The Truth About Marinade

Apparently, we’ve been duped. All of these years that we’ve been marinating meat for flavor and texture when really we could have just dipped it into some sauce a couple of times. Or braised it. Or made stew.

I actually don’t like to marinade (or brine for that matter). I find that if I marinade for too long, the meat can taste too salty or it loses some meaty essence. It tastes too prepared, as if it wasn’t made in my kitchen but in some giant factory plant. Maybe I’m a purest when it comes to meat, but I’m also being extremely health conscious and practical: do I want to have more salt in my food and waste a plastic bag on a marinade? Do I want the extra cleanup? Do I want to waste fresh herbs in a salty mixture that I have to pour down the drain after a single use?

Andreas Viestad suggests that instead of marinating for a long period of time, make a more intense marinate and submerge for a few minutes before cooking. The capillary action of the meat pulls the marinade through the surface spaces, adding a dimension of flavor to the meat– which is all you really need.

And this is where I get freakishly geeky: let us clarify what he means by capillary.

Most of us know what a capillary is: the smallest of the body’s blood vessels that is essential for the exchange of nutrients between the body’s tissue and blood. It’s also a major component in our immune response: because of the nature of capillaries to dilate when triggered by the immune system, we’re able to deliver antibodies and macrophages when we injure ourselves or are infected. But this isn’t what Mr. Viestad is referring to: he’s referring to the space in between cells.

This form of capillary action is dependent on the surface tension of a fluid.  You can see this when you place a capillary tube in solution (think back in the days of thin layer chromatography in high school when you separated dyes.)   The small spaces capture fluid and hold them there because of surface tension and intermolecular forces:  it explains how sponges and paper towels work.  Viestad looks at a study done by McGee and This that shoes that the fluid only travels just below the surface of the meat… meaning that flavor doesn’t saturate a meat, but coats it.

Which doesn’t explain why my chicken tasty terribly salty after I brine it overnight.  Not flavorful, just salty.  Until I remember two things I learned in science:  osmosis and salt channels. 

That’s a totally different post for another time.  Needless to say, I won’t be marinating anymore for 8-24 hours.  But I will be reading a lot more for Andreas Viestad and keeping my washingtonpost subscription.