The Merits of Finishing Salt

[Rufus Leaking]

got a real nice chicken the other night. Out of Georgia, free range, the whole bit. These are like the birds we had when I was a kid. Much smaller, the breast not artificially plumped, had them before, knew what to expect. After a short bath in cold water and baking soda, I dry them, I quarter them, brown them in olive oil, and cook them over really low heat. No salt, no pepper, nothing. The only thing I do with them is sprinkle flaked salt on them. No pepper, nothing. The crunch of the salt, that immediate salt sensation hitting your tongue, the flavor of chicken really stands out. Same with a nice cut of beef; just butter to brown a filet, cooked low and slow after browning, just finishing salt . As much as I love Indian, Thai, Korean, this treatment seems to satisfy. The better the meat, the less need for anything other than salt, I think.

[Cutuu]

Yeah its nice to work with high quality ingredients

[timos]

I was just thinking about this the last time i was at the store....the chicken breast was just ....weird , very tender but watery almost. kind of a disgusting texture actually.
The local free range pasture raised whole chickens are about 25$ a bird though around here and we eat far too much chicken. I am seriously gonna try just plain salt next time i get one, low and slow on my grill.

[jason]

If it's good meat you didn't have to put baking soda on it

[gladius]

Even "good meat" can benefit...

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_to ... a-solution

[Robstreperous]

+1 on the finishing salt.
++1 on the baking soda --- only I rub the skin with a mixture of it and salt and pepper then let sit for a couple of hours --- helps crisp the skin.

Speaking of which (not to derail the thread but somehow we are talking about chicken) to all you low and slow guys... Don't you miss crispy skin?

[timos]

All i know is I put the chicken up on the top rack in my grill and turn the burners down to lowest setting...1-1/2 hours later its done, juicy inside and crispy skin. Not sure if that is considered slow or not, but it sure is alot slower than the way my gramp does it on high heat ...done inside and burned outside in 15-20 mins lol

[Rufus Leaking]

Slow and steady wins the race. I like an initial high-heat sear, followed by the lowest heat possible. The baking soda really helps with chicken, and I use it with cod as well. It's almost cheating. I like it with the chicken, even the best quality chickens, because I've seen them slaughtered, I've done it myself numerous times, and it is an absolutely filthy operation. I use it with fish- specifically the Icelandic cod we've been able to get here. The fish is skinned, and sits on fishmongers' ice, which is also notoriously filthy. Supposedly, if the cooking temp reaches 300, it enhances the Maillard Reaction. The finishing salt allows you to finely tailor the salinity, and because it is immediate, I find I use much less sodium, even with the bicarbonate bath. Baking soda actually contains twice the sodium of table salt per weight.

[Organized]

Do you guys have a favorite finishing salt? I've only used grey salt and flor de sel for finishing and I've often wondered if there is a proper way to pair particular finishing salts with particular dishes.

[Rufus Leaking]

Jacobsen Oregon flake.

[gastro gnome]

Slow and steady wins the race. I like an initial high-heat sear, followed by the lowest heat possible. The baking soda really helps with chicken, and I use it with cod as well. It's almost cheating. I like it with the chicken, even the best quality chickens, because I've seen them slaughtered, I've done it myself numerous times, and it is an absolutely filthy operation. I use it with fish- specifically the Icelandic cod we've been able to get here. The fish is skinned, and sits on fishmongers' ice, which is also notoriously filthy. Supposedly, if the cooking temp reaches 300, it enhances the Maillard Reaction. The finishing salt allows you to finely tailor the salinity, and because it is immediate, I find I use much less sodium, even with the bicarbonate bath. Baking soda actually contains twice the sodium of table salt per weight.

I'm confused by this. Are you suggesting that baking soda somehow helps to minimize the presence of surface contaminants in meat? Or at least moreso than regular old sodium chloride or (most importantly) cooking it properly?

