We all love to BBQ and we all love tasting the results. It's also a nice way to spend the day outside with family and friends. A good time grillin' starts with a good sauce and meat that is marinaded to perfection. All of the best sauces that I have tasted were all homemade, but you can use the store-bought stuff too.
WARNING: if you are going to use a marinade with vinegar, wine, lemon juice or any other acid, marinate only tougher meats like sirloin, flank steak, skirt, round or hanger steaks and don't marinate them for longer than 2-3 hours or the steak will just get tougher.
1. Cut slices into the steak every 3/4" about halfway through the thickness of the meat or use a fork and poke it 10+ times on both sides. This helps the marinade to penetrate the meat and gives it more flavor.
2. Rub the marinade into the meat, coating it very well. Just use your hands and massage it in there
3. Put the meat in a ziplock bag or a covered plastic, ceramic or glass container. Never marinade at room temperature.
4. If using a ziplock bag you can squeeze as much air out as possible, it will help the marinade to cover more of the meat.
5. If using a plastic container you can flip the steak every 2-3 hours. Or 10-15 minutes if using a very acidic marinade.
6. Place the meat into the refrigerator overnight. Or for no more than 3 hours if your marinade is very acidic.
7. To speed up the marinating process you can mix in a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice or red wine into your sauce.
8. You can also use a vacuum sealing device to remove the air from the bag or plastic container. This will hurry things along very quickly.
9. Don't use the left over marinade for sauce or basting, throw it away! It contains bacteria from the raw meat and can make you very sick.
10. Always use a plastic bag or a glass, plastic or ceramic container for marinating, never use aluminum! It will react with the acids in the marinade and spoil the meat.
Experiment with your marinades by throwing in some thyme, shallots, rosemary, parsley or dried crushed chili peppers. Look for my upcoming articles on marinating fish and tofu.
Until next time, Happy Grillin'
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