Tenderizing Red Meat and the Big Mistake I Made While Catering a Dinner Party

Years ago, thanks to food blogger Jaden Hair of SteamyKitchen.com, I learned a quick and easy way to make sure that steak always comes out tender: salt it. Salting your meat–steaks, roasts and racks of lamb–means letting it sit in salt for about an hour before cooking it. Little beads of water will appear on your meat. This is part of the tenderization process and ensures a juicy piece of meat, granted, of course, you don’t overcook it. (Breathe. It’s okay. We’ve all overcooked meat in our time.)

Attenzione: not just any salt will do! Once, when I was catering a dinner party, I found that the hostess didn’t have kosher salt in the house. Instead of running to the market only blocks away, I went ahead and covered the meat with table salt from her pantry. Needless to say, the steak turned out so tough that I refunded her money–and to add salt to a wound (pun intended) this woman’s daughter is the owner of many popular restaurants in LA. How embarrassing is that?! The only explanation for the tough meat is the shitty salt she had in the kitchen, and my lazy belief that all salt was interchangeable. I now bring a box of kosher salt to every home I cook in. Got it? Only tenderize with kosher or coarse sea salt.