What's the use of onions in teriyaki sauce?

Question

I make my own Teriyaki sauce. Soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, olive oil and onion. Normally, after marinating, I dry the piece I'm going to sauté and remove the onion.

Does the onion add flavour to the sauce? Does the onion have an effect on the meat that's marinating?

Or can I leave out the onion?

Asked by BaffledCook

Answer

Soy sauce, sake or mirin and sugar are the usual ingredients in a teriyaki sauce. The rice wines in particular are vital for an authentic teriyaki flavour.

So the question is somewhat moot: onions aren't usually found in teriyaki sauce anyway. The onions naturally add flavour to your marinade: if you like it, leave them in, if you don't, take them out. The onions won't have any major chemical effect on the marination process.

Personally I would ditch the olive oil, replace it with toasted sesame oil and add garlic and ginger for a more rounded and authentically flavoured East Asian marinade.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

Check more discussion of this question.

Why marinade meat with acid or enzymes?

Question

This might sound like a queer question, but why do we marinade meat with acid / enzymes? Given that marinading doesn't tenderize meat, it just turns the outer fibers into mush and releases the juices when cooking? Why not just go with a flavored brine instead?

In other words: Why is it customary to use such marinades, and why is it commonly said that it tenderizes the meat?

Source Shirley Corriher:

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/marinades-flavor-tenderize.aspx

At first, water molecules are attached to and trapped within this protein mesh, so the tissue remains juicy and tender. But after a short time, if the protein is in a very acidic marinade, the protein bonds tighten, water is squeezed out, and the tissue becomes tough. If you've ever tried marinating shrimp in highly acidic ingredients, it's likely that you're familiar with this result.

Also

My experience with tenderizing enzymes mirrors that of Dr. Nicholas Kurti, a famous Oxford physicist who tried tenderizing a pork roast by injecting half with pineapple juice, leaving the other half untouched. A noted chef, Michel Roux, was to judge on television which side was better. After cooking, the half treated with pineapple was total mush and looked like a pile of stuffing. Not surprisingly, Chef Roux preferred the untreated half.

Answer

Hardly a queer question. We marinate in acidic liquids because it tastes good, really. As Alton Brown said in the Good Eats episode, "Raising The Steaks":

"Acid doesn't tenderize meat nearly as well as enzymes. But acids can help you tenderize your own food. That's because acids taste tangy, and tangy tastes tell our saliva glands to do their stuff, and saliva is full of enzymes."

As that same episode shows, we generally don't marinate in enzymes, as it would turn meat to mush, and not in a good way.

Check more discussion of this question.

Is it OK to marinate chicken and pork together?

Question

I just want to minimize dishes taken to a BBQ--marinating pork chops in a lemon/herb/olive-oil baste along with some chicken skewers. Is there anything to worry about with trichonosis when preparing pork in same dish with other meats at room temperature? I can't imagine it's a problem, but you never know...

Answer

Don't worry about the pork contaminating the chicken, but rather vice versa. A good rule of thumb with chicken is to treat it as a biohazardius contaminant. Because it is. Salmonella is present IN chicken meat, unlike other meats where you will only find microbes on the surface. Your marinade doesn't seem particularly inhospitable to pathogen growth, so cross contamination would be a nontrivial concern. OK, if you overcook your pork chops as some insist on doing, it shouldn't be much of a concern. However, may as well be safe and split the marinade between two ziploc bags. It's a small effort to mitigate risk.

Check more discussion of this question.

How necessary is it to marinade meat before making jerkies?

Question

So I just got myself a dehydrator, for the purpose of making jerkies.

I was thinking of just seasoning the meat lightly instead of marinating them, which takes considerably more time, needs more sauce and a bit more effort.

Would it make a lot of difference? I suppose I could always experiment, but from the "making sure I won't get sick from parasites" point of view, will a super dry jerky be safe if it's not been marinated?

Also, would it depend on the meat?

Answer

Marinating your meat makes it safer primarily by introducing it to salt, which kills bacteria. It is possible to make jerky safely without it, though you need to be careful.

You should use lean meat; fat is the most likely component in the meat to go bad.

It's also important to regulate the temperature closely and make sure hold the meat at temperature for long enough.

You can get some really really nasty bacteria if you don't cure meat correctly, so it's worth taking some time on it. Check out this guide on safely making jerky in a home dehydrator for more info.

Check more discussion of this question.

de-parasiting mackerel for sushi

Question

We've bought some fresh sushi-grade mackerel, and would like to make saba sushi from it. We were told that we should treat it with vinegar to kill any parasites.

Some online recipes I've seen recommend a two step process of first salting for 30-40 mins, then marinating in vinegar for 30-40 mins. Others extend the salt step to 3 hours.

Is the salting necessary for de-parasiting? I ask because the fish store guys, who are usually very knowledgeable, didn't mention it. If so, is 3-4 hours really necessary, or is 30-40 minutes more like it?

Clearly I'm eager to eat this fish, but I'd like to play it safe :)

Answer

You can never be to safe when it comes to fish. Worms and other parasites => nasty business. I would definitely salt the fish, and would err on the side of caution and look at the three hours, not just a half an hour. I would then give a half hour in the vinegar. That is the way I have done it, and indeed seen it done. Best to be safe rather than sorry. I've also known people who have not been safe and paid a rather disgusting price.

Check more discussion of this question.

