I will never forget learning my first real Talmudic passage (the Talmud is the primary text of Jewish law, and famous for its detailed, intricate logic). I was a sophomore in high school and I had a bit of an ego when it came to my Jewish knowledge—I was the really Jewy kid in my private Jewish high school—and as I read, I hyper-focused on the technical details. The Talmudic passage continued, but my brain did not. I could not move forward until I figured out every nuance. I begged different teachers for help, but to no avail. They told me to wait. So I waited…
It turns out, the passage wasn’t what I expected. I was marinating in the ideas, but not letting them penetrate. I understood the surface level, and was stuck. If only I had kept reading without being so narrow-minded.
When people marinate meat, they expect the flavor to penetrate the entire cut. But that’s not how it works. Marinades are only surface coatings, which is similar to my first experience with the Talmud—is this a stretch?—I was scraping the surface of the passage, but not really diving deep into its message.
Dr. Greg Blonder, a professor at Boston University and co-author of Meathead, The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling, once did an experiment using water and dye to simulate a marinade (such as a balsamic marinade). He found that the most a marinade penetrates is a half an inch, although in most cases that’s usually closer to an eighth of an inch.
If you are making a prime rib roast—which is a thick cut—that is not a lot of flavor. But if you take that same marinade and put it on a one inch ribeye, skirt steak, or hanger steak, you will end up with flavor throughout at least half of the cut. You could use any cut of meat, as long as it is cut less than an inch. [Read more about How To Marinade Your Favorite Cuts of Meat here.]
Brining
Brining is a process of treating food with coarse salt. It preserves and seasons the food, and, with meat, makes it more tender. Salt, ultimately, is the only substance that can penetrate deep into meat and flavor the entire piece. When I cook meat, I always salt one-to-three days in advance, because, like when I first encountered the Talmud, I want to go to the deepest levels possible.
Back to my sophomore year—eventually, I studied that Talmudic passage with my teacher and understood it, but I had to come at it from a completely different perspective. I over-analyzed it and didn’t see the big picture. For me, “marinating” in Jewish wisdom is a great way to start, but to get more out of it, you need to brine, and let it seep into the depths of your mind, soul, and heart.
How To Brine
Dry brining involves some calculations. Here is both the formula, as well as a simple recipe for those who want to skip the math. The only thing you need is kosher salt and a scale. I highly recommend Diamond Crystal salt, which is my go-to kosher salt as the flake sizes are perfect, and it is harder to over-salt your meat. Other kosher salts, like Morton’s, are much denser, which means there is more salt crammed into each crystal. Although any kosher salt will work, as long as you weigh it out.
For every one pound of meat, you want to use four-to-five grams of salt for from four hours to overnight. That will dry brine the meat at one percent of its weight in salt.
Use a rack if you have one with a plate underneath or put it in a plastic ziploc. If you are brining a five pound roast, brine for two-to-three days.
For my fellow math nerds out there, the formula is basic algebra:
One percent of the weight of meat in grams. Make sure to convert the pounds to grams, then simply multiply by one percent. That will give you exact control if your meat is, let’s say, 5lbs 6oz.
Weight of meat in grams x .01= salt needed to dry brine
Now that you know how to brine your meat with salt, you can simply add some pepper before grilling or roasting, or you can try one of my favorite dry rubs, Coffee Dry Rub, get the recipe here.
