A UK physicist’s method for cooking steak has gone viral for a pretty curious technique. Specifically, Dr George Vekinis suggests that all seasoning (including salt) shouldn’t be added until after the steak has finished cooking.

The scientist also suggested that we should be microwaving our steaks prior to frying them.

The methodology beggars some questions but the logic is sound on both counts. Here’s why.

While Dr Vekinis did suggest that a steak could be briefly microwaved before frying, the purpose was not to cook the meat – rather to raise the steak to room temperature – a rule that most chefs would abide by.

Vekinis also explains that prior salting of a steak would leave you with meat that is ‘tough and inedible’. Salting the steak draws water out from the meat, yes. But when done with adequate patience, salting a steak can be the difference between a velvety, tender steak and a bit of old shoe.

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Once salted, it takes around 45 minutes for the moisture to be drawn out, then reabsorbed into the meat. See, the moisture that is drawn out melts the salt crystals, forming a brine. That brine is then reabsorbed into the steak, which flavours and tenderises the meat from within.

Anywhere between three and 45 minutes of salting, the moisture drawn out will sit on the surface of the steak, making an even sear almost impossible as the water turns to steam in the pan. If you’re dead set on salting a steak before cooking, do it either an hour prior to cooking, or within seconds of throwing it in the pan.

Once you’ve cooked your steak to your desired wellness, we cannot stress the importance of resting the meat enough. When you add meat to a hot surface, the muscle fibres tense and all the juice gets drawn into the centre of the steak. It takes a while to come down from that sort of shock, let the poor thing unwind! You’ll be rewarded with a tender, juicy steak every time.

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