Marinades: Water vs Oil

Question

What's the theory on using water vs oil for chicken marinades? I ask because of this recipe:

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1731460

After multiplying the recipe by a lot, it makes a good marinade, but almost all of the other marinades I've seen online involve oil. Why does this one use water?

---

(In case the link goes bad, the recipe is:

• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 1 Tsp Yellow Mustard
• 1 Tsp Sriracha
• 1 Tbsp Water)

Answer

Some chemicals and flavours dissolve or bind to water differently from oil. For example, chili binds with oil much better than with water and the honey in your recipe will dissolve into the water which it would not do in oil.

Check more discussion of this question.

Can I freeze marinated chicken breasts?

Question

I bought marinated chicken breasts from the butcher and didn't realize I bought twice as many as I really wanted! Is it ok to freeze half of them?

The marinade is a garlic butter, so not acidic like a teriyaki. If the type of marinade affects the answer please let me know.

The breasts are still wrapped in plastic and then butcher paper, unopened since getting them home from the butcher, and have been kept in the fridge the entire time.

Answer

You can absolutely freeze marinated meat - defrost in the refrigerator, and it will continue to marinate as it defrosts. I find that it usually takes about a day to defrost chicken breasts in the fridge.

The meat is more of a concern than the type of marinade when it comes to freezing. Most marinades should be fine to freeze. However, if you're starting off with meat that was frozen, you may not want to refreeze it. There are a couple reasons for this:

1) If the meat was frozen and NOT kept refrigerated (i.e., defrosted on the countertop or in the microwave), there's a chance that bacteria could start to grow in the meat, and freezing it again won't kill the bacteria. This isn't a problem if your meat is refrigerated and kept in an airtight container. The USDA has a quick guide on freezing, defrosting and refreezing here.

2) Texture may be affected if you refreeze meat. Most meat dries out a little in the process of freezing and defrosting, so doing this multiple times will probably affect the texture. When the ice crystals form in the meat, they burst cells, which then lose juice when the meat is defrosted. The result is often mushier, less juicy meat.

As a less scientific reason, the Food Network has recipes where they say you can freeze marinated chicken. Sometimes, if it's good enough for the Food Network, it's good enough for me... :)

Check more discussion of this question.

What is the minimum time for a decent meat marinade?

Question

Is there a good minimum time to recommend for the time to marinade meat? Or is it always best to eave overnight if you want good results?

Do citric juices such as lime or vinegar reduce this time?

Answer

It depends on the meat and how it's cut. A 'solid' uncut piece like a pork loin will take longer to marinade properly than if it was cut into thin strips for stir frying, for example - I'd want to marinade the former at least 7-8 hours, while the latter could probably get away with 1.

Check more discussion of this question.

Pan-frying marinated meat without making a huge mess?

Question

I love marinated meat, I love the extra flavor that the marinade adds to it. However, I don't always have the option to BBQ it, so sometimes I have to use a frying pan.

However, this always creates a huge, huge mess. The oil in the pan seems to not like the marinade, it immediately starts to crackle and boil, spilling hot oil everywhere.

I thought that I didn't use enough oil, so today I used a bit more, but that made it even worse. Using less oil seems to make it hard to actually get good meat, that is meat that is NOT a lump of coal on the outside and raw inside.

So I thought I'd ask for advice here :)

Answer

As others have said, the issue is the hot oil and water interacting. You need to reduce or eliminate one in order to prevent the splatter or find a way to mitigate the damage.

Remember the basics - allow the meat to warm up to room temperature before cooking and pat it dry before you begin. That should allow you to use less oil without it turning into a charred lump with a raw center. You can use a lid or a screen to prevent splatter (you might need to adjust cooking time with a lid that will trap more heat).

Check more discussion of this question.

What is the purpose of red wine vinegar in steak marinades?

Question

Some recipes call for red wine vinegar in steak marinades.

Is the Red wine vinegar used as means to break down the meat tissue or is it just there as a flavor agent?

Answer

Any vinegar or lemon juice or any other acid it there for those two reasons. To soften the meat and to impart flavor.

Check more discussion of this question.

vinegar in marinades

Question

Some recipe's call for red wine vinegar in steak marindes.

Red wine vinegar is used as means to break down the meat tissue or are they just there for flavor agent?

Answer

Any vinegar or lemon juice or any other acid it there for those two reasons. To soften the meat and to impart flavor.

Check more discussion of this question.

Why did my peanut butter sauce split?

Question

I made a peanut butter sauce/marinade for some tofu bits, with peanut butter, soy sauce and pineapple juice. It tasted good and was the right creamy texture when I put the tofu in it. After a couple of hours it was still fine, and then I tossed it all in the frying pan. Within a minute or two, the sauce had split, and had lost most of its flavour. What parameter of the cooking am I getting wrong?

Answer

You need to 1) increase the emulsification, and 2) reduce the amount of time the sauce is very hot.

You can try adding honey or mustard to the sauce, that will improve emulsification. You can also hit it with a stick blender which will do a much better job of breaking it up than can be done by hand.

Also it may look ok after a few hours but who knows how much separation is starting to happen at a very small scale and will accelerate when it hits heat.

Add the sauce at the last possible moment before plating. It isn't going to benefit from cooking, and it isn't going to marinade into the cooked food, so don't have it in any longer than it takes for it to warm up. 20 seconds is probably all it will take.

Check more discussion of this question.