Dry brining steak with Red Boat Fish Salt (not sauce) before sous vide and reverse sear?

[BillinStL]

I've heard all kinds of great things about Red Boat Fish Sauce and (when properly used) the great enhancement to beefy flavor it provides to beef as well as other foods. I'm curious if anyone has tried their Fish Salt?

I know you have to go sparingly when using either, but I was thinking about dry brining some steaks using it vs. kosher salt before sous vide and finishing by reverse searing really hot on my Weber Genesis gas grill using the griddle side of my GrillGrates. I have also read that you have to dry brine them in a bag to avoid having the initial fishy smell permeate the rest of your refrigerator.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance ... MTQBWY.

[Troutman]

If it were me I'd experiment with a lessor cut of meat first. My wife uses Asian fish sauce all the time and as you mention, a little goes a looonnnng way. In fact I can't stand the stuff personally, it smells and tastes like butt. Never even heard of the salt, does it have a fishy taste? Again, don't commit an expensive piece of meat before you know would be my advice.

[BillinStL]

I think that's a good idea Troutman — I have a Flat Iron Steak in the freezer that might be a good candidate for a test. Their salt has been out for awhile but not very well known compared to their sauce. Red Boat gets very high marks because of its purity/quality and is quite popular with chefs. I have a bag of the salt arriving from Amazon today and will report back with findings as I go.

[BillinStL]

You might want to go to Red Boat's site here is a link to the salt page:

http://redboatfishsauce.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=62

I'm thinking that for what I want to use it for, the salt may be more manageable.

[grumpynuts]

Am I the only one wondering how Troutman knows what butt tastes like? (Moderator, please feel free to delete as there is no culinary value to this post.)

[BillinStL]

Well Troutman , I decided to take a chance on a better cut of meat (no guts, no glory). I'm experimenting with 2 choice 6.5-7 ounce filets I bought yesterday afternoon for dinner tonight. I have been dry brining them since then — one dry brined with Red Boat Fish Salt — the other with Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (using quite a bit less of the fish salt vs. the kosher salt.

Interesting discovery when I looked in on them in the fridge this morning — the fish salt one is dramatically darker aged looking than it's kosher salt counterpart. We'll see how it turns out tonight (to paraphrase Dirty Harry "You have to ask
yourself a question — Do I feel lucky").

[BillinStL]

Finished products after sprinkling with dry rub and sous vide for 60 minutes at 133 F. (foam plate, fish salt filet on the left)— then very short high heat post sear on GrillGrate griddle side in my Weber E-310 gas grill (sliced, fish salt filet on top). Both were delicious (and it was a little like splitting hairs), but I thought the fish salt version had a slightly deeper/meatier flavor and was perhaps a tad bit more tender (but that might be purely a difference in the two steaks) — but my wife and daughter weren't as sure. I will definitely use it again (may try it with a bigger hunk of beef tenderloin and then slice into medallions).

[EdF]

Looks great!

[T-bone]

Looks awesome! Thanks for sharing.