I believe a great piece of beef needs salt and pepper and nothing else. I order mine rare because I love the flavor.
But I’ve noticed in recent years that steaks now come with so much salt I can’t even taste the meat. I’ve decided I need to start asking for less salt.
I realize that all I have to say is, “Light on the salt.” But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Dope it’s this: things aren’t always as simple as they seem. I don’t want to come off as an asshole telling a chef how to prepare steaks. But, seriously, who uses THAT much salt??
So I thought I’d ask. Are you a server? An expert? Have you noticed an increased amount of salt recently? Have you asked for less salt? How do I do this, without coming off as an asshole?
A few weeks ago I ordered a steak at a restaurant and the amount of salt was perfect. I know who the owner is so I found him and thanked him profusely. I told him how most restaurants now salt their beef so much that all I taste is salt, and that I appreciated that his chefs did not do this.
I would think every restaurant in the country is familiar with customers who are watching their sodium intake and ask for no salt. Request no salt and don’t worry about it.
I don’t want to lie. Not for any moral reasons because I have no problem with lying.
It’s about how to prepare food. I don’t want low sodium. What I want might be considered high sodium.
I think one thing I left out of my OP is that I want to know how to order the perfect amount of salt.
And that’s the rub. (Heh.) What’s “perfect” will vary by customer. My father salted everything. EVERYTHING. He salted salt.
I guess it’s better for the restaurant to under salt the steak because I can always add more, but somehow it’s not the same. The salt they put on the table isn’t the high quality salt I use at home. (Hmmm…bring my own salt…)
The salt is probably part of whatever seasoning they use. They most likely can’t leave out salt without leaving out whatever else they have mixed in. Ask for it plain, and then add salt to taste.
I’m picturing you furtively reaching into your shirt pocket, which you have (with forethought, loaded up with the salt you like) and drizzling it on the steak.
On that note, it’s surprising that the salt and pepper shakers at nearly every restaurant contain standard table salt (probably with iodine) and fine ground pepper. No kosher salt or small pepper mills with whole peppercorns…
I usually order my steak unseasoned, because I can’t eat pepper without suffering dire consequences. Usually there’s some seasoning on the grill, which I can handle if it hasn’t built up too much. If you go to a place during lunch, the grill probably hasn’t built up as much seasoning, but at the end of the dinner rush, you might find that even ordering an unseasoned steak will get you something that’s too salty for your taste.
Some places don’t even have separate salt and pepper dispensers in the kitchen. I quit going to Friday’s because they automatically season everything with a mix of salt and pepper.
However, a lot of places these days have preseasoned foods.
I see a lot of places with pepper grinders on the table. The cheap, disposable ones. And they also have salt grinders, with sea salt in them, which I hate. I just don’t like the taste of sea salt. Call me a Philistine.
The thing is, most quality food tastes best with a minimum of seasoning. If the food is mediocre, though, it’s going to need a lot of seasoning and probably ketchup and/or steak sauce. I like salt, but I want to TASTE the steak or whatever the food is.
I came in to suggest “no salt”, but I think the OP is looking for a proper way to order reduced salt. In my opinion, the cooks can’t even agree on the definition of rare, medium, and well so asking them to use “light” salt is like asking them to perform brain surgery.
Then why are you ordering it rare, which is telling the chef how to prepare the steak?
You’re expressing how you like the steak. Rare, no salt.
And by cook. Getting it perfect for you is something you luck into. There’s no reliable formula to communicate to the cook what’s perfect for you. Stick with what’s possible, please.
I will resist the temptation to then ask why you don’t want to lie, and simply point out you don’t have to. There’s no need to justify to anyone how much/little salt you want on your steak.
I must say it seems this is being made into a much, much more difficult thing than it needs to be.
Seriously, while there are standard and widely used criteria for doneness of steaks, I’ve never heard of any criteria relating to saltiness. I don’t thing it’s a matter of it being more complicated than one might suspect, rather of it just not being there at all. To get perfectly salted steaks, go to restaurants that do it perfectly. If you suspect oversalting, the safe route is as you’ve figured, request low or no salt. I doubt there’s a more effective approach.
Asking for no salt at all on your steak doesn’t always work for two reasons- marinated steaks and cooks who use salt-laden house seasoning mixes and plain salt. Applebee’s and Golden Corral are two places that sell only marinated steaks. Some of the best unsalted steaks I’ve had have been at – ready?— Waffle House and Huddle House.
Are you talking about chain restaurants or actual steakhouses? IMO, everything at chain restaurants is way oversalted, but I haven’t noticed that at better steakhouses. I’m not sure where you live, but most cities have at least a few awesome neighborhood restaurants that have amazing steaks. My favorite place here in Indy is called Marco’s and you can get an amazing steak dinner with potato, salad, and soup for around $20-$25. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water.
Well, I can relate that at most quality steakhouses that the steak is usually oiled and seasoned right before or during the grilling. So, it’s not that big of a deal, not like the steak is pre-seasoned. Most of these places apply a “steak rub or seasoning” so it is a compound salt, pepper, and spice, herb rub nine times out of ten, generally applied in medium quantities to a straight up, appropriate, and heavy coating as per the grill chefs experience, relative to the cooking process and tradition of the steakhouse. And every kitchen has salt and pepper avaialble, even if they have to pull it from the tables… So knowing that and the hand of most meat staion cooks, I would ask for my steak seasoned with salt and/or pepper only, with a medium “rub”, “sprinkling”, "hand"or “season”.
But, you see, the problem with that particular seasoning strategy is that you will miss the extremely interesting and local play and take on proprietary seasoning, if you go outside your bounds. Might miss flavor and other important dynamics of the particular steak stylee, and I am a big proponent of flaVA. You might miss the “proper preperation”. Just tell them you want it seasoned lightly, if you must be so picky…
