottom of the salt marshes and takes on some of the color of the clay on which it sits. It’s a little rough, but perfect for the English-style cooking (in boiling water) of certain vegetables.
FLEUR DE SEL
Formed of very fine crystals, this is the thin layer of salt that skims the surface of the salt marshes and sticks together in clumps around the marsh edges before it’s collected. The flavors change according to production regions. Use after cooking to benefit from its crunchiness.
KOSHER SALT
This is a pure salt (so, unrefined), slightly grayish in color, made up of grains that are quite big. Not very well-known in Europe although very commonly used in the United States, it’s a delicious salt that is unique in that it’s difficult to dissolve and offers a light crunch, perfect for using at the end of the cooking process.
PINK HIMALAYAN SALT
This salt doesn’t come from the Himalayas, but from the northeast region of Pakistan, in the geological zone of the Himalayas! Its pink color is due to its high iron levels. It’s an unrefined, noniodized rock salt, fine with a crunchy texture and a hint of acidity. Use it just before serving to get the most out of its qualities.
PERSIAN BLUE SALT
From the most ancient salt mines in the world, situated in Iran (formerly Persia), this salt has been hand-collected for centuries. It gets its name from the fact that some of its crystals contain sylvinite, which gives it a blue hue. With its strong, spiced flavors, it’s perfect on poultry or foie gras.
HAWAIIAN BLACK SALT
It gets its black color from the lava rocks that used to hurtle down the sides of the island’s volcanos and onto the shores. Today, a few rocks are added to the saltworks to obtain this intense black color. Its flavors are bold and slightly smoky. Use sparingly just before serving, on foie gras or white meat.
HAWAIIAN RED ALAEA SALT
From the island of Molokai, part of the Hawaiian Islands, this salt takes on the red color of the volcanic clay called alaea, which is added to it during the drying process. In contrast to a lot of other rare salts, this one can be used in cooking due to its predictable nutty flavor.
CHARDONNAY OAK SMOKED SALT
This is a fleur de sel salt harvested from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. It’s cold smoked and then placed in barrels used for producing Chardonnay wine. Definitely the finest of smoked salts, it develops flavors that are woody, tartly balsamic, citrusy, and of course, smoked. Use after cooking.
MALDON SALT
Originating from the town of Maldon in the east of England, this very white salt is obtained by heating seawater until salt forms due to precipitation. Its consistency, made up of very pure flakes that are light and crumbly, crunchy, highly iodized, and which dissolve with difficulty, have made it the favorite salt among star chefs.
HALEN MÔN ANGLESEY SALTS
These salts, from the island of Anglesey near Wales, are so light and airy that they look like snowflakes. They’re obtained using a very particular method: water from the Atlantic Ocean is successively filtered through coal, a bed of mussels, and then sand. It’s then heated sous vide and put into crystallization containers so that salt crystals form.
UNSMOKED HALEN MÔN
Very white, crunchy, slightly sparkling, and highly iodized, it looks like snowflakes.
SMOKED HALEN MÔN
Smoked on wood chips, it has the same characteristics, with a soft, smoked flavor.
CHEF’S TIP
Here’s a secret from Hervé This (physiochemist, inventor of molecular gastronomy) that Pierre Gagnaire uses every day: he mixes a bit of salt with a few drops of olive oil. A microscopic layer of oil coats the grains of salt and stops them from dissolving when they come into contact with the meat. When you eat it, there’s a slight crunchiness that stimulates the taste buds. Exceptional!
HOW TO SEASON YOUR MEAT WITH PEPPER
Many people add pepper before grilling or roasting meat. Is there any point in adding pepper to your meat?
DOES PEPPER PENETRATE THE MEAT?
As with salt, this is the big question. The answer is no, pepper doesn’t penetrate! You can pepper your meat like crazy, but it won’t flavor the meat as it cooks. Nyet, nada, nothing, zero. Salt already requires several hours to penetrate by 2 to 3 mm. The same is true for pepper.
IF I ADD PEPPER ANYWAY, WHAT HAPPENS?
UNIVERSAL GRAVITY
As with salt, the law of gravity must be taken into account. Some of the pepper that you put onto the meat will fall onto the grill, into the pan, or into the cooking dish. Again, you have no idea how much pepper has fallen off or how much is still on the meat. Also, if you prepare a sauce with the juices from the cooking dish, there’s already pepper in it, but you don’t know how much.
IT BURNS!
When you cook meat, fish, or vegetables on too high a heat, they burn. And when you heat pepper too much, not only does it burn, but it also becomes bitter and acrid. Pepper is very fragile and it burns at quite a low temperature, from 284°F.
