So I have an obsession with marinating meat. I love the smell of the mixture of spices, herbs, and oil. I love looking around my kitchen cupboards to find just the right spices to add, and the perfect liquid seasonings. I absolutely believe that to make something taste good, you have to put your heart into it. You have to rub the meat with tender care and imagine the taste of everything you're mixing together. Will it taste good? Do they go together? Is there anything that would clash or bring out the flavours even more?
Anyway, so today I decided to try marinating ribs for tomorrow. This is my first time making pork, let alone ribs, in a really long time. I usually make chicken or beef, since they're really easy to cook and season. So while I was scrounging around my kitchen wondering what to season my ribs with, I wondered to myself how I usually figure out what to put in it. I found this website that really helped me figure that out.
So when you marinate meat, you basically need three key types of ingredients:
1) some sort of acidic liquid (this is usually lemon, vinegar, beer) - this is good to make the meat really soft and tender, so that it can just fall off the bone, or be easier to chew
2) herbs and spices - to flavour and season the meat
3) oil - to make it juicy! keeps the moisture in the meat and also keeps the spices and herbs attached to the meat
So now the secret's out! Well sort of...
1) I usually use both lemon and white vinegar for chicken, black vinegar for beef, and beer for pork.
2) All meat: teriyaki sauce, honey, cooking wine, chicken: spices depend on what flavours I want (so jerk, cajun, cayenne pepper, white pepper, italian, but not all together), beef is usually just black pepper or sometimes I cheat and use pre-made korean beef seasoning, and worchester sauce, pork: black pepper, and I cheat with pre-made bbq sauce for ribs, regular pork chops I just add some ketchup, worchester sauce, and sugar (that's also the recipe for sweet and sour pork). For me, I usually try not to use salt, as the herbs and spices already give it a lot of flavour, and especially the pre-made sauces, they usually already have salt in them. Less salt helps you to taste the meat for what it really is! Also healthier!
3) olive oil is the way to go!
Remember to marinate with love! Rub rub rub! That is the key! For chicken, make sure to get the seasoning under the skin! Marinate over night, or if you're in a rush, 30 minutes will do with more acid and less oil. If you're not sure how much of each ingredient you want to add, just put enough to cover the surface of the meat, and then add according to taste preferences (sweet, sour, spicy). Since you can't taste test the marinade after it has touched the raw meat, just smell it. Does the marinated meat smell good? Does it smell appetizing? Can you imagine the flavours and picture yourself eating it?
yum yum yum I wish you happy marinating!
Been reading Hosea these days! Sorry for the lack of posting!
Anyway, so today I decided to try marinating ribs for tomorrow. This is my first time making pork, let alone ribs, in a really long time. I usually make chicken or beef, since they're really easy to cook and season. So while I was scrounging around my kitchen wondering what to season my ribs with, I wondered to myself how I usually figure out what to put in it. I found this website that really helped me figure that out.
So when you marinate meat, you basically need three key types of ingredients:
1) some sort of acidic liquid (this is usually lemon, vinegar, beer) - this is good to make the meat really soft and tender, so that it can just fall off the bone, or be easier to chew
2) herbs and spices - to flavour and season the meat
3) oil - to make it juicy! keeps the moisture in the meat and also keeps the spices and herbs attached to the meat
So now the secret's out! Well sort of...
1) I usually use both lemon and white vinegar for chicken, black vinegar for beef, and beer for pork.
2) All meat: teriyaki sauce, honey, cooking wine, chicken: spices depend on what flavours I want (so jerk, cajun, cayenne pepper, white pepper, italian, but not all together), beef is usually just black pepper or sometimes I cheat and use pre-made korean beef seasoning, and worchester sauce, pork: black pepper, and I cheat with pre-made bbq sauce for ribs, regular pork chops I just add some ketchup, worchester sauce, and sugar (that's also the recipe for sweet and sour pork). For me, I usually try not to use salt, as the herbs and spices already give it a lot of flavour, and especially the pre-made sauces, they usually already have salt in them. Less salt helps you to taste the meat for what it really is! Also healthier!
3) olive oil is the way to go!
Remember to marinate with love! Rub rub rub! That is the key! For chicken, make sure to get the seasoning under the skin! Marinate over night, or if you're in a rush, 30 minutes will do with more acid and less oil. If you're not sure how much of each ingredient you want to add, just put enough to cover the surface of the meat, and then add according to taste preferences (sweet, sour, spicy). Since you can't taste test the marinade after it has touched the raw meat, just smell it. Does the marinated meat smell good? Does it smell appetizing? Can you imagine the flavours and picture yourself eating it?
yum yum yum I wish you happy marinating!
Been reading Hosea these days! Sorry for the lack of posting!
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