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I am quite confused about the issue with "meats and salt".
Many sources say "don't salt meat prior to cooking because it will draw out the juices".
Yet others talk about marinades and dry marinades, salting and letting the meat sit with the salt on, even cutting a slit into the meat so the salt will penetrate the meat and bring out the flavor, etc.
Which one is it?
In my experience, if I do not marinate/salt the meat in advance and let it sit, the food comes out bland. Barely tasty on the surface, and completely bland inside.
To me, it is not enough to season the dish towards the end or even cook with it for a reasonable period of time (15-20 min).
Unless I had the meat sit with the salt on it for a while, it comes out bland.
Any suggestions? Thank you so much!
I think it depends on what type of meat. We have always, as my dad did, mash garlic, salt and pepper and smear it, with a little butter or oil on our steak before grilling. If anything it can hold the juices in. I have a problem with using lemon juice on meat. I think that can dry it out some. We do not use salt when we are smoking something; not until the meat is well on its way to being ready. Then I will use a rub and yes, salt. As for cutting slits in meat, we have always just done that to add extra garlic, not salt. I guess we all have our own ideas about what works best. I think the most important thing is cooking meat at the correct temp and the correct timing, not so much the seasoning.
As I figure out one basic decent curry, I will try more variations in terms of ingredients, types.
For me, the trouble was that I had only tried a few "quick" type of curries, not the kind you simmer all day. I read these are "westernized" versions.
I would do the "onion, ginger, garlic" thing, then added the spices, then the meat, then the thickening agent (tomatoe sauce, yogurt, whatever). That was that - and the result was a gritty curry without depth of flavor.
Now I am doing something along the lines of this (below) with the sauce only first. The only difference was that I cut the ingredients small and sauteed them before covering with water for simmering.
The guy here gets them straight into a pot, cut in larger pieces and does not sautee, just lets the heat extract moisture.
I got to the stage of returning the sauce back to the pot after I put it in the processor. Yes, it changed the color just like in the picture, from brown to yellow.
All good...but I tasted again at this stage and I am still not feeling any BIR-level flavor that would blow me away. It's good but it's far from a "wonder" sauce so far.
I have high hopes for the next stage - two hours of water evaporation (I suppose this is called reduction, or something like that). The guy says this one is crucial - he'd better be right.
If it's still not blowing me away after 2 more hours of THIS...then it means I did not season well or i am cursed.
More salt? More acid? More something?
This is where I usually get stuck.
A curry done really well (as in good Indian restaurant) is the best food I have ever had. Better than any fancy French ANYTHING. But it seems as if no matter what you do at home, you'will always be far from that, when it comes to curries.
For now, I just need to figure out how to season my meats for any dish, in general.
At least today I learned here that I must salt in advance (and let sit), not matter what. :-).
I have a couple dozen spices to use so will pick at random 5-6 for a mix combo.....every meal tastes different as a result.
I like center thick cut of Pork Steak......make a few slices with a knife and sprinkle in Garlic Salt and/or Red Paprika while frying slowly and turning over often.......heck even tried BBQ sauce as a flavor......even Bacon bits for a change.....whatever it takes...like I said every meal tastes different.
As for Chicken, have cut way down on that as of late.......ditto with the Steak prices out of sight.
After reading that recipe, I can only hope it comes out deserving of the 7 hours involved. Yikes.
OK...point me to a better one. :-)
PS: Tasted, sauce is done. It came out good. Clearly better than my previous quick and gritty curries...but the flavor is only "good". Not phenomenal...as the guy implied on the site.
So yes. Point me to the "phenomenal" curry recipe. The BIR kind, where you leave the restaurant praying you will one day be able to figure out such of work of art. :-))))
You sound like you hold the secret to that one.
If you think this one is "yikes", you would have died if you'd tried my previous ones. :-))))
So as far as I am concerned, this was an improvement,
But you're right. When it takes 7 hours...it should taste like Heaven. Not just "good".
Right. Except that you would pay tons of money for a little bit of sauce.
If you referred to this as a complement to a home-cooked sauce, I can see that.
But to just cook the meat and then simmer it in Patak, bought sauce...it may be nice but I assume it would end up costing a lot.
Depends. Brine & rinse for chicken, for steak, I like to salt maybe 30-60 min prior to cooking.
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