How To Marinate (Just About) Anything, and Some Marriage Advice

Marinated tomatoes - delicious!

Here’s some advice about how best to marinate all kinds of food, and how to do it and keep your marriage intact, too. 

Marriage and marinating have a few things in common. There’s the obvious connection – the bringing together of two different things and, well, marrying them. When it comes to marinating in my house, we don’t always agree. I’ve learned some valuable life and marriage lessons through the process of marinating. I’ll get to that later. 

First, let’s go over what marinating is. There’s a lot of science behind the art of marinating food: rules and precision and attention to detail. No matter what you’re marinating, be it a delicate piece of sea bass or tough cut of beef, the idea is to transfer flavor from one food to another. To infuse, to imbue, to bathe, whatever you want to call it; in the simplest terms, when you marinate you’re making food taste good. 

There are so many ways to do marination, but your recipe should always include fat, acid, salt and something sweet. You can then zhuzh it up with herbs (dried or fresh), chiles, garlic and citrus peels. You can leave it on for ten minutes or 24 hours. Longer is not always better and you can read below for some common sense advice on how long you should marinate whatever you’re marinating. 

If you think that marinating meat is only for the people who plan ahead, have precise ingredients on hand and expertly cook and serve up deeply flavorful food at every meal, it’s not so. With some knowledge and a few key ingredients in your pantry, you too can serve up some delicious, savory food. Not all marinades need hours and hours of time to marry. Some take only a few minutes.

Now onto the marriage part. The thing about marinated food in my house, specifically, marinated meat, is this: it’s typically a joint effort between my husband and me. It’s a marriage, if you will, of tastes, effort and time. When I’m baking a pie or making a salad or cooking up anything that’s completely my project, start to finish, well, then I don’t require input. But marinated steaks that I’m handing over to hubby for grilling? Or slow-smoked chicken for a family barbeque? These recipes take some negotiating, some compromise, some patience and tolerance. A little like a marriage itself. In this way, Paul and I are able to make marinated meat and a long-term commitment work. 

Read on for details about adding flavor to meats, vegetables and even cheese. How you do it and who you do it with, is up to you!

Classic Marinating Ingredients 

Most marinades start with a base that includes some kind of fat (like olive oil), an acid (think apple cider vinegar or lemon), salt and something sweet. Honey or brown sugar are good choices, as they add notes of caramelization along with sweetness. 

Food Safety 

It’s important to consider food safety as you are marinating, especially with raw meats. Once you’re ready to cook any meat that’s been sitting in marinade, remove the meat and toss the marinade. But, if you want to baste as you’re cooking, reserve part of the marinade before the meat goes in. You can safely baste away with it. Also, if you are marinating food for more than 30 minutes, it must rest in the fridge. 

Choose a Flavor Profile 

Once you’ve made your mixture of fat, salt, acid and sugar, you can easily add to it, to suit your cravings. I add fresh or dried herbs, handfuls of chiles, and anything I can dig up from the spice drawer. You can be creative and add in the brine from a jar of pickles, yogurt, mustard, booze and even grated fruit.

A Marinating Vessel 

What you put your food in, to soak up flavors, matters, a lot. Don’t use metal bowls or containers. I don’t use plastic bags because of the waste, and I don’t want microplastics leeching into our food. The best containers for marinating are glass or coated ceramics (like a pie dish).

What To Marinate

Chicken Breasts - We Americans love boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It’s high-protein, low-fat meat that works with nearly every flavor profile. But lack of fat also means lack of flavor, so marinating comes to the rescue. For juicy chicken breasts, combine equal parts fat and acid (just be sure it’s enough to cover the meat), one teaspoon each salt and sugar for every pound of chicken. Add in aromatics and herbs of choice, then let it rest for an hour. 

Fish - Marinating fish can be tricky. Most fish meat is delicate and tender. Marinate shrimp, scallops and the like in too much acid, and you’ll have ceviche. That’s not a terrible thing, but if you want flavorful, grilled fish and not ceviche, do this: for each pound of fish, rub the skinless side of the filet with one tablespoon acid, one tablespoon fat and a half teaspoon of kosher salt. Add finely chopped herbs with abandon and allow to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes – half the recommended time for chicken – before grilling, sautéing or broiling.

Pork, Beef and Lamb - Tougher cuts of meat (like lamb stew meat and flank steak) can handle being doused in a flavorful marinade overnight. I like to combine soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic and rub it all over a flank steak and let it sit for 8-10 hours before setting it on a hot grill. 

Vegetables - Vegetables become soft, flavorful and supple after a bath in oil and aromatics. You can marinate roasted vegetables for an easy and delicious mezze platter addition. Tomatoes love a marinade, too: quarter cherry tomatoes, add salt, olive oil, the juice of a lemon and a handful of herbs. Cover and let it rest for an hour or two. 

Cheese - Marinated cheese is one of life’s great pleasures. It takes time, ideally a few days, but the result is deeply satisfying. I like olive oil combined with garlic, lemon rind, chile flakes, oregano and sheep’s milk feta. With a few toast points and a cold glass of wine, it’s a breezy summer dinner.