Salted_ A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, With Recipes - Mark Bitterman [110]
Tomes have been written on how to cook a steak. Precious little has been said on how to salt one. To cook: start with a lot of heat, finish with a little. Do the opposite with the salt: cook with no salt at all, or very little, if you really must have some. When the steak is served, choose the most beautiful sel gris you can find and let fly.
2 tablespoons good-quality black peppercorns, preferably Parameswaran’s or Tellicherry
1 large dry aged porterhouse steak (2½ to 3 pounds; at least 2 inches thick)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sel gris, preferably grigio di Cervia, plus more for serving
Gently crush the peppercorns using a heavy mortar and pestle, or place them in a zipper-lock bag, press out the air, seal, and coarsely crush with the bottom of a heavy skillet or a flat meat pounder.
Pat the steak dry with paper towels and rub all over with the olive oil. Press the crushed pepper into both sides of the meat. Set aside to rest.
Preheat the grill for high to medium-low bilevel grilling. If you are using a charcoal grill this means banking your coal bed so that one side is about three times as thick as the other side. The thicker side should be blazing hot. If you can hold your hand a foot above the fire for more than 4 seconds, the fire needs stoking. If you have a gas grill, turn half the burners to high and the other half to medium-low (if you have a thermostat in the hood of your grill it will register 375° to 425°F).
Brush the grill grate thoroughly with a wire brush to clean it and coat lightly with oil. Sprinkle each side of the steak with a three-finger pinch of salt. Put the steak on the grill over high heat and cook until darkly crusted, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Move over the low fire and grill for another 10 to 15 minutes for medium-rare to medium doneness (135° to 140°F). Transfer to a platter and let rest for 5 to 8 minutes.
Cut the steak on the diagonal into ¾-inch-thick slices and serve the slices with additional salt, making sure that each person gets some of the larger muscle (the strip loin) and the smaller muscle (the tenderloin).
HAMBURGERS WITH SEL GRIS
SERVES 6
There is only one ingredient that is used in every burger recipe. It is not the all-beef patty (burgers can be made from pork, ostrich, bison, portobello, soy, lamb, turkey); it’s not the sesame seed bun (there is baguette, millet loaf, no bun at all); it’s not the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, etcetera, etcetera. All are optional. It’s salt. You cannot make a great burger without it. I’ve never seen a recipe that didn’t call for anywhere from a pinch to a teaspoon. Yet rarely if ever does a recipe name specifically which salt might be the best one for the job.
Salt should improve a burger in three ways. It should expand the fullness and complexity of the meat’s own flavor by lending complementary mineral depth. It should produce a layering of flavors, presenting more or less of itself unpredictably with every bite. It should lend a crunch of texture that calls attention to itself by contrasting with the succulence of the meat and signaling the flavor dynamics of the sandwich to your mind and your palate. In other words, it should do its work, do it in a disciplined manner, and communicate the work it has done effectively. Sel gris is chunky, moist, and packed with fresh minerals—perfect for the job.
2 pounds ground beef chuck ¼ cup ice water
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
6 two-finger pinches sel gris
6 hamburger buns
Light the grill for medium direct heat (about 400°F).
Using your hands, mix together the ground beef, ice water, oil, garlic, scallions and pepper in a bowl until well blended; avoid overmixing.
To form the patties, fold in 3 two-finger pinches of salt, and divide the beef mixture into six parts. Using a light touch, form six patties each no more than 1 inch thick. The patties should barely hold together.
Brush the grill grate thoroughly with a wire brush to clean it,