Category: Marinades

A marinade is a savory, acidic sauce in which a food is soaked to enrich its flavor or to tenderize it.

It’s important to marinate food in the refrigerator and not on the counter.

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This is important to remember. After you marinade your steaks, take them out of the marinade and pat them dry on both sides before putting them on the grill. Wet steaks tend to steam and not sear. There is a big difference in taste and texture.

Put your steaks on the grill and close the lid and don’t turn them constantly. Ideally you will only flip them once, maybe a couple times at the most. You will get a richer flavor not turning them. After you grill for awhile, you’ll get an idea as to how much time a steak is going to take, according to thickness.

And, I hope I’m not too late on this one, when it is freezing outside, it will take your steaks and any other meat longer to cook. Adjust for the temperature.

As I write this, the temperature here in Ohio is 10 degrees, so I don’t think I’m too late.

Some recipes state to marinate meat and poultry for several hours or days, either to tenderize or
add flavor. Always marinate food in the refrigerator, not on the counter.

If some of the marinade is to be used as a sauce on the cooked food, reserve a portion of the marinade. Don’t put raw meat and poultry in it.

Never re-use the marinade used on raw meat or poultry.

When you marinade, you want the entire meat to absorb the flavoring. Puncturing the meat doesn’t do the trick as it will be uneven and you also will lose some of the juices when you grill.

Put the marinade in a heavy zip lock bag and place the meat inside. Seal the bag, removing as much air as possible. Place in the refrigerator and turn every so often. Flat cuts of meat actually work best to get the full flavor of the marinade.

Pork chops are made for the grill but I think they need some help. Marinading them or using a barbecue sauce is a big plus. Here’s a marinade you might want to try.

1/3 cup ketchup
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
4 lean loin pork chops, trimmed of fat

Combine ketchup, cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and chili powder. Place pork chops in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour the barbecue sauce into the bag and cover the pork chops with it. Marinate for 4-6 hours. If you want to brush any of this marinade onto the chops during grilling, put some aside before pouring it into the bag and refrigerate.

Preheat grill. Place marinated pork chops on the grill and cook until done, about 5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness. The FDA has changed their recommendations and cooking pork chops to an internal temperature of about 145 degrees makes them safe and keeps them juicy. Any higher and you have dried pork chops.

Here is a quick and tasty marinade - bottle of Italian salad dressing.

Put the meat in a zipper poly bag along with the dressing and seal it. The poly bag is massaged and placed in the refrigerator for 2-24 hours, depending on the meat. For chicken, limit marinating to 2 hours. Pork and beef can be marinated for up to 24 hours.

There’s not much to it but the ingredients are in the dressing. Keep a bottle handy in the refrigerator and you’ll always have a quick and easy way to marinade your meat before the barbecue.

It’s popular to marinade meat but precautions should be used for the safety of you and your family or guests. We’ll get into marinades in later posts, but I felt this was important to pass on.

Marinade meats in the refrigerator and not out on the counter.

If you want to use some of the marinade as a sauce on the cooked food, put aside a portion before you place the meat in the marinade.

 Don’t reuse marinade that contained raw meat. Once you remove the meats from the marinade, discard the marinade.