To make Montreal steak seasoning, crack two tablespoons each of coarse salt and black peppercorns with one tablespoon each of coriander seed and dill seed, keeping everything coarse, then stir in one tablespoon each of granulated garlic and dried minced onion and two teaspoons of red pepper flakes. Press it onto steak and let it sit thirty minutes before a hard sear.
What is Montreal steak seasoning?
Montreal steak seasoning is what happens when a deli spice meets a grill. Its parent is the pickling-spice crust on Montreal smoked meat, the city's cured brisket tradition built by Eastern European Jewish immigrants, where coriander, pepper, garlic, and dill seed coat the meat through curing and smoking. Somewhere along the line the same blend started landing on steaks before the broiler, and the habit outgrew the deli.
Texture is its whole identity. Everything stays cracked and coarse, the salt in visible crystals, the pepper in shards, the coriander in broken husks, so the blend becomes a crust rather than a coating. The coriander is the signature note, faintly citrusy against the beef, and the dill seed is the tell that this jar remembers where it came from. Grinding it fine produces seasoned salt, keeping it coarse produces Montreal.
What goes in Montreal steak seasoning?
- ·2 tbsp coarse kosher or flake salt
- ·2 tbsp black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
- ·1 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely cracked
- ·1 tbsp dill seed
- ·1 tbsp granulated garlic
- ·1 tbsp dried minced onion
- ·2 tsp red pepper flakes
- ·Optional: 1 tsp mustard seed, cracked, for extra deli character
Salt and cracked pepper in equal measure, coriander and dill seed right behind. Crack the whole spices in a mortar or under a heavy pan, three or four pulses in a grinder is the absolute maximum, the moment it turns to powder it stops being Montreal.
How do you make Montreal steak seasoning?
- Crack the peppercorns, coriander, and mustard seed if using, coarse and uneven is correct.
- Stir together with the salt, dill seed, garlic, onion, and pepper flakes.
- Jar it sealed. The whole-spice format keeps it strong for a good six months.
- For steak: pat dry, press on a heavy layer, about two teaspoons per side for a big steak, and rest thirty minutes before searing or grilling hot.
- It earns its keep beyond beef: burgers before the grill, pork chops, roasted potatoes tossed in oil, and salmon fillets.
What should you know before making Montreal steak seasoning?
- Press, do not sprinkle. The crust only forms if the cracked spices are physically embedded in the surface before the heat.
- Mind the salt math, the blend is roughly a quarter salt, so skip any additional salting of the steak.
- Dried minced onion scorches over direct flame faster than the rest, for long grills, sear the crusted side over heat and finish the steak on the cooler zone.
Where did Montreal steak seasoning come from?
Montreal smoked meat came with Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who cured and smoked brisket in coriander-and-pepper pickling spice at delis like Schwartz's on the Main. The steak spice is that cure's second career, popularized at Montreal grill counters and then boxed for the mass market, where the McCormick jar made Montreal steak seasoning a household phrase far beyond the city.
What can you make from Montreal steak seasoning?
Common questions.
What is in Montreal steak seasoning?
Coarse salt, cracked black pepper, garlic, dried onion, coriander seed, dill seed, and red pepper flakes. The coriander and dill are the deli inheritance that separates it from a plain salt-pepper-garlic rub.
Why coriander and dill on a steak?
Lineage. The blend descends from the pickling spice used on Montreal smoked meat, where both seeds are standard. On a hot-seared steak the coriander reads bright and faintly citrusy and the dill reads savory, and together they are the Montreal signature.
How much Montreal seasoning per steak?
About two teaspoons per side on a thick steak, pressed in firmly, with no extra salt added. Rest the seasoned steak thirty minutes so the salt starts working before the sear.