The why of salt in long term dry rub, opinions please

As a long time home cook and student of the art, I am wondering why so many if not all dry rub recipes include salt, especially if the rub is going to be on the meat long term. Say over night.

My teaching regarding meat and salt is that salt will draw out moisture from the meat and should be applied just before or not too long before cooking. In almost all of the dry rub recipes I have seen, salt is the #2 or #3 component and the rub is left on the meat for several hours if not overnight. I have never personally done an experiment to see if salt really draws moisture out of meat, I have just taken for granted that it does. I have poured salt on my carpet when I spilled wine and I see how it draws the liquid out of the carpet, any similarities?

I know there must be a good reason to add salt in the rub instead of adding it to the meat just before smoking but I don't know why. Oh, I do understand the flavor enhancing properties of salt, so it's not why one adds salt, it is why one adds it in the beginning of a long stay on the product.

Thanks for your help.

Mark

PS. this was originally posted by me in the smokering.com. Great site for all things BBQ.

http://www.thesmokering.com

salt does draw out the moisture initially. if you leave it long enough (overnight as you stated) some of that moisture then dissolves some of the salt and then acts as a marinade as it is drawn back into the meat carrying the salt and other dissolved flavorings with it.

this article has some good diagrams to illustrate.

http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

disclaimer: i've tried this method on steaks and cannot give it my full endorsement. it does help to tenderize and flavor the steak but i find i have a difficult time getting a nice crust when pan-searing/roasting my steaks after salting them in this manner. it may work well for the grill or bbq.

Thanks for the question and article. I also had always thought salting meat a bad idea. I'm going to try that out on some chicken as well, after having read the blog post.

Thanks for the link. It reads well and if it's true then I understand the why. I was also thinking that since the dry rub is used on larger thicker pieces of meat like brisket and pork butts it might make sense that the portion of salt in the rub would not have sufficient strength to draw all the moisture out. AND since the rub does get wet over night this might be evidence that the other ingredients in the rub are holding the moisture on the surfance and indeed it is seeping back into the meat by osmosis. That and the fact that most often the meat is wrapped in palstic wrap or a ziplock bag therby helping the moisture stay on the meat.

Well on to my next BBQ.

Mark

cthip said:

salt does draw out the moisture initially. if you leave it long enough (overnight as you stated) some of that moisture then dissolves some of the salt and then acts as a marinade as it is drawn back into the meat carrying the salt and other dissolved flavorings with it.

this article has some good diagrams to illustrate.

http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

disclaimer: i've tried this method on steaks and cannot give it my full endorsement. it does help to tenderize and flavor the steak but i find i have a difficult time getting a nice crust when pan-searing/roasting my steaks after salting them in this manner. it may work well for the grill or bbq.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the link. I do this usually with pork to ensure that it is always tender.

Rember tho most meat is injected with saline to make it weight more the salting with a rub isnt as bad as it sounds. Dont trim the fat off and your meat will be juicy.

This article also has a pretty good explanation of how the salting process adds moisture

http://www.articlealley.com/article_814132_26.html

I've watched the America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country crew talk about this in great detail and discuss the chemistry of it, and for the life of me, I can't remember the specific chemical process.

I can say, though, I tried this for the first time a few weeks ago on a standing beef rib roast, and it came out extremely juicy and tender after letting the meat rest for about 20 minutes.

ATK is also a big fan of brining with poultry and pork.

Hreafn said:

Rember tho most meat is injected with saline to make it weight more the salting with a rub isnt as bad as it sounds. Dont trim the fat off and your meat will be juicy.

Click to expand...

Are you serious about the saline injection thing? I've heard of butchers selling "wet" meat to increase the weight but I thought there were regulations against such practices?

Salting your meat a while prior to cooking will tend to even out the moisture instead of "draw it out."

Salt's not a sponge or some magically absorbent material; what it does do is change the osmotic balance at the surface of the meat, and like cthip says, it'll also draw some salt back in as it balances out. That is why you do it- meat & salt go pretty well together, and if you can get some more salt inside the meat, it tastes better. Brining chicken, turkey and pork is similar, although the idea in that case is to bring water into the meat, not just the salt flavor.

