Making Delicious Marinades

Marinating is one of the most important aspects of preparing your food. Whether it's meat or vegetables marinating can add and infuse flavor into your food. In the case of meats, it can make them more tender and easier to cook as well as prevent them from becoming dry. Whether grilling or stewing or frying, marinating your food before cooking it makes cooking a little easier.

There are many recipes for marinating but the basic ingredient is some sort of acids such as vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or even lemon juice Fruits such as pineapple and mango can be used as well but will drastically change the flavor. Spices are added to the marinade to provide the correct flavor, the marination process infuses their taste and aroma into the meat.

If you combine your acid with oil this called a vinegarette, using a vinegarette will cut some of the acidic flavor in the meat without affecting the tenderization as much. Vinegarette can be used as a marinade or you can use it like salad dressing.

Marinades are the main aspect of the tenderization process. If you take a piece of meat and just throw it on a grill it is going to be tough. It will take cooking it for a prolonged period at a low heat to make it tender. If you don't have time to do that or just want a nice grilled steak, then you are going to need to marinade that meat. It's best to marinate overnight, but depending on your time and how you want the meat to come out you can marinade much longer.

Steak Marinade Recipe

Here is a really basic steak marinade recipe:

1/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce

1/3 cup White Vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder

 

 

Once you understand the basics of a marinade you can experiment, other spices such as oregano, basil, and sage. Add lemon juice, substitute for soy sauce.

The marinade will not only make cooking a little easier and introduce you to a whole new world of flavors.

 

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Posted in: Cooking Tips & Recipes