ALL ABOUT: INFUSING MEAT WITH FLAVOR
For recipes with short cooking times or hands-off cooking methods, often the prep work is the most time-consuming part. In this chapter, you’ll find a variety of recipes designed to be prepped and assembled up to a day ahead of time so that the next day you can pull dinner from the fridge and pop it straight into the oven or into a hot skillet. And because we knew these recipes would be stashed in the fridge overnight, we developed marinades and salt and spice rubs that would infuse the meat with great flavor while we went about our day. We also learned a few important tips to ensure that our marinades and spice rubs were as successful as possible.
The Benefits of Salting Meat
Salting certainly enhances flavor, but more importantly, it helps proteins retain their natural juices. When salt is applied to raw meat, it draws the juices inside the meat to the surface. The salt then dissolves in the exuded liquid, forming a brine that is reabsorbed by the meat. Once absorbed, the salt changes the structure of the muscle proteins, allowing them to hold on to more of their natural juices when cooked. If the salt has been combined with seasonings, such as in a rub, they are also absorbed by the meat and help to add an even deeper flavor. Normally the downside of salting is that it requires a long resting time, but this worked to our advantage for our prep-ahead recipes.
Spice Rub Success
In our testing, the most successful rubs were those that were allowed to sit on the meat overnight. Rubs that were rubbed on the meat immediately before cooking tasted raw and harsh because there was little time for the spices to penetrate and flavor the meat. But during an overnight rest, the flavors of the seasonings melded and became complex, and the salt in the rub helped to draw the flavors of the spices and dried herbs into the meat as it sat, seasoning and flavoring the meat throughout. We also found that wrapping the meat tightly with plastic wrap helped the spices to absorb.
Getting the Most from Your Marinade
Traditionally marinades contain an acidic ingredient like citrus juice or vinegar, which is thought to tenderize the meat, but we’ve found that more often than not acids wreak havoc on the texture of the meat, turning it spongy—especially if the meat is left to soak for hours. Our solution? We remove the acid from the marinade and instead spike our marinade with salt—essentially making a flavorful brine, which both seasons and tenderizes the meat while it adds flavor. To streamline our recipes, we reserve some of the marinades before adding the meat, then we brighten the reserved marinade with lemon juice or fresh herbs and use it as a sauce once the meat comes off the grill or out of the oven.
Flip and Toss
For marinades to be successful, they need to stay in constant contact with the meat. We find the best way to ensure that the meat gets marinated evenly is to place the meat and marinade in a zipper-lock bag with as much air as possible squeezed out, then flip or gently toss the bag occasionally during the soaking time to ensure that the meat is thoroughly coated.
Dinner’s in the Bag
Another way we have found to infuse the meat with flavor is by cooking it en papillote, or in a pouch, which allows the meat to steam in its own juices, infusing it with flavor. This classic French technique works best for quick-cooking, delicate cuts such as fish or boneless, skinless chicken breasts. While parchment is typically used, we find aluminum foil easier to work with. Here’s how to make a tidy foil packet that can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.
1. Spray the center of a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil with vegetable oil spray. Arrange ingredients in the center of foil. Bring short sides of foil together and crimp edges to seal.
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