[Rufus Leaking]

A brine definitely kills bacteria. That, to me is half the reason for brining some meats, poultry in particular. It won't kill eColi- that takes heat. The other more obvious benefit comes from the osmotic transfer of moisture into just the first 2-3 mm of the meat, and what the sodium does to that outer ring. It draws proteins and sugars in the meat to the surface and under heat, and there is a reaction. I'm greatly simplifying this, but the idea is- the skin of the meat can caramelize to a much greater extent. I apologize if this is something you are already aware of. Back to killing bacteria. Koshered meats are heavily salted for this very reason; the process is probably older than recorded records, I think bacteria weren't recognized before Pasteur, but it has been observed since forever that salt allowed meats to be stored much longer. It used to be- when you bought the 2lb box of Morton's kosher salt, there were instructions for koshering or brining, the box I have now has ads on it instead now. Salt kills bacteria by disrupting the cell wall of the certain bacteria, I think both gram-negative and gram positive bacteria are affected, but it makes sense that the cell wall of most gram-positive bacteria would be more disrupted by the ion transfer. The two basic types of these bacteria I'm referring to, the gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria come from whether or not a stained alcohol can get into the cell wall and leave a "stain" which is visible under a microscope. Gram positive bacteria accept the stain, so their cell walls are lacking lipids, I think is how it goes. I'm 35 years out of my advanced bio days, but I think this is how the medical techs can identify certain bacteria and know which antibiotics will be effective to treat a bacterial infection. I think eColi is gram-negative, and the gram-negative bacteria have an additional membrane. Regardless, salt will certainly kill some nasty bacteria.....Did this help, or hurt?

[gastro gnome]

Hey Rufus, that all makes sense and more or less matches with what I've learned (though you have provided more detail to be sure).

I thought your post was suggesting that baking soda had greater anti-microbial properties than sodium chloride alone. If so, that's the first I've heard of it. Is that your understanding? Or are you just using a baking soda laced brine primarily for the better browning?

[Rufus Leaking]

Bicarbonate has three oxygen atoms on NaCl. It is a base as well as a salt, so it's got that going for it. It definitely has superior bactericidal properties over salt. I'm mistakenly said it has twic the sodium as salt, because in my head, the bi- carbonate thing confused me,they actually have the same amount of sodium. That's not why I use it on the chicken, though- it is more effective for browning than salt is. That being said, I use it in a cold water solution on fish if the fillet is laying out on ice. A common practice used when I was a kid was to do this with any fish we caught in the Potomac to get the taste of the river out of the fish. The stuff has 1,001 uses.

[Kalaeb]

So you guys are rubbing baking soda on the CK, like a rib rub. Or soaking in water/baking soda in place of a brine?

What ratio for brine?

[Rufus Leaking]

With a bird, I cover it in a solution of two or three tablespoons of baking soda to what is probably 3-4 quarts of ice water. I dry the bird first, it is whole, and that's important. I put it in the fridge for an hour, wash it in cold tap water, then dry it again, and I do a sugar brine using about a half cup of turbinado in ice water. It's subjective- I add sugar until I can't add anymore- it's ice water-it will only take so much sugar. The idea for me is- that bird is thirsty for H2o- it will re absorb water gratefully because there is a shitload of sodium in the first few mm of the bird. I know the salt atom is relatively big- that's how they treat water through osmosis. I think the sugar atoms may be bigger, but there will be an osmotic transfer. That goes back into the fridge for another hour. Take it out, drain it- I use cooking twine to suspend it in the pot, and I drain it for 45 minutes in the fridge. I pat it dry, really well, I want it dry, and it goes into a 375 degree oven, a four pound bird takes 90 minutes overall, but after 30 minutes, I flip the bird so the breast is on the bottom, and reduce the temperature to 350. That goes an additional half hour, I check the temperature. My oven runs hot, it's a 44K btu GE oven. If I get 145 at that point, I shut the oven off and let it coast for 15 -30 minutes, and that does it for me. I want 180 minimum at the thigh joint. I do not rub baking soda on any meat. Salt? Yeah- that's a rub, but with that fine bicarbonate, I use a brine. I feel that if I were to use it solely as a rub, that would be too much sodium- it disappears really quickly, unlike sea salt or kosher salt.