Salt Baking

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Have you tried salt baking? The benefits of salt baking are said to be: seasoning, tenderising, and 'even cooking'. It works equally well for vegetables and meat and is a good technique for cooking whole root vegetables. Its also very good with fish.

I haven't cooked this way before but I'm interested to try. Have you used this cooking method? If so, what did you cook and how did it turn out?
 
We did a beef roast once. It came out good, but it was a mess getting the crust on, breaking it, and of course the amount of salt used and thrown away was ridiculous. Maybe for fish if I ever did it again, but certainly never a beef roast again.
 
We did a beef roast once. It came out good, but it was a mess getting the crust on, breaking it, and of course the amount of salt used and thrown away was ridiculous. Maybe for fish if I ever did it again, but certainly never a beef roast again.

Its the sheer amount of salt used then discarded which puts me off too - plus the mess. I think fish is the way to go...
 
Seems to me I was in a discussion with @The Late Night Gourmet about 6 months ago where he had purchased a salt block for cooking purposes. Hopefully, he can provide some details.

I've been looking at buying a salt block for a while. Depending on which cut of Wagyu steak we had bought for my birthday, I was going to buy one and use it to cook thinly sliced tenderloin or strip, as I had seen a show where a high end Japanese restaurant cooked it that way. But, since we got rib eyes didn't do that. Have to say it's still in the back of my mind though.
 
I'm not sure I understand the benefits of this. I have seen it done with whole fish, and whilst it looks impressive I'm not convinced of its merits. I am guessing that it is supposed to seal in flavour, but surely the salt will draw out moisture. How is this method any better than, say, wrapping in foil, cooking en papillot or sous vide in a vac pack?
 
I'm not sure I understand the benefits of this. I have seen it done with whole fish, and whilst it looks impressive I'm not convinced of its merits. I am guessing that it is supposed to seal in flavour, but surely the salt will draw out moisture. How is this method any better than, say, wrapping in foil, cooking en papillot or sous vide in a vac pack?

I'm not sure either but perhaps the salt tenderises?
 
Let me ask a stupid question, if I may; Doesn't all that salt make the food taste overly salted? One has to wonder if it does. I've often asked myself that. :headshake::ninja:
 
Let me ask a stupid question, if I may; Doesn't all that salt make the food taste overly salted? One has to wonder if it does. I've often asked myself that. :headshake::ninja:

No, it doesn't make it taste too salty, at least the beef roast we did. It also doesn't tenderize. It does season it nicely salt wise and traps moisture. Of course, the inside layer of salt absorbs some meat juices, but only a layer or so deep and then the rest of the moisture is trapped inside the crust with the meat. Remember, you have to add moisture to the salt to make the crust so it has already absorbed an enormous amount of liquid. I remember it was tasty, but a little too done for us since you can't really check temperature through the salt crust.
 
No, it doesn't make it taste too salty, at least the beef roast we did. It also doesn't tenderize. It does season it nicely salt wise and traps moisture. Of course, the inside layer of salt absorbs some meat juices, but only a layer or so deep and then the rest of the moisture is trapped inside the crust with the meat. Remember, you have to add moisture to the salt to make the crust so it has already absorbed an enormous amount of liquid. I remember it was tasty, but a little too done for us since you can't really check temperature through the salt crust.


The only beef roast that I've had success with is pot roast. Not much success with a beef roast in the oven. To do that, one would have to get a steamship roast to be successful, and those are pretty big, ENORMOUS, like a side of Godzilla!! Don't even think that I have a roasting pan that big, & the oven is small. :headshake:
 
The only beef roast that I've had success with is pot roast. Not much success with a beef roast in the oven. To do that, one would have to get a steamship roast to be successful, and those are pretty big, ENORMOUS, like a side of Godzilla!! Don't even think that I have a roasting pan that big, & the oven is small. :headshake:

Not true. Craig had a method where cooking time directly correlates with size. I never remember the formula so he'll have to post that, but it starts out with a seasoned piece of beef, a really hot temp for a bit, then turned down pretty low for rest of time and no peeking in the oven. It works every time no matter size of roast.
 
Not true. Craig had a method where cooking time directly correlates with size. I never remember the formula so he'll have to post that, but it starts out with a seasoned piece of beef, a really hot temp for a bit, then turned down pretty low for rest of time and no peeking in the oven. It works every time no matter size of roast.


Yeah, so many minutes to the pound?
 
Have you tried salt baking? The benefits of salt baking are said to be: seasoning, tenderising, and 'even cooking'. It works equally well for vegetables and meat and is a good technique for cooking whole root vegetables. Its also very good with fish.

I haven't cooked this way before but I'm interested to try. Have you used this cooking method? If so, what did you cook and how did it turn out?
I never heard about this way before, could you please share any link where I find the whole technique of doing this
 
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