Illustration for article titled How To Season the Sides of Your SteakPhoto: Davidchuk Alexey (Shutterstock)

Good steaks don’t need salt solution (wet or dry). You don’t need complicated frictions. You don’t (usually) need marinades. Good chops may need some of these things, but both always need some seasoning – at least a healthy pinch of salt. And I want to make sure salt gets in from all sides, including the edges, especially the edges that have a fair bit of fat in them. (Do you eat the pieces of browned fat on a steak? I always have, but apparently some people find this “weird” or “gross”.)

Illustration for article titled How To Season the Sides of Your Steak

Whatever. Whenever you sprinkle a powdered or crystallized flavoring on the top and bottom of a steak, chop, or other thick rectangular meat mass, you lose some of that salt, sugar, or otherwise flavored powder on the cutting board of inaccuracy. This is not your fault – you are only human, and Shakers are somewhat arbitrary in their function.

Seasoning the edges of the steak or chop by dispensing your salt or other flavoring directly from the shaker will only result in another loss as the target is now even narrower than it was originally, and a shaker is – again – not the most accurate delivery system.

Instead of doing that – and wasting yummy salt – just take your steak or chop it and dab the edges in the salt and seasoning that you already lost from seasoning the top and bottom of the cutting board. This way, all of the sides – including the greasy ones that brown so deliciously – get their share of salt and seasoning without wasting any of that salt or seasoning.

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