Salt and Grilling

Spring means time to clean the barbecue and get ready to grill. Salting meat after it is cooked helps the flavor, but salt draws moisture out of the surface of the meat. If salt is left on the surface of meat for a significant period of time, it will dehydrate the meat. Usually, this is not a good idea before cooking meat.

However, if the meat is going to be cooked quickly (like a grilled steak) and if the salt is added just before cooking, then the salt will neither help nor hurt the meat. This is because it is too short a period of time for the salt to dehydrate the surface of the meat.