All You Marinate Is Meat?

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Termy

Senior Cook
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
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303
Location
Parma, Ohio
I found potatoes take things in. For example alt, soak it in salt water a bit and the salt in IN the fried whatever instead of on it.

But is potatoes and salt where it stops ? Why would it ?

I am thinking this is limited to certain things. You won't marinate broc for example. But how about that eggplant that quite a few ad Italians like so much ?

What about that squash everybody gives you and you have considered killing them for that.

How about eggplant and squash having some infused flavor ?

Onion and garlic in the marinade ! Perhaps a few other things.

One warning though, anecdotal but listen up... One time I put too much salt in the fries. I don't know, It is one or the other, that they were too long in the salt water or the salt water was more salty.

Think about it.

T
 
Contrary to popular belief, potatoes don't absorb flavors well. If you are soaking something in salt water, it's called a brine, and cam be used with other ingredients from beef brisket, to bread and butter pickles. Many veggies are pickled, such as pearl onions, cauliflower, yellow, and green beans, black, kidney, butter, and great Northern beans, , celery, even watermelon rind, and of course cucumbers. Sometimes the recipe is as simple as dill weed and brine. Other recipes include vinegar, sugar, herbs, cloves, coriander seeds, and other ingredients.

A marinade is an acidic liquids used to add flavor to the surface of meats. Marinades can use wine, vinegar, and other flavors. The acids cause the meat proteins to tighten on the surface. creating a barrier to penetration. The rule of thumb is 15 minutes in a marinade is as good as 15 hours.
Teriyaki beef is beef slices that have been briefly soaked in a combination of rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, sliced onions, sot sauce, and garlic.

Three bean salad, and many pickles are made in acidic liquids, which do penetrate the entire food. There are no proteins to form barrier to the osmotic actions. If cooking dried beans, adding acidic ingredients before the beans are completely tender will create that barrier in the bean proteins stoppin the full hydration of the bean.

Marinade definiin;https://www.dictionary.com/browse/marinade

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I marinate vegetables sometimes. I have a recipe for marinated, grilled zucchini: trim zucchini, cut it into planks and marinate in lemon juice, olive oil, dried oregano and S&P for an hour or so and grill. This can be done with lots of different vegetables and seasonings.

I'm not sure marinating raw potatoes would do much, since they're so dense. I do season boiled potatoes with lemon juice or vinegar, depending on what I'm making, right after draining them. They absorb the liquid and taste great.
 
Besides salting various veggies, something that I do all the time is soak minced shallots or onions in a weak citric acid solution, to remove some of that "raw onion flavor", and aftertaste, when adding it to something where it won't be cooked. I got this idea from some Mexican dishes, where onion is soaked in vinegar, but I often don't want the vinegar flavor, so I use the citric acid, and rinse it off; vinegar can be rinsed off, as well, but I can still taste it in some things! And when making a vinaigrette, with some shallots, I soak the shallots in the vinegar for a bit, while prepping the other ingredients (or just do some other things), before finishing the sauce.
 
Tofu needs a taste to be marinated into it.


Cabbage-coleslaw is kind of marinated, pickled.
zucchini with a little soy sauce.
Water melon rind, for pickles.
 
and fresh mozzarella - bocconcini - tasteless without a marinade

exception to the rule is fresh, fresh, fresh mozzarella di bufala.

Did I mention fresh? Otherwise it toughens up and is not as good.
 
I like to marinate the large portobello caps in A1 Steak sauce and toss on the grill. I have also marinated them in Italian dressing.
 
I marinate vegetables if I´m going to put them on the grill.
I marinate olives as well, to give them depths of flavour.
Fish and shellfish? I might marinate just a short while. but the flesh is generally so delicate that any "marinade" simply kills the flavour of the main ingredient.
 
Smelt soaked overnight in a brown sugar, salt water brine, slow-smoke with alder, or maple wood is superb.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Dry brining is used for smoked fish, country smoked ham, home smoked bacon, corned beef, pastrami, lox, and many others.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
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I marinate vegetables if I´m going to put them on the grill.
I marinate olives as well, to give them depths of flavour.
Fish and shellfish? I might marinate just a short while. but the flesh is generally so delicate that any "marinade" simply kills the flavour of the main ingredient.
Fish and shellfish in a citrus marinade becomes ceviche. There must be a Venezuelan equivalent.
 
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