Marinating Tips: How To Make The Tastiest Meat Marinades

A marinade is an acidic savory sauce, inside which, food particularly meat, is soaked to tenderize it and enrich its flavor. When meat is correctly marinated, you get tender meat filled with flavor. Some of the marinating tips you should apply are below:

How long: If you have already cut your meat into pieces, depending on your beef’s texture, anything between 15 minutes to two hours will do. However, if you are marinating the meat to tenderize it, allow it to soak for at least 6 hours but not for more than 24 hours. Soaking it for more than 24 hours will affect its muscle fibers causing them to break and have a mushy texture.

How much: For each one to two pounds of meat, have about a half cup of marinade. If extra marinade remains, you can store it in the fridge for grilling later in the week, but only store it if it has not touched raw meat.

Contain it: Marinate your meat in a stainless steel container, a non-reactive glass, or a food-safe plastic bag. Ensure that you stir or turn your beef occasionally to permit it to be exposed even further to the marinade.

Ensure it’s cold: You should always marinate your meat in the refrigerator. Otherwise, if you marinate it on the kitchen counter or outdoors, this can encourage bacteria growth, which can cause an illness.

Final preparation: After you have drained the marinade from the beef, continue to spat all the sides of your beef with paper towels. This helps encourage browning while preventing steaming. You should also add any additional seasoning to the flavor here.

Safety tips: If you will be using the marinade as a sauce or basting, reserve some of it before adding it to the beef. If marinade has contacted uncooked meat, always bring it to a full boiling for about a minute before it can be used as a sauce or basting.