Salt meat either immediately before cooking—less than three minutes before it goes into the pan—or at least forty minutes ahead, preferably the night before. The interval in between is the worst: salt has drawn moisture to the surface, but it has not yet been reabsorbed, so the meat enters the pan wet and will not brown. Choose the timing based on how much time you have, not on the recipe.
As soon as salt touches meat, osmosis begins: water inside the meat moves toward the surface. In the first 3–5 minutes, a visible layer of moisture appears; by the fifteenth minute, droplets merge and the meat looks wet. After the fortieth minute, the process reverses: the salt has dissolved in the moisture to form a brine, and that salty liquid is gradually reabsorbed into the meat. After an hour, the surface is dry again and the salt is distributed deeper into the meat rather than remaining only at the surface. The timing depends on the meat’s thickness: the cycle may take half an hour for a thin slice and several hours for a thick thigh piece.
That is why there are two favorable windows. The first is sprinkling on salt immediately before the meat goes into the pan, so moisture does not have time to rise and the surface stays dry for browning. The second is salting it at least 40 minutes ahead. Ideally, salt the meat, place it uncovered on a plate in the refrigerator, and leave it overnight. The interval from fifteen to thirty minutes gives the worst result, and is common because that much time often passes while the pan heats after salting.
Measure the salt by weight: 1% of the meat’s weight in salt—that is, 10 grams per 1 kilogram of meat—gives a balanced result for most people. Use slightly less for thin slices and the same ratio for thick cuts. Distribute the salt evenly over every surface; sprinkling from above helps prevent leaving it in one spot. Coarse salt weighs much less per spoonful, so measure it with a scale rather than a spoon to avoid inconsistent saltiness. Add black pepper near the time of cooking rather than along with the salt; pepper left on a hot surface for a long time develops a bitter taste.
The same principle applies to poultry, but the timing is longer: salt a whole chicken or turkey and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to dry the skin so it becomes noticeably crispier in the oven. Ground meat is an exception. Salting ground meat too early dissolves proteins and makes the mixture sticky and paste-like; salt meatball mixture just before shaping. Fish also needs less time: salting it for more than fifteen minutes firms the flesh and leaves the fillet dry.
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