AND IN A STOCK?
This will also go wrong. The pepper infuses when heated in a liquid. As it does so it becomes astringent. Season your stock with pepper after cooking. In the past, pepper was added to broths for its antiseptic properties, not to give the broth flavor.
Adding pepper before cooking is even more counterproductive than adding salt. It doesn’t penetrate, burns if cooked at too high a heat, and becomes astringent in a stock. You should always, always, always add it after cooking, never before.
NO, YOU CAN’T ROAST BLACK PEPPER BY COOKING IT!
Some chefs claim that they roast pepper by browning the meat. In fact, this is problematic. Take coffee, for example. When you roast coffee beans, the temperature is measured to the exact degree—it’s extremely precise. Certain coffees roast at 284°F, others at 305.6°F or at 321.8°F. The maximum temperature difference that a good roaster allows himself is of 35.6°F, no more. If he goes over the correct temperature, his coffee beans become more bitter. Not only that, but cooking time is also measured to the exact minute.
In short, you know that when a piece of meat is browning in a pan, you’re not measuring the exact degree of temperature or the exact number of minutes. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that he roasts his pepper as he cooks his meat. What he’s doing is burning it—that’s all.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A PEPPER PLANT?
A pepper plant is a tropical vine from the southwest region of India. These vines are twisted around wooden posts (often around live wood in India) that are 6½ ft (2 m) high and act as stakes. To thrive, the pepper plant needs a constant temperature between 68°F and 86°F. The pepper grows in little clusters along the vines. Green, black, white, and red pepper are the same fruit, but at different degrees of maturation.
GREEN PEPPER
Peppercorns start off with a green color. This pepper is fragile when it’s just been picked. It can often be found dehydrated, in brine, and sometimes freeze-dried. It has a fresh flavor, vegetal and not very spicy.
BLACK PEPPER
If you let it ripen, green pepper turns pale yellow. It’s picked, dried, and its pericarp (skin) turns black. Its flavor is warmer—woody and spicy. It offers a complex aromatic palette.
WHITE PEPPER
If you let the pepper ripen some more, the peppercorns turn orange. They’re soaked in rainwater for about ten days, then left to dry. The pericarp is removed to reveal the white peppercorn. It’s a little more aromatic than the black and not as strong.
RED PEPPER
And if the pepper is left to ripen even more, the result is deep red peppercorns that are soaked in hot water to set the color before drying. This time, the pericarp is left on the peppercorn. Rare, red pepper is hot and full-bodied.
THE DIFFERENT PEPPERS TO USE
Get rid of that powdered pepper! When I say pepper, I mean pepper that has flavor, aroma that overwhelms your taste buds but doesn’t sting, full-bodied with length on the palate––pepper that transports you.
Don’t use powdered pepper anymore. They put everything in it: dust, detritus… powdered pepper is the equivalent of the battery-farmed chickens of poultry. So, away with it and into the trash can! Opt for two or three peppers that you grind just before serving. Here’s a little tour of some exceptional peppers, a few of which cost no more than the powdered peppers commonly found at the store. These peppers have all been harvested and sorted by hand, just like the grapes of good wines.
WHITE BIRDY PEPPERCORNS “BIRD PEPPER”
In Cambodia, the birds peck the ripest peppercorns directly from the vines. When the pepper is in the bird’s crop, an enzymatic reaction modifies its flavors. After having digested the pericarp, the bird spits out the peppercorn, which is then collected by hand from the ground, hence its expensive price. Use with white meats.
KAMPOT PEPPER
In 2009, Kampot peppers were the first peppers to benefit from the IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) status. Practically nonexistent since the Khmer Rouge began to prefer cultivating rice in 1975, Kampot pepper has gradually reappeared over the course of the last twenty years. It’s a pepper that’s grown near the sea, very fresh and very elegant.
BLACK KAMPOT PEPPER
A pepper with floral notes, slightly sweet, strong, warm, and with good length on the palate. Use with red meats and lamb.
WHITE KAMPOT PEPPER
This pepper has vegetal, undergrowth notes (menthol, eucalyptus) and also notes of grilled peanuts. Incredible on white meats and in sauces.
RED KAMPOT PEPPER
Picked when ripe, this is a very warm pepper, with sweet, spicy, elegant flavors. Use in terrines, meat salads, or with foie gras.
HOW TO PROPERLY GRIND PEPPER
The flavors and aromas of pepper are concentrated in the center of the peppercorn and the spiciness lies in the exterior layer, on the pericarp.
