Salt meat ahead of time
A dry brine is salt rubbed on meat and left to sit. The salt pulls out a little water and dissolves in it, then the salty liquid soaks back in. Salt also loosens muscle proteins so they hold more water as the meat cooks.
Water comes out, then goes back in
In the first 30 minutes, damp beads form on the surface. Over the next hours, that now-salty liquid is pulled back into the meat. Meanwhile the surface dries in the fridge, which helps it brown.
Match the time to the thickness
Use salt equal to about 1% of the meat's weight, which is 10 g per kg. Thick chops and steaks need 1 to 24 hours, a whole chicken 12 to 24 hours, and a turkey 1 to 3 days. Rush it and the outside is salty while the middle stays bland.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
You dry brine a chicken overnight. Compared with chicken salted just before cooking, what do you get?
Seasoning all the way through and juicier meat. The salt has time to travel inward and loosen proteins so they hold water.
True or false: In a dry brine, the salt stays on the surface and never gets into the meat.
False. Salt dissolves in the juice it pulls out, and that salty liquid soaks back into the meat.
What went wrong? You dry brine chicken overnight, then salt it again right before it hits the grill. It tastes too salty.
They salted it again after the brine. The overnight brine already seasoned the meat, so the second salting doubled up.
Fill the blank: Salt changes meat proteins so they hold on to more ___.
Salt changes meat proteins so they hold on to more water. Salted proteins grip water, which is why brined meat stays juicy.
Why do thick cuts need much longer dry brining than thin ones?
Salt moves inward slowly, so a longer path takes longer. Salt spreads by slow diffusion, so the depth of the cut matters.