Bulk new york strip getting portioned into vac packs - salt or not?

[bmillin]

I'm tempted to salt them as usual as they will be frozen soon, and I don't want to repackage prior to cooking. What say ye?

[Attjack]

Are you only eating them as plain steak? I probably would not salt because I would be likely to use some of them in dishes that for instance call for soy sauce or fish sauce which would make them over-salted.

[mrteddyprincess]

I agree it depends on what the future plans are for the steak. Good point!

[mrichie1229]

mrteddyprincess, this was exactly my though as well.

[mrteddyprincess]

You're likely to get a lot of responses and I can only speak for myself. I frequently dry brine steaks and then vacuum seal them. If I choose to SV first I don't have to take them out of the package. Let us know how it goes!

Brian

[rickgregory]

Assuming you're going to use them as steaks, I'd salt them, vac-seal them and let them dry brine for ~24 hours (or let them dry brine then vac-seal, whichever). Then freeze. That let's you SV from frozen if you do that or thaw in the fridge and cook however you want, knowing that they're dry brined. HOWEVAH... mark on the package that you've salted them so you don't wonder.

[jfmorris]

Interesting thought, and something that never occurred to me. I often buy large cuts and slice them into steaks and vacuum seal them. As others said - you really cannot freeze for at least 5-6 hours, as you need time for that dry brine to happen. Once it does, these will be good to cook straight from the freezer.

I tend to take steaks out the morning I want to cook, thaw for about 2 hours on the counter, then unbag them and dry brine on a plate in the fridge until dinner time. Did that yesterday in fact, but it started raining, so I dropped them into the SV bath at 135, then seared in a skillet

[DavidNorcross]

I purchase this way all the time. Personal preference is to not salt.

[FireMan]

Be patient & be sure. Don’t salt em.

[Allon]

I don't have any SV equipment so I can't speak to that...

I agree with FireMan no salt when freezing.

I generally dry brine my steaks overnight because I like them tender and juicy...

[CHNeal]

I cut 2 or three of these and rib roasts into steaks to freeze a year. Nope on the salt. Brine after the thaw.

[fzxdoc]

I wondered about the effect of salt on moisture loss and flavor when sous-viding a steak. Moisture loss increases with increasing SV time and temperature.

Reading this article by Kosher Dosher (whose 'blog I follow), gave me as definitive an answer as I needed.

His findings:

from Kosher Dosher: "My pronouncement is to Dry-Brine for at least 6 hours. In the end it was about flavor and not moisture that produced the superior steak."

Kathryn

[rickgregory]

I don't see the argument against salting them unless you're going to defrost and dry brine them after that. In that case I don't see an advantage one way or the other, really so I guess I'd not salt them just in case I want to use them in a stirfry, etc.

[Draznnl]

I say salt and don’t salt. Salt some and mark those packages so you know which ones they are. Leave others unsalted for use in stir fry, etc. Mark those with a differently colored Sharpie so you know which ones they are.

[Mosca]

I don’t salt them. My thought is: be consistent. So I got a bunch of steaks in the freezer; if I salted them all, that means some were salted last year, some 6 weeks ago, etc. And, how good is my memory… were these salted? I dunno. And don't you dare ask me to mark the bag.

This way they are all always the same. They all get thawed the day before, they all get salted 4-24 hours before cooking. And if I want to do something else, I won’t be thinking, “Damn, I already salted these, now I can’t (do whatever with them).

If you have something that works for you, that’s good. But whatever you do, be consistent.

[RlsRls]

I don't pre--salt before I vac seal,.... but on a similar topic , have any of you attempted to put a" hard chill", (in the freezer for a bit), unwrapped, on the steaks , burgers, maybe fish fillets, etc.. to prevent the squezzing out of juices during the vac-sealing?? I've tried it , and it seems to help without compromising the freshness!

[Mosca]

I started doing that with burgers. I was getting some pretty strange edges on them, before I started doing it!

[WayneT]

I’m glad this topic was started as I’ve also wondered about salting, vac-sealing then freezing something like a steak. If you don’t salt but vac-seal without a predetermined, future cooking method in mind, if you decide to SV it then you would have to thaw it in order to dry brine it, then vac-seal again for the SV. Under this scenario, I’ve learned to make my SV bags longer than necessary so I can reuse them after freezing for the SV step. If you salt then freeze, you can choose to SV or cook otherwise and you’ve made more efficient use of your resources. I recently did my first SV from frozen with outstanding results.

I’m on board with Draznnl ‘s idea of salting some and not salting others.

[Alan Brice]

The extra length bag is a great idea! On my list.