Update 14 Aug 16 (Hamburger Cook): I waited until the stone was up to 450 degrees before putting on my hamburgers. They came out really, really salty. I am not sure if it was all the grease they put out that melted the stone, if it was still a low enough temperature that a lot of salt was transferred, or if it was the melted cheese adding to the saltiness. Either way, I am still trying to dial the stone in.
Bottom Line: The jury is still out. The [easyazon_link identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Salt Plate[/easyazon_link] passes a delicious and subtle saltiness to the meat, but it takes forever and a day to get up to a suitable cooking temperature.
We had some friends host us for dinner the other night, my buddy made a delicious meal with stuffed rib eye steaks
Before the unboxing
that while seasoned simply were seasoned perfectly. I watched him work the steaks across his gas grill with a giant pink slab on the grates. I had heard of people cooking on a salt block before, but had filed it away as a gimmick, that is until I tasted the end result. As I finished polishing off the steak, I informed my wife that another item had just been added to my wishlist, to which she rolled her eyes.
Fast forward about 6 weeks later, it is Amazon Prime Day and they are offering the [easyazon_link identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Charcoal Companion: Himalayan Salt Plate and Holder[/easyazon_link]as one of the promotions. As I tried to explain to my wife later, I had to order it, it was a sign from heaven right?
The [easyazon_link identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Salt Plate[/easyazon_link] is just a giant block of Pink Himalayan Salt that has been shaped
Untouched Salt Plate and Holder
into a plate approximately an inch thick or so. The Salt Plate retains heat and will gradually get hot enough to cook on and it will transfer salt to anything that comes into contact with it. Eventually the plate will become worn down as items are grilled on it, my buddy’s Salt Plate has several divots from where he has repeatedly used the plate. When the plate has been worn down to the point it is no longer of use, it can be ground up and used as seasoning.
Unboxing:
There isn’t much to the package, Salt Plate, Holder, and some instructions. The salt plate is pretty heavy, I would guess 15-20 lbs, so it would be understandable if it got damaged in transit. The packaging is robust enough to protect the plate and the shrink wrap keeps all the moisture out. This was validated because the box sat in my very humid Hawaiian garage for over a week with no visible influence from the moisture. I had a Himalayan Salt lamp that turn white from all the moisture.
First Cook:
I wanted to recreate the magic of my first experience with the [easyazon_link identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Salt Plate[/easyazon_link], so I picked a bone in rib eye for the first
The steaks were just added to the Salt Plate
meal. Unfortunately, I also decided to cook on a day that featured torrential downpour after torrential downpour, fortunately I am not made of salt! The instructions indicated it could take 30-40 minutes for the Salt Plate to come up to the 300-400 degrees cooking temp they recommend. My Kamado does not come up to temperature in the 15 minutes that many claim, it often takes 30-40 minutes, so I try to get started early. I fired up the Kamado, put the [easyazon_link identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Salt Plate[/easyazon_link] on the grate with the expectation that the Salt Plate would come up to temp along with the grill. Turns out my expectations were completely unfounded. 30-40 minutes later my dome thermometer was solidly at 400 degrees and there were flames licking the grates, but my IR thermometer only showed 250 degrees on one side of the Salt Plate and 180 on the other. I had a hungry family to feed, so I decided to press ahead with the hope that the grill’s internal temperature would adequately cook the steaks. I cooked the steaks for 9 minutes on each side to account for the cooler temperature of the Salt Plate. They were cooked, but they just didn’t look very appetizing because the Salt Plate hadn’t adequately seared the meat. I ended up putting them on the grate to finish them.
I also decided to do some grilled zucchini as well. My wife had sliced up a lot of zucchini and the Salt Plate was too
After the first flip
hot and heavy to move off of the Kamado, so I cooked some zucchini on the Plate and some of the grates. The Salt Plate was above 300 degrees at this time, the zucchini cooked, but again it didn’t develop the caramelization that I desired.
For what it’s worth, the steak and zucchini were both over salted, turns out my wife had not realized that I had intended to try out the Salt Plate, so she had already seasoned both the steak and zucchini. The meat and vegetables both came out fine in spite of this.
First Impressions:
I have to say I am a bit underwhelmed at this point, but perhaps my expectations were too high. You need to ensure you allow sufficient time for the Salt Plate to come up to temp, my grill was very hot, so this makes this a pretty inefficient method of cooking. However, one you get the Salt Plate up to temperature, it seems it will stay there for a very long time enabling you to cook multiple steaks. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve involved, so I am willing to accept that some of the shortcomings are related to my inexperience. I look forward to trying a few more things before rendering final justice. Clean up just involved wiping down the Salt Plate with a damp cloth after it has cooled, but for more stubborn grime they amazon offer this [easyazon_link identifier=”B00QB5C5RO” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]Charcoal Companion CC4108 Salt Block Cleaning Brush[/easyazon_link] .
Do you have this Salt Plate? What has been your experience? Please leave me a comment below.
Pros:
Very thick, will last for years
Relatively Inexpensive
Adds just the right amount of salt
Large enough to handle a family of four
Easy to Clean
Cons:
Take a long time to come to temp
Heavy
Holder feels like cheap metal and I expect it to start rusting soon.
[easyazon_infoblock align=”none” identifier=”B013T0EWBU” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]
[easyazon_infoblock align=”none” identifier=”B00QB5C5RO” locale=”US” tag=”saltplate-20″]
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