How to overseason your meat? Follow the advice of Pit Maters found on YouTube.
Some of the best chicken I have ever cooked was seasoned with salt and pepper only with a lighter application too.
What is your experience? I have been cutting back on seasoning and it seems to work out for me.
BTW this is in prep for a meal for friends with no salt but can have other seasonings.
Thank before hand.
Equipment:
'88 Vintage Fire Magic gasser with over 4000 cooks to its credit
Large Big Green Egg
18 Inch Weber Kettle (Rescued from neighbor's trash)
Rotisserie for 18 inch kettle
Dyna Glo propane smoker
Pit Barrel Cooker
Smokey Joe with mini WSM mod
Garcima paella burner
Anova Sous Vide
Slaiya Sous Vide (gift)
LEM grinder, sausage stuffer and meat slicer (all gifts)
With the exception of brisket, chuck (for pulling) and pork butt, I just use salt (1/2t/lb). For the formers I sprinkle lightly. I actually like the flavor of the meat, If I wanted to taste rubs, I'd just sprinkle them on some bread.
I'm very light handed with all rubs and salt. Have had a lifetime of a low salt diet so I really don't have a taste for much of it. I really like tasting the meat flavor, not over flavored with rubs and salt.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I go pretty heavy with seasoning on the outside of large cuts of meat like whole chicken, turkeys, briskets, butts, or ribs. Much of the seasoning either comes off during grilling or smoking, or is a basis for bark formation. And it's on the surface only.
For smaller cuts of meat - like a steak or burgers - I season like I would want to eat it at the table, but maybe a little heavier, as I again know much of that pepper is coming off on the grill...
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I tend to prefer more seasoning. Nearly everywhere I go I find the steaks/ribs/chicken, you name it, grossly under-seasoned. Unless it's a fancy dinner place (non-BBQ), the white tablecloths & candles kinda place, they tend to do it perfectly.
I read a lot of folks saying 'you want to taste the meat', I think chicken and pork are very boring, to me they need decent seasoning!
I'm not a physician or even a dietician, but several studies I've read that link high sodium diets to high blood pressure (due to water retention) which is a contributing factor to heart disease, may not necessarily be substantiated. Obvious if you eat a basket of French fries and Chinese take out every day of the year then like anything else, you are over doing it. Of course other contributing factors like obesity come into play as well. That said, you do you and listen to your doctor.
I will; however, state that food without salt (however you want to apply it) is just plain bland. As we know from Dr. Blonder's studies, salt is the only seasoning molecule that actually penetrates into the proteins we eat. Salt is the number one seasoning in all of the world's cooking. There's a reason for that, it excites the taste buds thus concentrates flavor. It's also essential for our body chemistry. So, controlling intake, probably. Eliminating it altogether, no.
As for other seasonings, most off which just sit on the surface of the meat, they're primality window dressing. They do promote a good bark (pepper for instance) and provide a tasty bite. But I often get a kick out of even seasoned chefs who still talk about letting seasonings sit on meat so they can infuse flavor and penetrate, which we know is simply not true. That's precisely why Central Texas barbecue essentially uses salt and pepper. Salt for flavor enhancement and pepper for bark and a bit of a bite.
That's it I'm done. He now leaves his soap box.....
After a fair amount of research, and open heart surgery and congestive heart condition I have not been concerned with salt in my diet. I am quite liberal in its usage. Although, I do watch it when using rubs cuz of salt bein in the rubs which lends itself to double salt and that is in the to much category. I am also not of a fan of the low-fat ilk. Butter, lard, olive oil Yup! Seed oils, a definite NO!
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I'm not a physician or even a dietician, but several studies I've read that link high sodium diets to high blood pressure (due to water retention) which is a contributing factor to heart disease, may not necessarily be substantiated. Obvious if you eat a basket of French fries and Chinese take out every day of the year then like anything else, you are over doing it. Of course other contributing factors like obesity come into play as well. That said, you do you and listen to your doctor.
I will; however, state that food without salt (however you want to apply it) is just plain bland. As we know from Dr. Blonder's studies, salt is the only seasoning molecule that actually penetrates into the proteins we eat. Salt is the number one seasoning in all of the world's cooking. There's a reason for that, it excites the taste buds thus concentrates flavor. It's also essential for our body chemistry. So, controlling intake, probably. Eliminating it altogether, no.
As for other seasonings, most off which just sit on the surface of the meat, they're primality window dressing. They do promote a good bark (pepper for instance) and provide a tasty bite. But I often get a kick out of even seasoned chefs who still talk about letting seasonings sit on meat so they can infuse flavor and penetrate, which we know is simply not true. That's precisely why Central Texas barbecue essentially uses salt and pepper. Salt for flavor enhancement and pepper for bark and a bit of a bite.
That's it I'm done. He now leaves his soap box.....
This! ^
Salt is a *necessary-for-life* compound. So is fat. With zero salt or fat you are a zombie, your brain and other muscles and organs will not work. Yes, too much of either over time can harm you, so be reasonable as you would with anything, but no need to fear it.
When doctors tell their patients to limit their salt intake, do it. Or those who choose to do it to be proactive, great! Better that than not caring about your hunk of flesh & bone that is your body. But please, understand salt is not an enemy. Drinking too much water can kill you too, it happens every year, and we all understand its importance in life.
We may have brined a batch of chicken thighs for way too long. It was like eating some sort of chicken ham. Not to mention the elevated heart rate that followed…
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I am going to take this in another direction, now that folks are talking about salt.
This brings to my mind something no one seems to talk or care about anymore. Over the last few decades, I saw a shift in cooking from just plain ole table salt, to sea salt, and now Himalayan pink salt, and lots of other fancy salts. My wife only buys that pink stuff. And what I am talking about is the fact that hardly anyone is cooking anymore with good old fashioned TABLE SALT, i.e. "iodized salt", which includes trace amounts of iodine, another life-essential thing.
Iodized salt was developed in order to fight a world wide epidemic of intellectional and developmental disabilities in growing children, as well as to combat thyroid issues that develop when you don't take in enough iodine.
These days, I challenge you to find prepared foods that use regular iodized salt versus "sea salt". I halfway wonder if the lack of simple iodized salt in our diets is the reason for a lot of issues we are seeing with obesity and general stupidity in society today, haha.
My solution is that I keep a box of Morton's kosher salt AND a box of Morton's iodized table salt in the pantry, and in recent years, I refill most of the salt shakers around the house with iodized table salt kinda on the sly as it were. And I will use it in my cooking, if I am not using kosher salt.
Note I didn't divert into micro plastics in sea salt, but that is another reason to use the pink stuff rather than non-mined sea salt.
Thoughts? Anyone else cooking with table salt, or am I the only crazy one who thinks it matters?
OMG "micro-plastics in sea salt" I have heard that micro-plastics may be a health problem and may be found in water in plastic bottles.
And you bring up an interesting point about iodine in our diet. Like adding vitamin D to milk.
Thanks. One more thing to worry about.
table salt vs Morton Lite salt or potassium chloride
Now I will have to google the difference. Here is what I found.
The mineral salt compound is used by the food industry as an alternative to common table salt (sodium chloride). Experts note that potassium chloride offers consumers flavor without increasing their daily sodium intake. It also boasts the added benefit of increasing potassium consumption, which can improve blood pressure regulation.
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