How long can I let a steak rest after seasoning and before cooking?
I read over at Serious eats that when seasoning a steak, you either need to cook it immediately after salting, or after 40 minutes and more.
(To sum up the article, this is due to a process of osmosis that starts after salting, drawing out the liquids, and it takes at least 40 minutes for enough of them to be reabsorbed)
Anyway, they say that after the 40 minute mark, the longer I leave the meat to rest, the better it will come out at the end.
My question is: How long is too long? I imagine that at some point the meat will dehydrate (less likely) or go bad. At which conditions should I leave it and when is the point of no return?
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The one problem I see with the article is that they cook the steak "as is" after letting it rest. They even mention that because so much liquid had been pulled out it caused problems with cooking. The missing step is to pat the steak dry. It needs to be dry when going in to the pan. I think the results are slightly skewed because of this - it was dry at the 0 minute mark and at the 40 minute mark but not at the in between marks. Keep in mind that you can wipe off seasonings when patting dry so this is still something to keep in mind.
As for your question - how long to leave it out? As Aaronaught said it doesn't really matter if it's salted or not. How long a steak can sit on the counter and not go bad will depend on the conditions and is more of a food-safety question unrelated to seasoning. You can, as the article mentions, place it in the fridge if you want to let it rest for a long time. Just remember to let it come back to room temperature before cooking for best results.
I'm not sure I really buy in to the importance of water reabsorption in how it relates to taste. The entire process of dry aging is designed to pull moisture out of the meat to give it a more concentrated beef flavor. Again, the article mentions that letting it rest this way for up to a day only results in an ~5% loss by weight, which pales in comparison to the 20%+ loss from cooking.
Now if you want to let it "rest" for a LONG time, like days or weeks you're talking more about a process like dry aging, in which case you'll want to start with a large piece of meat as the outside will need to be cut off as it will get rather dried out and not very appealing to eat. This involves more than just putting meat in the fridge though, so you probably don't want to go too far past 24 hours in the fridge.
Once the steak has reached room temperature, about 20-30 minutes, it should be cooked. You can put the rub on the steak and refrigerate it for several hours, or overnight, but it should be rest 20-30 minutes before cooking. No longer than that.
Thomas Keller, in Ad Hoc At Home, says twenty minutes from seasoning to pan. I see no reason to dispute this.
I like to leave a steak out at room temperature for three to four days, marinated in wine, coke, garlic and spices of my choice. When I fry it melts like butter in my mouth. When I worked at the cold storage commission we were told that you should leave steaks out at room temp a few days before cooking. As long as it is properly covered and sealed and marinated. It tenderizes naturally by standing out at room temperature.
If you add salt to the steak, you need to cook it as soon as possible, because the salt will make the juices of the steak leak, and it will loose a lot of taste.
Nice article, I think it's for more than 2 hours. After that, it's contaminated by bacteria.
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