Lyon , 1 year ago

I’m not sure if it is covered in the article but you can achieve extra maillard reaction with a more deeply seasoned, juicer, tender steak with a dry brine.

It’s super simple, it just takes time. Salt your steak all over and stick it in the fridge on a wire rack overnight.

If you check the steak within about 3 minutes you’ll see the salt drawing out moisture into little beads on the surface. This would be a bad time to cook, you’d lose that moisture and waste energy boiling the surface liquid off your meat, resulting in a grey bland steak. Over the next hour the juices dissolve the salt, making the brine. Leave it for several hours and the salt will diffuse into the meat and… Do science to the protein (read the dry brine article on serious eats, it explains all!). This will make the interior of the steak extra juicy and the exterior extra dry for a great crust. If you put the steak on the rack the circulating air also dries out the surface.

If you’re buying a decent steak it’s well worth the near zero effort that this takes.