That article cthip links to is dead-on. Try that sometime with a steak- it really does work.

Darn this thread, I had a dream about salting some porterhouse. Q_Q no money IRL lol!

cthip said:

salt does draw out the moisture initially. if you leave it long enough (overnight as you stated) some of that moisture then dissolves some of the salt and then acts as a marinade as it is drawn back into the meat carrying the salt and other dissolved flavorings with it.

this article has some good diagrams to illustrate.

http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

disclaimer: i've tried this method on steaks and cannot give it my full endorsement. it does help to tenderize and flavor the steak but i find i have a difficult time getting a nice crust when pan-searing/roasting my steaks after salting them in this manner. it may work well for the grill or bbq.

Click to expand...

update: tried this method again on some prime sirloin last night, but modified it slightly. i guessed that rinsing (and patting dry with a paper towel) the salt off the meat prior to searing was preventing me from achieving the crust that i wanted. also i had a couple of problems over-seasoning the meat when i let it sit too long.

this time, i just sprinkled the steak liberally (my normal amount) with kosher salt, and let it sit for a long time--didn't time it but probably 2+hours. when i came back the salt had completely dissolved but the meat was not sitting in a pool of moisture. the liquid had stayed in the meat, and the surface was dry. i got the crust i wanted on the outside, meat was well seasoned all the way through (especially the fatty parts), and i think i've got a method i'm going to stick with.

not to thread-jack (i know this thread is supposed to be about bbq!), but it's a modified combination of the above salting procedure and this cooking method:

http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/04/the-butter-steak-whats-the-best-way-to-cook-a-steak.html

Hreafn said:

Rember tho most meat is injected with saline to make it weight more the salting with a rub isnt as bad as it sounds. Dont trim the fat off and your meat will be juicy.

Click to expand...

Alacrity59 said:

Are you serious about the saline injection thing? I've heard of butchers selling "wet" meat to increase the weight but I thought there were regulations against such practices?

Click to expand...

I did some more research on this. In Canada any cuts of beef that have been moisture enhanced with a sodium phosphate brine so the meat is more tender must be labelled as "Seasoned". I hope the regulations are similar in other parts of the world.

Different cuts of meat should be treated... well differently. In the case of beef some cuts do their best cooked briefly at a high temperature and should not be cooked past medium for optimum moisture and tenderness. These are your common steak cuts and I would not recommend either brining or a long term salt rub for them. The crust is achieved by applying coarse salt just prier to cooking. Braising cuts, such as chuck or brisket, have a lot of connective tissue which breaks down to gelatin during a long slow cooking process does very well with a brine or salt rub. While the cuts will eventually achieve a state of equilibrium this typically only occurs in cured meat, think corned beef. If you weigh/measure a cut before and after brining you will find it has reduced in volume and weight. This is more than compensated for by the addition of flavor and the beginning of connective tissue breakdown. Steak cuts are tender/juicy because of a lack of connective tissue and a shorter cooking time that preserves moisture within the meat. If overcooked they become very dry and tough. Braising cuts become tender/juicy through a long cooking process that breaks down connective tissue and converts it to gelatin. If undercooked they are stringy and tough.

cthip said:

disclaimer: i've tried this method on steaks and cannot give it my full endorsement. it does help to tenderize and flavor the steak but i find i have a difficult time getting a nice crust when pan-searing/roasting my steaks after salting them in this manner. it may work well for the grill or bbq.

Click to expand...

Holy late reply. Did you thoroughly dry off your steaks before trying to sear them? Meat with surface moisture won't brown very well.

I salt the hot preheated pan when I cook steak. I get a better crust than if I were to salt the steak itself.

Dry rubs have a very, very long history and the salt is actually there to inhibit bacterial growth while the meat sits around at room temperature. Smoking is done for the same reason. Both are primarily preservatives. Flavour is a side-benefit.

Nice to see this thread has new life. That must mean that more folks are at least thinking about BBQ.

pepper is used in large amounts in rubs to keep the flies off while the meat hangs. Keeps small vermin of the warm-blooded kind off too.