I’m not much of a meat-cooker and yet I’ve learned the importance of a good steak marinade recipe. You just need one, OK?
Here’s why I need a steak marinade recipe
Awhile back I shared about my meat ignorance. Here’s an excerpt.
My first problem was I have never bought pot roast before, so when I was at the grocery store I found myself simply staring at the different meats unsure of what the differences were between them all.
For some reason, meat intimidates me.
But my husband and I are at the point where we don’t enjoy meat so much we’re discussing trying to go vegetarian, at least for the most part. In a healthy way. Of course this isn’t a decision we can make lightly if we want to be healthy about it.
So before taking the leap, we’re doing some research. And part of that research needs to include learning more about meat. Because, I suspect, if we learn to recognize a good cut of meat versus a bad/cheap cut of meat, and how to prepare it properly, we will enjoy it much, much more.
Here’s some more history
Last year my brother hosted a fondue party for New Year’s. And my job was to bring marinaded meat.
I looked up a recipe online and hoped for the best. And you know, it worked out pretty well! But I had no idea what I was doing, at all.
The ingredients from that marinade are still kicking around my kitchen (taking up space) and since the whole “meat” thing has been on my mind I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about marinade, and, as a side-effect, meat.
What is marinade for anyway?
Here we go. The purpose of marinade is to tenderize the meat. Totally didn’t know that. Therefore, tough cuts of meat benefit the most from marinades as it loosens them up and gives them flavour.
But really, marinade can be used anytime to liven up a piece of meat.
So really what I figured out, is you have to know what you want your meat to taste like and then you can mix up your marinade.
My grocery trip had me looking at some different beef cuts and I saw some nice sirloin steaks on special. I knew it was a pretty good price for sirloin and I knew my husband would be encouraged to barbeque once he saw them so I picked up a couple and started researching marinade recipes.
I didn’t want to purchase any new ingredients, since my fridge is kind of packed with random bottles of this or that thanks to my many unfortunate cooking experiments.
Due to this decision I had to combine recipes to come up with one marinade and boy oh boy was the marinade excellent.
It turned out pretty well! Here’s more or less what I did.
First-Timer’s Steak Marinade Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup barbeque sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon minced onion
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic (cloves if they’re handy)
- 5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
- 1/4 teaspoons hot sauce
Directions
In medium bowl whisk ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Submerge meat completely in marinade and refrigerate for at least six hours, turning occasionally.
Enjoy!
(Or, if all else fails, get some Jack Daniel’s Marinade In-A-Bag and call it a day.)
Other recipes I like
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