The Right Way to Season Steak, According to a Chef and Butcher

When you enjoy a nice steak at a restaurant, it might be hard to believe that there's little standing in the way of creating a steak at home that is just as delicious. The most important step is buying good quality beef, but a close second to that is seasoning it properly. With a good quality piece of meat, it needs little more than salt to bring out its natural flavor. Follow these simple guidelines to learn how to properly season a steak, elevating the taste and tenderness.

How to Season Steak

"Seasoning a steak is pretty straightforward in terms of purpose," says Joe Paish, sous chef and head butcher at Rolo's restaurant in Queens, NY. For Paish, this typically means seasoning with salt shortly before cooking and sprinkling finishing salt between slicing and serving. 

But not all salts are the same! In fact, the size of salt crystals and their salinity vary widely depending on which type you're using. Restaurant chefs and industry professionals typically prefer kosher salt, as the larger, lighter crystals are easy to pinch between your fingers and dissolve quickly in whatever you're making. 

"Generally, I season with Diamond Crystal Kosher salt and finish with Maldon," says Paish. But he suggests finding what works for you. "Once you find salts you like—for flavor, availability, price, and ethics of sourcing—I cannot more highly recommend committing to a single type for seasoning, and a single type for finishing. The process requires muscle memory, and your fingers need to be familiar with the sensation of applying the right amount."

Basic Seasoning Tips

There is more to seasoning a steak than just sprinkling it with your favorite salt.

How Much Salt to Use

The amount of salt to use does vary greatly depending on the cut of the steak and the salt, but a helpful rule of thumb is to use about 1½ teaspoons of kosher salt per pound of steak. It's important to adjust to your own taste and preferences.

The All-Important Technique for Sprinkling Salt

It’s also important to keep in mind that the way you sprinkle salt is just as important as how much you're using. Be sure to sprinkle from an elevated height for an evenly distributed layer of salt, and that you grab salt, ideally, from a pinch bowl. That way, you have more control over the salt when it's in between your fingers. 

Drying the Surface

Once your steak is seasoned, it's best practice to set it on a wire rack within a sheet pan, so that air can circulate all around the meat, drying out the surface. Moisture is the enemy of a good crusty sear, so if it's going to be more than two hours before cooking your steak, set it uncovered in the fridge. "It will be easier to sear, it will cook more evenly, and it will have a more dense, meaty texture," says Paish.

Just be sure to pull your steak out of the fridge a little before you're ready to cook it, so that it comes to room temperature. This encourages even cooking, you want to avoid placing a very cold steak in a very hot pan. 

"As a quick and easy rule, I temper a steak one hour for every one inch on the shortest measurement, and I season halfway through," says Paish. "When I cook a two-inch thick ribeye, I pull it out two hours before I intend to put it on the heat, and season it one hour before I put it on the heat."  

Beyond Salt and Pepper

Dry rubs and seasonings beyond just salt and pepper are a great way to lend additional flavor and character to your steak. However, Paish warns about the effectiveness of seasoning ahead of time, and the myths around flavor "penetrating," a word often used when discussing marinating steak. 

Marinades

"Aside from salt and acid (if there's enough to cook the protein), nothing is making it from your marinade into the meat," says Paish. However, he says they can help create a crust at the time of cooking, and can be part of your basting regimen. Paish likes to poach a julienned onion in butter before blending with his steak marinades, and using that intensely flavorful liquid as a baste to apply during grilling or roasting.

Using Dry Rubs

As recipes for dry rubs almost always contain sugar, they will always burn at a faster and different rate than the proteins in the steak itself. Paish's workaround is to give his steak a strong sear first, then dry rub the steak with spices and let them slowly toast at a lower temperature while he brings the steak to its desired doneness. 

"I highly recommend playing with this technique for any dish where steak is playing into a profile," he says. "I love searing a steak and then rubbing it with garlic, onion, and ginger powders before finishing, as part of a beef and broccoli. I also love a seared steak getting dressed with adobo before finishing it for fajitas." 

Making Dry Rubs

When it comes to making a dry rub at home, as a general rule, Paish measures salt and sugar by percentage. For large roasts (including prime/standing rib roasts), he keeps a mixture of two-to-one kosher salt to granulated sugar. "I'll roll the roast in this until it looks like a sugar cookie! For spice rubs, I will make a mixture of spices alone, and apply that at the appropriate moment in the cooking process." 

Practice Makes Perfect 

It's understandable you might be intimidated by seasoning a steak—they're usually expensive cuts of meat, and once it's cooked, you have little to hide behind. But Paish recommends practicing on something slightly less expensive than a steak: nothing!

"When I was a young cook, my first chef—Nancy Olson of Gramercy Tavern—would make me practice seasoning by sprinkling salt on a tabletop, and then examining where the salt falls too heavily or too lightly." Give this a try and then graduate to your favorite cuts of steak!