How to Marinate a Steak
A steak marinade recipe can make the difference between a tough, plain-tasting steak and a tender, flavorful one. Marinades work by breaking down tough steaks to make them tender and succulent.
How to Marinate a Steak
How to Marinate a Steak
How to Marinate a Steak
How to Marinate a Steak
They also give the meat plenty of flavor and you can choose from gentle aromatic recipes to rich, full flavored ones featuring strong ingredients like red wine, mustard or vinegar, to make your beef really delicious.
Popular Marinade Ingredients
Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic, onions, BBQ sauce, fruit juice, brown sugar, and oil are popular ingredients in marinated steak recipes although no two recipes are alike. You can either follow recipes for marinating your meat or create your own marinades.
If you are marinating a good cut of steakto give it flavor, give it a relatively short time because the beef will take on the flavors in as little as twenty or thirty minutes. Leaving a good quality piece of steak such as a rib-eye or New York strip marinating for hours will make the meat mushy.
If you are marinating a tough cut of meat such as skirt or flank steak, you will require a longer time-long enough for the ingredients in the marinade to break down the tough connective fibers in the meat.
Marinades for tough steaks need an acidic ingredient like lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar, because the acid is responsible for breaking down the connective fibers and softening the steak. You can speed up this process by pounding the beef with the sharp side of a meat mallet before adding the sauce.
MoreTips for Delicious Steak
You can marinate your beef in a Ziploc bag or in a glass dish in the refrigerator. Make sure the meat is covered with the sauce. You might need to turn it a few times if not.
Use the leftover liquid to baste the meat while it cooks, if you want to, but do not do this in the final ten minutes of Cooking time because there might be bacteria from the raw meat in the marinade and you will not want to brush this over the surface of cooked meat. Another option is to boil the marinade for ten minutes. This will turn it in to a tasty sauce that you can serve with the beef.
Cook your marinated steak recipes on the grill for the very best results. A charcoal grill can give a mouthwatering smoky flavor to gas grill steaks but is also agood choice. Alternatively, you can broil or fry the steak if the weather is not good for Cooking al fresco. Most chefs recomMend a maximum of medium rare doneness for steaks, in order to prevent them from drying out.
Some people insist on Cooking their steak until it is brown all the way through but this will result in dried out meat. Aim for red or pink in the center, and your marinated steak should be delicious and juicy.
How to Marinate a Steak