Why Use Marinade?

Why use marinade? Why not just ... cook!

Food authorities give two reasons for the use of marinade:

(1) Marinade to tenderizer;

(2) Marinade to enhance flavor.

Today we are recognizing a third reason to use marinade:

(3) Marinade for its health benefits!

Marinade The Tenderizer

The function of cooking is to tenderize food. In the case of meat, heat turns connective tissues into gelatin. With really tough cuts, cooking alone offers only a partial solution to the problem of toughness. This is where marinade steps in.

Marinade contains enzymes and acids that further break down connective tissues in meat. This use of marinade has been understood and applied for centuries in Europe, Asia and the New World.

Connective tissue in meat that comes in direct contact with protein-digesting enzymes gets partially broken down. Unfortunately these tenderizing enzymes also reduce the capacity of the meat to hold juice. Marinating can result in too great a fluid loss and thus, while the result is tender, it can also be "less juicy" (drier!)

Protein-digesting enzymes are heat-activated at temperatures of from 140 to 175 degrees but deactivate when they reach their boiling point. When we let meat sit in marinade at room temperature, we are not achieving a tenderizing function but simply enhancing the taste.

For tenderizing to occur, direct contact is necessary between meat and marinade. Soaking meat allows only shallow penetration into the surface of the meat. The danger in marinatating large or thick cuts of meat is that the surface will become "mushy" while the center remains tough.

"Puncturing" the meat is not a solution as little marinade penetrates to the interior but large amounts of juice are forced out through the holes, resulting in an even less balanced tenderness.

The favored solution is to marinate flat cuts of meat so that tenderization will be even and consistent. Meat may be placed in a plastic baggie (Food grade bags only! Shopping bags, lawn bags and garbage bags will leach chemicals you don't want in your dinner!) Place the meat inside the baggie, squeeze out as much air as possible and rotate frequently so that all surfaces benefit from the use of the marinade.

Too Tender Today? Just Right Tomorrow?

Currently certain slaughterhouses inject papain (the active enzyme of the papaya) into animals immediately before they are slaughtered. The injected papain is carried through all parts of the animal but is not "activated" until the meat is cooked. If too much papain is injected into the animal, the cooked meat will be mushy due to the papain having destroyed too much muscle fiber firmness.

The future

A "high tech" tenderizing process is now being developed in which tough cuts of meat are emersed in a water bath and then subjected to shockwaves — tenderizing the meat. (Personally we'll go with marinade!)

Marinade The Flavor Enhancer

You might ask, "If marinade is all about tenderizing tough meat, how could it ever be a gourmet product?"

There is more to marinade than tenderizing.

Marinade gives you the opportunity to work with fine cuts of meat — and vegetables — to add wonderful taste variations that would not — could not — be achieved otherwise.

Turkey from the supermarket, for example, is not a meat that calls for being tenderized. Most commercially supplied turkeys are young (4 to 6 months) and quite tender. But, through the artful use of marinade, this bird — which would otherwise have a consistent flavor thought by some to be a bit bland — can be given a kaleidoscope of the finest, most interesting and delicious flavors, thanks to the use of marinade.

Marinade, The New Health Food

In recent months, science has introduced us to another side of marinade — its potential health benefits.

According to U.S News & World Report (7/12/99), researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and at the University of Hawaii have found that marinating beef, pork, chicken and fish may dramatically reduce concentrations of cancer causing agents called heterocyclic amines (HCSs) which form when foods are cooked at high temperatures.

Personally we prefer marinade for the wonderful tastes that can be achieved.

~~ Billy Ray & Judy