The One Finishing Salt We Can't Recommend For Your Steak

Sometimes, the difference between a good steak and an exceptional one is a sprinkle of the right salt. But we aren't talking about Kosher or table salt here – the secret is in special finishing salts. These tend to have irregularly shaped crystals to lend the steak cut a good crunch. And, aside from salinity, they tend to be flavored with complex minerals from the sea they came from. To help you find the perfect finishing touch for your steak, Tasting Table put 10 popular brands to the test, working our way through 3 pounds worth of beef in the process. Although most brands delivered, one fell notably short: SaltWorks Pacific Blue Flake Sea Salt.

The salt's beautiful out of the bag with crunchy-looking, pyramid-shaped crystals. But it didn't quite live up to our expectations for one reason: It's intensely salty. The minerality that's a hallmark of sea salt is there but the raw salty flavor washes away what little extra flavor that it has. We could see it being used as a flavor-booster for mild-tasting dishes like a tuna steak or a salad ... just not a steak. The fine size of Pacific Blue also doesn't lend itself well to sprinkling — you can easily oversalt if you're not careful.

Instead of finishing, consider using it as a first-class steak seasoning. The Kosher flakes variant, once combined with black peppercorn, fried garlic, piment d'Espelette, and fennel pollen will make for one heck of a rub.

A good steak finishing salt should complement the meat's beefy flavor without overwhelming it — a balance that Pacific Blue failed to achieve. This is especially important if you're prepping something like a special filet mignon that's packed full of nuanced flavor that can be easily lost amidst the salty tang. A good salt to use for flavor would be something like the Vancouver Island Flaky Sea Salt, which strikes a nice balance between salinity and minerality and does a handy job of uplifting the steak without hogging the spotlight.

You'll also want a salt with a good texture. The salt crystals should be large enough to be sprinkleable and offer the steak a good crunch. However, they shouldn't be so fine that they'd melt the instance they land on the steak. Straight From France Fleur De Sel is a good example of a salt that does a wonderful job at this. The salt crystals are moisture-rich, making them feel creamy in the mouth while still having a body.

And sometimes, you just want to have a steak dinner that stands out. In that case, garnish your steak with Australia's Murray River Salt Flakes, which are naturally pink. So other than giving your steak's flavor and texture an upgrade, it'd prettify it, too. You can find salts with a balanced combination of all these three characteristics on the market. Unfortunately, you won't find it in Pacific Blue salt.