ORIGINAL: ydduit
ORIGINAL: 2 Lunger
ORIGINAL: CAM2
yep, i also add some salt. it's supposed to help draw out the blood. for me it usually ends up to soak for 5 or 6 days by the time i can find the time to cut it up. with that said, one of the ways i like to tell how long to soak it is when the water that you drain starts to come out clear. the more blood that you can get out of the meat the better IMHO.
How many of you guys add salt to your meat while soaking or cooking??? Do you realize this is the worst thing you can do to meat? I know this is an age old method, but salt makes any meat immediately tough. Ask any butcher what salt does to meat and he will give you this same answer.
I second that!!!
If you need to salt your meat, do so after it is cooked! Salting prior to or while cooking only draws the moisture out of the meat resulting in dryer and tougher meat.
I'll be the third! I won't even salt hamburgers or steaks or chicken for that matter. It dries it out.
I'll apologize in advance for a scientific explanation of why for those who don't want to hear about it. I'm a chemist so I'm weird to begin with but we chemists have a fondness for explaining things. First of all, when roads freeze what do put on them to thaw them out? Salt. It lowers the freezing point of water. With dihydrogen monoxide (water, H2O), when you lower the freezing point you also lower the boiling point. At the boiling point water becomes steam and evaporates. When you introduce salt to the meat (more than what would naturally be in there) it causes more of the water to evaporate more quickly, thus drying out the meat exponentially faster than normal.
This is also why it seems like adding salt to a pot of water that you are trying to boil makes it boil faster. It does boil faster, but it's not because it accepts the heat better, it's just easier to reach the lower boiling point because it takes less energy to do so. The bad part is if you're boiling the water to cook and kill off any bacteria you want to have more heat to kill off ALL of the bacteria. To be safer keep the salt out until the end for the best results. You'll also get better tasting, juicier meat!