Burger salting

[HowardLi]

How to? Or, what is the ideal areal density of salt on beef in g/cm^2 or equivalent units?

[Chris Hennes]

I'm partial to paulraphael's formula here. I do change up the beef blend sometimes, but I always use 0.75% salt and 0.25% black pepper.

[HowardLi]

http://www.seriousea...ect-steaks.html

So I should salt the meat cubes before food processing, and food process them into ready-for-patty state the night before I SV them?

EDIT: No, I think I will salt only before cooking, and only after grinding and forming. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/12/the-burger-lab-salting-ground-beef.html

Edited May 6, 2012 by HowardLi (log)

[Chris Hennes]

In general it's best to salt burgers either right before grinding or right before cooking: if you salt earlier you have to be particularly careful not to overwork the beef, since the salt increases its ability to bind to itself. If you salt before grinding make sure you don't overwork the beef while forming the patties. There are even those who advocate salting after cooking, but I find that only works for thin patties.

[Keith_W]

Here are some numbers for you. All given in terms of weight (i.e. 10% salinity = 10gm NaCl in 100gm H2O):

0.07% - Concentration of salt in unsalted meat

0.9% - Concentration of salt in blood (the difference between blood and meat is maintained by a sodium pump)

1.2% - Concentration of salt in cows milk

1.5% - Concentration of salt in food which tastes "excessively salty"

3.4% - Concentration of salt in Vegemite (an Australian breakfast spread)

3.5% - Concentration of salt in seawater

Maximum recommended Sodium intake = 2.3gm per day

Furthermore the perception of saltiness varies according to how it is distributed. If the salt is distributed evenly through the food, it tastes seasoned. If it is sitting on the surface, it tastes salted. You can get away with using less salt if you only salt the surface of the food. Proteins can bind up salt and reduce the apparent saltiness, which is why the same concentration of salt in a burger mince and dissolved in water tastes different.

You can calculate how salty your mince is going to be by using the above guide. I personally would not go much above 0.8 % - i.e. 0.8gm salt for every 100gm of mince. This makes it taste "just seasoned".

[qrn]

I salt and a bit of pepper,after the first,very course grind,and then regrind using the same plate to get all the salt/pepper evenly distributed

(dont measure,just what looks good,)works real good...(probably just lucky)

Bud

[VilleN]

I use the same amount of salt as I would use when making a paté: 1,5%. In many restaurants at least here in Finland it's somewhat a custom to use that procentage when salting meat in advance. For me it's not "excessively salty". I think it's "just right". But then again people in Nordic countries seem to like salt a lot.