Forget Morton Salt — Make Your Steak Like Bobby Flay With This Unique Variety

Amid all of the ways that one can prepare great steaks, it can be easy to overlook the best ways to finish them. But something as simple as a little bit of extra salt at the end of your cook time can make a big impact on your beef's flavor and texture, provided that you use the right kind. The right kind in celebrity chef Bobby Flay's case is not quite the everyday table stuff that might come to mind, but rather some smoked sea salt flakes, according to an Instagram collaboration between the Food Network star and Misfits Market, where Flay was previously chef-in-residence. 

Smoked salt (whether flaked or otherwise), of course, is literally smoked over woods like oak, hickory, and mesquite. That process imbues the salt and everything it touches with satisfyingly warm and, well, smoky notes. Warm, smoky notes that also happen to mingle terrifically with all manner of steaks and their vast and varied cooking methods. And when you use the smoked flake variety specifically, a salt composition that's almost always used as a finisher, you also introduce the dynamic texture — a bit of subtle crunch — that Flay says he seeks in some of his recipes at home. Flay extols the virtues of smoked salt atop a butter-basted steak in particular, and its essence would certainly be lovely with the dairy's mild sweetness. But you can also add a pinch to whatever steak you might be making for a similarly tasty effect.

Although finishing salts do a lot of lifting, you still need to salt your steak prior to cooking, too. That helps you achieve a better crust and a juicier interior. If you're making a butter-basted steak the likes of which Bobby Flay references in the Instagram clip, for example, that means that you'd season the meat with about a teaspoon of kosher salt before it even hits the pan. The TV host has been known to use kosher salt for that step. Once you reach the ideal temperature for your desired steak doneness, you can top it with the smoked flaky salt to taste.

You can certainly use smoked sea salt flakes for any steak preparation that might benefit from their unique flavor and consistency, but they're particularly useful when you're sizzling those babies indoors. A smoked salt's cloak of singed timber brings a bit of the outside in when firing them in the open air isn't on the menu. A gentle sprinkle should be plenty. Start with a good pinch that just dusts the surface of your steak. The great thing about finishing salts is that you can always add a little more after your first bite.