• FiniteBanjo@feddit.online
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    1 day ago

    You want one where a substantial amount of the fat is present in the muscle and evenly spread throughout. It’s tasty and as the moisture evaporates out of the steak the melting fat soaks into the meat, keeping it tender and juicy.

    Salt also softens meat, in part because of its effects on moisture evaporation temperature changing in the solution, but just as importantly because salt is what naturally forces muscle to relax in a living body as well as a cut of meat. That’s why body builders eat bananas, they have potassium salts.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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      14 hours ago

      Never made the connection, but when I was in human anatomy class, we removed the thigh muscle from a frog, hooked it up to a seismograph, and shocked it, to track the spasm.

      As the shocks went on, it would eventually cramp up. Putting saline solution (salt water) on it, would release the cramp, and you could do the experiment again.

      That’s a direct example of salt making a muscle relax. I never thought to connect it to marinating meat.

    • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I also tend to look for a thicker cut, since you can cook it more gradually to develop a good texture throughout without overcooking, and still develop a good crust.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        You also want to dry brine it, that is 12-24 hours before cooking rubbing it with salt and leaving it uncovered in the fridge

        Then before cooking, let it warm up on the bench

        If you have a particularly good cut, you can warm it to room temp, then put it in a mixture of salt and water (20% salt) at freezer temperatures for 20 minutes before drying it and searing it. You’ll get a perfect crust and also perfect edge to edge consistency with no bands of overcooked meat