Who here has used a sous vide machine

dtc said
Anyway, I don't know the guy or what his intent was, but that first objection seems off. He does address in his summary the reason I think a rested steak that's salted turns out better and that's a dry surface.

So, without knowing the intent of his argument and finding the suppositions to be incongruent with my own theory, I'll say that a salted steak that's allowed to rest for 30 or 40 minutes on a cooling rack will come out better. The salt will cause the steak to sweat away excess moisture. The salt will also liquify and be drawn into the meat providing a better flavor. The kicker, of course, and where I wonder if he was strawman fishing is that OF COURSE you dry off the water from your steak before cooking.

If you are really looking to have a dry surface, on a cooling rack in a fridge will be a lot better than on a rack at room temp. Leaving things uncovered in the fridge dries them out and is one of the secrets to really great chicken/duck skin. Leave things skin side up uncovered in the fridge for the best searing surface

buzd said
I'm not sure about the salt being drawn in. You can bury a steak in salt, and ultimately it's not going to be that salty. I think it does modify the proteins, making them more conducive to a juicy steak.

It does modify the proteins but it is also definitely drawn in. If you salt steaks within an hour or so of cooking them its impossible to oversalt them as its not drawn in that much and you lose a lot of the salt that stays near the surface to the cooking process. If you salt the night before the salt gets drawn all the way through the steak. It's essentially dry brining.

You can actually watch the process happen on a steak. Salt it really well and watch the steak start to "sweat" on top as the salt pulls a little moisture out, then osmosis/equilibrium take over and that "sweat" and all that salt begins to be distributed back into the steak. The longer you give the process to work the more even the seasoning will become.