The steak is very delicate and elegant meat that you have to be careful with. The kind of marinade you use for barbecue is not suitable for it. Moreover, there are special ways to marinate steak, revealing its taste qualities in full. We’ll talk about them later.
1. Base ingredients
Salt
It’s no secret that one of the most important ingredients of any marinade is salt. It helps the marinade seep into the meat and increase the flavor of spices. And it’s also a guarantee that every bit of steak will be juicy. Because salt also helps to keep the moisture inside the meat. It first pulls the juice out of the meat and then sucks back into the meat with the marinade. Because salt destroys protein structures by creating small cracks, more moisture gets in.
Butter
Most herbs and spices reveal their scent in combination with oil (vegetable or cream). So by adding a little bit of oil, you enhance the taste of the herbs that are in the marinade itself.
Soy sauce
This may be a good salt substitute, but soy sauce is better used as an improvement in the taste of the meat itself.
Sugar or honey
Both ingredients not only add sweetness to the dish, they primarily exist as natural flavor enhancers. In addition, sugar and honey make a glazed crust on any piece of meat.
2. Lots of herbs and spices
The higher the concentration of salt in the marinade, the more herbs and spices the meat needs to absorb their taste. One of the best combinations of herbs for steak is garlic + rosemary + fragrant pepper. In butter or olive, these spices open even better. So if you like the scent of Italian or Provencal herbs, pour a nice steak mixture, add salt, a little oil — a flavor of meat ready.
3. Piercing a steak before marinating
To absorb as much marinade as possible, you can pierce a piece with a fork to form small holes. You can also make cuts with a knife. This method is best used for tougher meats.
4. Marinade or vacuum bath
Put the meat in a deep bowl and cover it completely with the marinade. It’ll look like a small bowl for a piece of meat. Leave him for 30 to 60 minutes and let him lie there. If you do not have that much marinade, put the steak in the bag (it should be hermetically closed) and inject all the marinade you have. Let him stay in the bag for one hour and immediately bake or fry, gradually adding the rest of the sauce to the meat.
5. Long-term marination
Try leaving the steak in the marinade for 6-9 hours. The whole purpose of this process is to make the meat consume the maximum flavor. The longer you leave the steak in the fluid, the more flavors the meat will taste. Therefore add aromatic spices to the marinade (for example rosemary, garlic, or thyme) so that the steak has an interesting taste. Notice: during the whole marinating process, you have to store the meat in the fridge.
Useful advice:
- Never use the same marinade twice, because it will already contain raw meat juice. If you would like to use the same marinade for potatoes or sweet potatoes, make a large sauce and divide it into parts: one for meat, the other for vegetables.
- As delicious as your marinade is and as perfect as the marination method is, it is very important to understand at what temperature the meat is prepared and in what mode. Without a clear preparation process, all the marinade effort will be useless.
