Have you ever dreamed of making the finest meat with a fragrant and crispy crust outside? After all, it's true, most of us know how to cook meat, but is it just like it always dreamed?
But it's very simple! The first rule of delicious meat is to soften it before cooking, and there are two ways: plastering and marinating.
Contents:
- Meat pickling methods
- How to pickle meat
- Seasonings and spices
- Important details
- Smearing meat
- Marinating dishes
- Pickling rules
Marinating meat
Did you know that for a long time a simple seawater was used as a marinade? Ancient Romans soaked in it, like meat, and fish before cooking. They did this to soften meat, taste it, and also to disinfect. Residents of the southern countries preferred wine vinegar, and in the east spices and spices were added with the same goals.
There are, of course, more radical ways to marinate meat. So, you can, as in some tribes, try to shovel meat into an anthill and then known to all chemists, and to ordinary citizens, formic acid will soften the meat and make it much more tender.
Of course, all these methods are pioneers in marinating. Today we use more complex mixtures: salt along with various other spices and spices, because picking meat before cooking is half the success in preparing a delicious dish.
How to marinate meat
Of course, even now the main ingredient of any mixture of marinades is acid, it not only softens meat, but also allows it to absorb more spices more easily. Marinade, besides, besides a pleasant piquant taste, saves meat from burning during its preparation.
It is important to remember that the more you use acids, the less time you need directly to pickle.
And here as an acid you can use many different products:
- Vinegar, apple or wine;
- Different juices( pineapple, lemon, grapefruit, pomegranate and apple);
- Dry wine( for fish it is, of course, white, as for chicken and pork loin, but for beef - red);
- Fruits( fresh pineapple or kiwi fruit);
- Soy sauce;
- Kefir or natural yoghurt.
Marinade based on fermented milk products is not so sharp and gives the dish a more delicate taste.
The marinating process by any of the methods lasts from an hour to a day.
Condiments and spices
In addition to the acid in the marinade there should always be spices and spices:
- Different peppers( for fish white, for meat black, paprika, curry and red);
- Onion and garlic;
- Anis;
- Fennel;
- Rosemary;
- Dill;
- Bay Leaf;
- Juniper berries - they can give the meat a very unusual taste;
- Mustard;
- Ready-made spice mixtures.
The main thing with spices is not to overdo, mixing more than 3-4, you can lose the feature of each of them, and the taste will turn out not so bright.
Important subtleties of
In marinade, vegetable oil is added, so that the meat does not lose juice during pickling and cooking. If desired, the oil can be replaced with mayonnaise, and in both, all spices dissolve well.
Also add greens, but not cut! Imagine only how you will extract the finely chopped greens from the meat after pickling. The same applies to onions and garlic, they are cut rather large, better by rings. However, they can be rubbed together into gruel, then it will not be necessary to further purify the meat from such marinade.
A variety of marinades are suitable for pork meat, beef, and, on the contrary, for poultry, a strong variety of ingredients can lead to its coarsening. For marinating birds it is best to use honey and citrus, and you can also add mustard. To marinate the fish, lemon or white wine is perfect, you can also add onions and vegetable oil to taste.
Crabs, shrimps and other seafood are not pickled before cooking, just lightly sprinkle with oil or lemon juice.
It is also worth knowing that salt is not added to the marinade for meat, it can condense it, so salt already fried meat. And on the contrary, the marinade for fish is always salted, otherwise it just crumbles when frying!
The meat is marinated in the refrigerator or in another cool place.
Smearing of meat
Like marinating, blending allows you to make meat more tender. The same ingredients are used, the difference between pickling and coating is only that the meat is coated with the marinade immediately before cooking.
Marinated ware
For pickling dishes suitable for ceramics, stainless steel or glass. This choice is due to the fact that the dishes should not react with food that is marinated and the marinade acid.
You can marinate meat even in a plastic bag. Simply package it is necessary to choose more densely, to enclose meat with a marinade and to shake it or him that meat was impregnated. At the same time, the air from the bag must be squeezed out and in such a state put the bag in the refrigerator or any other cool place.
How to make meat juicy and soft: marinade rules
Marinade is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria, so it can not be reused. The used marinade should not be concerned with meat that is being cooked or ready.
If you want to pour on them shish kebab or meat, then marinade should be boiled and then only used.