The finer you grind your pepper, the stronger the spiciness and the more it will mask other flavors. The coarser your pepper is, the stronger its flavors will be and the more you’ll be able to enjoy its richness.
To get the most out of its characteristics, crush the peppercorns with a pestle and mortar or adjust your pepper grinder for the coarsest grind.
Very fine grind:
the spiciness dominates
Medium grind:
a mix of spiciness and flavors
Coarse grind:
the flavors dominate
WILD VOATSIPERIFERY PEPPER
This pepper is found wild in the southern region of the island of Madagascar, on vines that grow at the tops of trees that are up to 66 ft (20 m) tall. Its shape is similar to the shape of Piper cubeba (tailed pepper). It appeared in Europe only a few years ago and is still very rare. Eat it whole or slightly crushed.
WILD BLACK VOATSIPERIFERY PEPPER
Intense flavors of fresh soil with woody, fruity, and citrus notes and a distinct, lasting spiciness that isn’t too strong. Extraordinary on duck, pork, and lamb.
WILD RED VOATSIPERIFERY PEPPER
This has the same characteristics as the black variety but with warmer flavors. Perfect for pork and lamb.
LONG RED PEPPER
This can be found in various countries (Indonesia, Cambodia, etc.) but it’s in Japan, on the island of Ishigaki-Jima, that the most surprising kind is found. Shaped like ears of grain, this pepper develops flavors of cacao, coffee, butter, and also dried tomato. Best grated, crushed, or ground, it’s ideal for pork, lamb, and poultry. This long peppercorn is the ONLY one that is the best for making infusions (stocks)––the only one!
MADAGASCAR BLACK PEPPERCORN
Pepper was introduced to Madagascar at the beginning of the twentieth century by Frenchman Émile Prudhomme. The little Madagascan black peppercorns develop sweet flavors of brioche, pine nuts, and even of cacao and gingerbread, which are balanced out by notes of acid green fruits. Quite spicy, it’s ideal for red meats and marinades.
MALABAR PEPPER
Originating from the Malabar coast, between Goa and Kanyakumari in southwest India, this pepper benefits from two monsoons each year to develop the finesse and long-lastingness of its musk and burnt wood flavors. It’s also slightly sweet with a very light touch of acidity. Unbelievably good on white meat and poultry.
TASMANIAN MOUNTAIN PEPPER (“FALSE” PEPPER)
This “aboriginal pepper” is a “false” pepper (so-called because it is not a true peppercorn) that grows wild in Tasmania, in southeast Australia. At first pleasant on the palate and then hot, its peppercorns develop flavors of bay leaf, unripe nuts, and black fruits (blackberries, blueberries, and blackcurrants). Delicious with game, pork, lamb, and white meats.
TIMUT PEPPER (“FALSE” PEPPER)
Another “false” pepper that grows wild in Nepal. It develops citrus notes (lemon and grapefruit), but with a softness and length on the palate. Be careful, this berry is slightly anesthetic on the tongue and the lips! Absolutely divine on poultry and when used to bring freshness to certain sauces.
GREEN PEPPER
Opt for green pepper that is fresh, if you can find it (it’s quite rare). Often freeze-dried, green pepper is picked before it’s ripe and has fresh flavors that are reminiscent of cloves as well as a very light spiciness. Use just before eating, whole or ground on white meat, peppercorn steak, grilled food, and in certain sauces.
WHICH BUTTER FOR COOKING?
Butter comes from the fat content in milk. The problem is that it burns when heated on too high a heat. However, there are many ways to get the most out of its flavors and aromas when cooking meat. Let’s explore this.
HOW IS IT MADE?
You take cow’s milk, skim off the cream, and beat it (or churn it). The fat gathers together to form butter particles that are then removed, washed, and kneaded before being pressed into a mold.
WHY DOES IT BURN?
Butter contains water. As long as there’s water it can be heated as much as you want because the temperature will never go past 212°F (the maximum temperature of boiling water). But as soon as there’s no water left, the temperature shoots up.
When you heat butter, it first begins to bubble as the water it contains transforms and evaporates. Its temperature then rises to around 266°F and the casein and lactose begin to brown. If you heat it further, the butter starts to burn and char… and that’s when it goes straight into the trash.
THE SOLUTION
The trick is to remove the casein and the lactose that make the butter burn when hotter than 266°F. Once they’re removed, you get a clarified butter that can be heated up to 482°F without burning.
It can be used instead of oil for grilling, roasting, etc. You can even replace oil with clarified butter to fry your fries and it won’t burn!
