Marinating

Over the past 2 weeks I did a handful a dishes involving marinating (red meat, chicken, seafood, tofu, and vegetables).  Marinating serves three main purposes: first, to infuse flavor, secondly, to increase the perceived tenderness of the item, and thirdly, to increase the moisture content in the item.  I say "perceived tenderness" because several sources claim that the acid of a marinade doesn't actually significantly break down the item, but rather increases saliva production in our mouths, which contains a large amount of enzyme that actually does break down the item.

Generalizing a marinade
In my mind, there are 4 main aspects of a marinade mixture: salt, acid, duration  (of soaking the meat, tofu, etc.) and other flavoring ingredients.

• Salt:  increases moisture/juiciness of the meat and adds flavor, obviously.   In my recipes here, the salt concentration is generally between 3 and 8%, going up as high as 10% for Alton Brown's shrimp brine and also for the Mediterranean chicken marinade.
• Acid:  increases perceived tenderness of the meat.  In the recipes here, the concentration of acidic ingredient (citrus juice, vinegar, etc.) in the marinade  is usually around 35% and goes as low as 20% for the teriyaki and somewhat higher for the marinated vegetables.
• Duration:  obviously, the longer it soaks, the stronger the flavor and more tender/juicy the meat.  On the flipside, if it sits too long, it it will become too salty or overly acidic or will start to break down and become mushy.   In the recipes here, the duration is usually between 4 and 24 hours (and less than 1 hour for the seafood).  In general, the thicker the piece of meat, and the more surface area there is, the longer the duration should be.
• Other flavorings/ingredients: some of the ingredients that kept reappearing in the recipes here include: chopped herbs, spices, garlic/ginger/shallots, chile/pepper,  flavored oils, soy, mustard.

Red meats:
I used the recipe from Alton Brown's "I'm just here for the food":

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce (omitted this)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Alton Brown recommends marinating for between 2 and 8 hours.  I tried 2 different meats in this marinade.  First, I did a fairly thick flank steak for about 3.5 hours.  The strength of the marinade flavor was just about right -- probably could have gone another hour  or two, even.  Second, I did (July 11) a lamb steak (round bone of the shoulder; ~3/4" thick) for about 6 hours.  The marinade flavor was strong to the point where the unique lamb flavor was not hardly recognizable (to differentiate it from beef).  For lamb, sticking to a 3 or 4 hour marinade is probably a good idea.

Chicken

I did two chicken marinades; the first being a fairly generic Mediterraneanish style.  I based the mixture fairly closely off of this food network recipe.    My actual mixture was:

• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• One clove garlic
• 1.5 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper
• 1.4 pounds of chicken (boneless skinless chicken thighs)

To mix, I put the thyme, oregano, and garlic in a mortar and pestle to smashup and then coarsely chopped with a knife and then mixed with everything else.  I left the chicken marinate overnight in the mixture and then grilled.  Mike and I agreed that the end product was fantastic -- super flavorful, non-acidic, and tender and juicy.

My second chicken dish in this marinating theme was the classic "Japanese" teriyaki chicken.  I followed this food network recipe almost exactly, just reducing the red pepper flakes from 1/4 teaspoon to 1/8 of the teaspoon (the spiciness came through with gusto, still).  Additionally, I exceeded the recommended marinating time and went for about five hours -- I think the flavor strength turned out well, though.  In my opinion, you can't have teriyaki chicken without the sauce over the top.  Based on the technique described in this New York Times recipe, I did the following:

• Bring 1/2 cup of the marinade to a boil, and then reduce heat to low
• Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water and add
• Stir until mixture begins to thicken, then remove from heat
• Sauce continued to thicken significantly, so I added just enough more water to dilute to a good consistency

The resulting sauce had more of an aromatic kick than most commercial teriyaki sauces I'm used to.  Perhaps the Sherry dominated the flavor, as well as the spice?

Salmon

I tried marinating salmon twice during this theme period -- both times using an Asian-style marinade.  The first time I used the following: juice of one lemon; 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce; 1 tablespoon chopped ginger; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 2 teaspoons sesame oil.  I used a piece of Keta (chum) salmon from whole foods ($7/lb) and marinated for about 35 minutes.  Sauté the fish and vegetable oil in a covered pan for about 3 minutes per side.  The results were quite disappointing -- very dry but  at least flaky.  After the fact, I learned that Keta salmon is at the bottom of the salmon barrel because it is so low in fat.

For the second salmon marinade (July 27) I used a piece that Mike had brought back from his Alaska fishing trip 6 months ago.  We're still not sure what type of salmon it is.  It was a fairly thin, skin-on fillet and fairly low in fat (unfortunately).  I used the marinade described in Pam Anderson's "Cook smart":

• 1/4 cup  soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (she called for rice wine vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Thin sliced green onion

I marinated for about 50 minutes (she had suggested 3 hours for a 3.5 pound fillet) and broiled 5 inches from the flame for about 4 minutes.  Then, basted with the simmered marinade residual and then broiled for another one or 2 minutes to get some color.  Like the previous salmon, this one turned out a little dry (but not nearly as bad).  The strength of the marinade flavors was just right in the fish.

Shrimp -- brining

The brining technique is a close relative of marinating, in that we are infusing flavor into the meat from a salty liquid bath.  The main differences that the salt content is usually higher and there is usually no vinegar or acid used.  My procedure (July 12) was based closely on that described in Alton Brown's "I'm just here for the food", which is:

• 1 pound shrimp
•  1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 pound ice
• 1 cup water

Note that this mixture works out to about 10% salt by mass, which is much higher than the  3%-6% mentioned by the food science expert Harold McGee.  I let the shrimp soaked in the brine for about 45 minutes (well beyond the recommended time of 30 minutes for size 21/25 shrimp -- especially since mine were even smaller at size 26/30), then grilled them for about one minute per side and the texture turned out perfect!  Unfortunately, the shrimp was much too salty -- probably because I applied an additional sprinkling of salt and seasoning after removing the shrimp from the brine and because I left them  in the brine too long, and because of the intensity of the brine.

Tofu

Marinated 1/2 pounds of tofu, cut into 1.5 cm cubes in 1/2 of the following Chermoula batch (a North African marinade), described in "The modern vegetarian" by Maria Elia:

• 1 cup cilantro, including stems, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Pinch of chili powder
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• large pinch of salt (I used 1/2 teaspoon for this full recipe; Mike thought the resulting tofu was under salted )

Blend the mixture in a blender jar and then slowly add the olive oil.  I marinated the tofu overnight and then broiled at 3 inch distance from the flame until light brown for 4-5 minutes.  Next time, more browning would be better.  The tofu seemed to pick up the lemon flavor most strongly; the other spices were quite mild.

Marinated vegetable salad

I followed the recipe in the Alton Brown's "I'm just here for the food." (July 11)  I replaced the tangerine juice with that of one grapefruit and one orange.  This is reasonable because the pH of tangerine is around 3.8 and grapefruit and orange have  pH values around 3.6 and 4.3, respectively.  The salad really reached its optimal state after about 12 hours of marinating.  Beyond 24 hours, the dressing/marinade  began to form little clumps -- I believe this is the pulp of the citrus clumping together because it seems to happen with the basic lemon  salad dressings I've made up also.