Apolyton Cuisine: What should be in Ecthy's steak sauce / marinade?

[Ecthy]

(asking those that are not vegans level 5, eating nothing that casts a shadow)

OK, I could do the steak in the pan and have it with some industrial sauce but I thought I'd make some marinade for it, like in summer you get steaks for barbecues with marinade... so I have onions, diverse spices (not too exotic though), alas no garlic.

What would make for a good marinade? How long should the steak soak it before cooking?

Bon appetit.

[Cruddy]

Ideally some sort of acid agent (to help pre digest the beef) - so vinegar if you have nothing else, or lemon juice, or (my FAVOURITE) lime juice.

Also a little oil to help stop the beef from drying out, and chilli pepper (just a little - it really penetrates the meat if rubbed in).

Garlic? Salt?

Doesn't have to have too many ingredients - but some sort of acidic juice will help.

Marinade time - depends on thickness of the beef. A slim (say centimetre or less) will be OK to cook in a couple of hours - a thick (say 3 centimetres or more) joint could happily sit in the fridge overnight.

Bon appetit!

[Boris Godunov]

Jews!

Wait, I meant juice. Meat juice. Don't get all excited.

[Ecthy]

Thanks Crud!

Bro'Sis, please

[Stuie]

What kind of cut is the steak?

[Boris Godunov]

What the hell is a Bro'Sis?

[Al B. Sure!]

forget jews... it's the gypsies that he wants... sweet, delicious gypsies...

[Ecthy]

what kind of cut? I wouldn't know, but I bet it is important because of the juice running through and all... no idea though, sorry

Brosis, Albrecht, pscht!

[Japher]

Step 1

Take the chunk of meat, throw it in a zip-lock and cover it with beer. Let marinade for at least 3 hours and no longer than 12.

Step 2

What kind of spices do you have? If nothing than just salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll add a couple shots of soy sauce to the meat/beer mix about an hour before I cook it, or worchteshire sauce. I have a rub I use that uses onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, chilli powder, and ground anise.

Dry the meat with a papper towel before appling the rub. Don't be afraid to message the rub into the meat.

Bring meat to room temp.

Step 3

Cook, preferably on an open flame. High heat to seal the meat than low to cook.

---

The idea of a marinade is to start cooking the meat. Acids will do this, but sometime it can just be too strong. Thus, I like to make sure to maximize the penetration of the liquid (as with the oil suggested by Cruddy). The more wet the meat is the less likely you'll over cook it. I find that beer is perfect for a marinade base. Slightly acidic, pentrates/moistens very well, and slightly cooks the meat.

I try to avoid soaking the meat in anything that will actually flavor it too much, or to a point that it no longer tastes like meat, but the marinade. Thus, I use rubs. A dry rub gives the meat flavor without penetrating the whole peice of meat. I have about 50 kinds of spices in my kitchen with which I toy with to create rubs.

[Boris Godunov]

I'm just waiting for a "bad taste" remark so I can make a *ahem* delicious pun.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
what kind of cut? I wouldn't know, but I bet it is important because of the juice running through and all... no idea though, sorry

Fine, we'll assume it's something cheap and treat it like flanksteak. So...

Score the meat on both sides, crosswise in a diamond pattern. The cuts should be about 1/4 inch deep. You might want to pound the crap out of it prior to scoring it.

For the marinade, no garlic really hurts, and I'm hoping you have some soy sauce.

1/2 cup soy sauce
couple tablespoons vinegar
some chopped onion (since you have it )
teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes
teaspoon or so of black pepper

I usually just stick the meat in a ziplock bag and dump the marinade ingredients right in, close it and shake. Then let it marinade on each side for equal amounts of time. You can probably get away with marinading it for about an hour or so, but the longer the better (I prepare it the night before and let it soak all night - turn it over in the morning and the cook the following evening).

[Al B. Sure!]

boris:

huh?

[Al B. Sure!]

what kind of cut? I wouldn't know, but I bet it is important because of the juice running through and all...

haha... the german thought you meant cut as in a cut not where on the cow the steak is from. hahaha

[Ecthy]

19 soon?

[loinburger]

Unless the cut's cheap, I'd actually recommend that you not marinate it. If it's cheap, then use some cooking wine (basically a mixture of cheap red wine, vinegar, and salt), garlic powder, onion powder, ground ceyenne pepper, and ground black pepper. Soak the meat in the wine/vinegar/salt mix, rub on the powders, maybe whack it with a mallet a few times if it's especially cheap steak. Personally, I prefer tacos.