RECIPE FOR CLARIFIED BUTTER
Gently melt a stick of butter (in a saucepan or a microwave) without stirring and, most importantly, without burning it. There’ll be a foam on top (the casein), a yellowish oil in the center, and a white layer on the bottom (the whey).
Slowly pour the contents of the saucepan through a paper towel over a sieve and catch the clarified butter in a bowl. This clarified butter can be kept for several weeks at room temperature and in the shade.
BROWN BUTTER OR BEURRE NOISETTE
Before burning, butter takes on a pretty, dark beige color that we call “brown butter” or “beurre noisette.” It’s named for the color of hazelnuts (noisette) but most of all for its flavors. Beurre noisette does indeed taste of hazelnuts.
BLACK BUTTER
Don’t worry, this isn’t burnt butter. It’s just beurre noisette to which an acid (vinegar, white wine, etc.) is added. Delicious with brains, for example.
STOP BUTTER FROM BURNING
We know that it’s when there’s no water left in butter that it burns. The secret of the star chefs is to add a little broth (or water) while the meat browns. Not too much, whatever you do—a tablespoon is more than enough to stop the butter from burning. The second reason for this is to add the flavors of the broth to the cooking juices. Delicious!
THE MYTH OF ADDING OIL
Don’t believe those people who tell you to add oil to stop the butter from burning: it’ll burn anyway! The burnt color is simply diluted into to oil, so you don’t see it.
SOME EXAMPLES OF BUTTER USES
NORMAL BUTTER
MAXIMUM °F: 212°F–266°F
FRYING PAN: Medium temperature
POT: Medium temperature
OVEN: Up to 302°F
CLARIFIED BUTTER
MAXIMUM °F: 482°F
FRYING PAN: Very high temperature
POT: Very high temperature
OVEN: Up to 536°F
WHICH OIL FOR COOKING?
All oils are not equal. Some oils burn faster than others. Some have a lot of flavor. Besides oil, there’s also pork fat, duck fat, and beef fat. Here’s a little summary of oils and cooking fats.
HOW IS IT MADE?
Cooking oil comes from the seeds or fruits of oleaginous plants. Depending on the nature of these seeds, they can be roasted or made into flour before extracting the oil. As for the fruits, they’re put directly into the press. In both cases, the oil is then refined to make it more stable.
Animal fats (lard, duck fat, beef dripping) are melted and purified of all of those “impurities.”
WHY DOES IT BURN?
Oil and animal fat decompose and distort from a certain temperature. Smoke escapes from the hot oil, which is what we call the “smoke point.”
THE SOLUTION
Unlike butter, there’s nothing you can do. You simply mustn’t exceed the smoke point.
So, choose your oil or your fat according to what you’re going to do with it.
WHY DOES OIL SPLASH AND SPIT?
Actually, it’s not the oil that spits, it’s the meat juices that explode.
The juices turn from their liquid state into a gaseous state as they turn into steam. This happens in a fraction of a second, so fast that they explode and spit everywhere.
WHY DOES FRENCH FRY OIL OVERFLOW?
When you fry French fries, the water contained inside the potatoes turns into steam (that’s the little bubbles you see coming to the surface). The problem is that the steam takes up over 2,000 times more volume than the water.
If there are a lot of fries, a lot of bubbles come to the surface and take up a lot of volume. The result: the fryer overflows. The solution: don’t cook too many fries at once.
THE SMOKE POINT
Oils and fats begin to smoke and then burn from a certain temperature depending on the oil, one that mustn’t be exceeded. Here’s a little review of the smoke points of the most common oils and animal fats.
WHY DO YOU NEED FAT TO BROIL OR ROAST?
Meat doesn’t have a completely smooth surface—there are a lot of little holes and textured areas. To cook a piece of meat correctly, the holey and textured areas must be cooked in the same way. The best way to do this is to have a liquid that will cover the whole piece of meat and fill the holes so that they cook at the same speed as the textured parts of the surface.
The other advantage of oil and butter is that they increase the number of Maillard reactions and give a lot more flavor to your meat during the cooking process. Without fat, your meat will brown very little; with fat it will brown a lot more. Don’t worry, oil doesn’t penetrate the meat at all during cooking.
COOKING MEAT WITHOUT FAT
The air conducts very little heat. There’s not a lot of contact between the meat and the heat, so the meat cooks with difficulty and doesn’t brown. Very few flavors are created.
COOKING MEAT WITH FAT
Oil conducts heat very, very well. The meat comes into contact with heat of the pan: it cooks well and browns fast. Many flavors are created.