hellofresh hey guys I’m Nate welcome
back to the workshop not too long ago we
tried an experiment to see what would
happen if we poured molten salt onto dry
ice well we’ve got another experiment in
the same vein today we’re gonna see if
we can cook a steak with salt and I
don’t mean we’re gonna cook a steak that
has salt on it I mean we’re gonna see if
we can use a molten salt as the heat
source to cook a steak fans of the
YouTube channel backyard scientist may
remember a time when he tried to cook a
steak using molten aluminum and it sort
of worked but you couldn’t really eat
the steak because it had a lot of molten
aluminum stuck to the meat well
hopefully if our salt does stick to the
meat it will still be edible because
it’s salt so we’re gonna give this a try
we’re gonna take some of our salt we’re
gonna melt it down to a liquid in our
crucible and then we’re gonna pour that
onto our steak we might try pouring it
onto one side and we might try pouring
the salt into the pan and then putting
the steak on top of some of that salt
for the other side we’ll see it’s just
kind of gonna be a little bit of an
adventure
so let’s fire out the furnace melt some
salt and see if we can cook our dinner
this coarser salt is really good for
putting on a steak when you’re cooking
in a normal method but of course this is
gonna melt down into a liquid I don’t
know if it’s gonna make much difference
our salt has melted down to a liquid and
our stake is in the pan ready to go I’ve
put this jacket on because there is
moisture on the surface of the steak and
there’s a chance that it could cause the
molten-salt to splatter up into the air
and I don’t want to get that on me
there’s not so much moisture that I
think there’s any risk of a large steam
explosion but I do want to protect
myself a little bit so I’ve got the
glasses and the long sleeves and of
course the gloves oh that is hot all
right I’m gonna try and start pouring on
one end and move down to the other end
that smells so good oh my goodness Wow
that is a fantastic looking crust on
there so our salt as you can see has
definitely solidified it did that pretty
much as soon as it hit the pan and we
probably could have avoided that by
heating up the pan but I feel like that
would be cheating then we’d be cooking
your steak with a hot pan instead of
with molten salt however even though it
has solidified it is still holding a lot
of heat this kind of salt melts it just
below 1500 degrees Fahrenheit which
means that even though it’s cooled down
to the temperature where it’s solid
again it’s still very hot so it’s
cooking our steak pretty well at least
on the outside we’ll have to see how
it’s doing on the inside all right
here’s our steak cooked on salt cooked
on molten salt we’ve first poured molten
salt on top of it mostly it just ran off
the sides it landed in the pan and then
we cook the steak on the mold and salt
in the pan the outside has got a pretty
good sear on it we’ve got some good
dryness we’ve got some the Maillard
effect has started giving us some nice
crispy outside places but I do suspect
that the inside of the steak is going to
be pretty much raw let’s cut it open and
oh yeah so we can see that it did get
cooked for about an eighth of an inch of
the way through and then the inside is
still oh boy I think even calling this
blue rare would be generous it’s let’s
see it’s cool it’s not even a little bit
warm so if you like your steak ultra
blue rare I mean this thing this thing
is still mooing I’m pretty sure I think
a good vet could bring this back it
wouldn’t be too late I personally am NOT
a big fan of super rare steaks and I
know all you stake in Thuvia South they
are gonna be mad at me for that I’m more
of a medium maybe medium rare kind of
guy but this is a little too much for me
ultra blue rare I will still take a
small bite of it it’s the texture really
that I can’t handle just slimy at this
point but I’ll cut a piece off mostly I
just want to see if it got some good
salt flavor by being cooked on salt I
didn’t salt the state except for cooking
it on the salt so if I can taste any
salt at all
we know where it came from a little
there’s a little bit of salt flavor to
there’s a good steak cooked properly
that would be fantastic
turns out pouring molten hot minerals
salt is a mineral which means that what
we made is sort of like lava kind of so
yeah pouring molten hot minerals on top
of a steak is not the ideal way to cook
it but I do have another thing that I
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let’s get back to the steak before we
started melting the salt for this steak
we actually took a second steak and put
it in what’s called a sous-vide cooker
that’s a device that keeps a bath of
water at an extremely precise
temperature so right now I’ve got some
steak cooking in a bath of water at
about 134 degrees Fahrenheit which is a
good temperature to get a nice
medium-rare cook all the way through
it’s in a plastic bag which keeps it
from being in contact with the water
directly but it still gets all of the
heat and since the water is being held
at a very precise temperature the steak
will cook all the way through at exactly
that temperature without overcooking
anywhere so now let’s take our sous-vide
cooked
stake out and let’s put that into the
pan and try the same thing with that and
see if we can use salt instead of for
cooking the steak all the way through
just to finish up the outside of it
[Music]
alright there we go our steak is now
cooked all the way through at just the
perfect temperature however being heated
by water doesn’t really give us a nice
outside look to our steak and that’s why
we want to cook the outside with our
that’s pretty good that is a delicious
looking ribeye right there all right see
how this looks on the inside still got a
little bit of pink I’ll admit that even
though I don’t like it rare this is
probably a little overcooked for me a
little bit more pink on the inside is
more of what I look for
but that still looks pretty delicious
now this again see if it’s got any salt
flavor to it the last one didn’t have
much see if this is any different not a
lot at stake like I said I really enjoy
it when the texture has changed this is
why I don’t prefer my steaks rare this
the texture has definitely changed and
it did get cooked a little bit more than
I wanted so I probably had my sous-vide
machine set a few degrees too high even
though I cooked this with salt none of
it really stuck to the steak so I’m
going to add a little bit more salt and
this is gonna be my dinner cooking a
steak using molten salt it does get a
pretty nice sear on the outside
especially if you take care to flip the
steak down in the salt as is cooling in
the pan it doesn’t really do a whole lot
of searing as you pour it on it just
sort of skitters across I think we have
the Leighton prospect making the salt
not really stick to or touch the steak
very much overall if we pre cook the
inside of the steak and then use the
salt as a sear on the outside it does
work although it’s a bit of a roundabout
way of doing it it would be easier to
just sear it in a pan or on a grill or
something like that or maybe just sear
it directly in the foundry if you’ve got
some cool ideas of other things you want
to see us try using molten salt let us
know down in the comments below if we
use your idea will send you 25 bucks
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