Cal - What you're referring to seems to me to be something that I would call quick, or mini dry-brining. Over the past few years I've pretty much converted from using wet brines to dry brines, and I use a similar process for smaller cuts of meat such as steaks, pork tenderloins, etc. Simply put, using kosher or sea salt, liberally sprinkle the meat and let it rest for a period of around 1 hour per inch of thickness. For small items, doing this while it's unrefrigerated and coming to room temperature would probably be OK. Larger items should refrigerated initially. Once the brine is complete, thoroughly rinse the salt off of the meat, and dry very well with paper towels. If you want to use a rub, now's the time to apply it. Obviously, a rub with a low or no salt content would be best.
Most of what I've learned about using a dry brine is based upon a method favored by chef Judy Rogers from the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. In her cookbook, she even devotes she even devotes a chapter to the subject of pre-salting. For some of the science behind the subject, the following is an excerpt from that chapter:
“Salt helps to dissolve some of the proteins within and around muscle fibers that would otherwise resist chewing. Initially, salt does draw moisture from the cells, hence the widely accepted belief that it dries food out. This is only temporary, however. With time, the cells reabsorb moisture in a process known as reverse osmosis. When they do, the moisture is seasoned with salt (and other aromatics that you might have used). What is more, the intruder salt changes the proteins in that they “open up” enabling them to trap more moisture than before. When you heat these transformed proteins, they don’t coagulate and squeeze out moisture quite the same way unaltered proteins do. All of this results in a seasoned, moisture-laden cells less tenaciously attached to one another than their unseasoned counterparts. “
For a different take on this process, click here..