Kinds of Marinade

Used when long keeping quality is important. Modern refrigeration has made cooked marinades less widely used. An advantage of cooked marinades is that spices release more flavor into the marinade when it is cooked.

Most widely used for long marination under refrigeration. For example, see the recipe for Sauerbraten. Figure 7.25 shows meat in a raw marinade.

The range of flavors and purposes is wide. Used for marinating a few minutes up to several hours or overnight. For example, see the recipe for London Broil.

A dry marinade, also called a dry rub or a spice rub, is a mixture of salt, spices, and herbs that is rubbed or patted onto the surface of a meat, poultry, or fish item. In some cases, a little oil or a moist ingredient, such as crushed garlic, is mixed with the spices to make a paste, called a wet rub. The item is then refrigerated to allow it time to absorb the flavors. The rub may be left on the item or scraped off before cooking. This technique is widely used for barbecued meats. For an example of a dry marinade, see page 565. Figure 7.26 shows a dry rub being applied to a large cut of meat.

Dry marinades are an effective way to flavor meats. Naturally, because they usually don’t contain an acid, you can’t expect dry marinades to produce the slight tenderizing effects of liquid marinades containing acids.