How to Season a Steak

A big part of cooking the perfect steak is knowing how to season it. There are going to be a lot of opinions about the kinds of seasonings to use on the steak, and in what amounts, but in general, you should remember that one of the biggest mistakes people tend to make when cooking at home is under-seasoning (specifically under-salting) their food, especially meat. And when seasoning meat, you shouldn’t use regular table salt, but coarse-grained kosher salt.

Here’s a quick overview of tips for seasoning steak in Williamsport, PA.

How much seasoning

The first question people often have concerns the amount of seasoning to put on the steak. This will depend on the cut of meat, but most steaks are pretty thick (an inch to an inch and a half). When you put the salt on the steak, you’re really only seasoning the surface. For the whole steak to be salted, you need to be generous with your seasoning, because it needs to sink down into the meat during the cooking process. You probably are able to put on more than you might think just by looking at the steak.

When to season

You’ll find a lot of different answers as to when you should season the steak. There are some chefs who will season a steak up to 24 hours in advance, and others who will wait to season right before cooking.

If you do season in advance, you need to be more careful about how much seasoning you use, as the salt will draw moisture away from the center of the cut of meat toward the surface.

But if you want to try seasoning in advance, the best method is to pat the meat dry with paper towels, then sprinkle both sides of the steak generously with the salt, making sure to also salt the edges. Press the salt into the meat with your hands—don’t just let it sit on top.

After seasoning, put the steaks on cooling racks with a pan or cookie sheet underneath, then cover the tray with plastic and put the steaks in the fridge for up to 24 hours, removing them about 30 minutes before cooking to pat them with paper towels again and season them with coarse-ground black pepper. Press the pepper into the meat just as you did with the salt, and then grill.

If you want to season right before cooking, you should make sure you let the steaks sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes first. Then you can use the same process described above to season with salt and pepper, making sure to use your hands to press the seasoning into the meat.

As far as which method is better, we recommend you try for yourself and see if you can notice the difference. It basically comes down to personal preference.

For more tips for seasoning steak and getting the best results out of your grilling at home in Williamsport, PA, contact the experts at Tony’s Delicatessen & Fresh Meats.

Categorised in: Steak

This post was written by Writer