Braai meat marinade

Sokum said:
Any marinade that contains acid, alcohol, or salt should not be used for very long, because it will chemically "cook" or denature the food in it.
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Salting meat before cooking is called a brine, not a marinade. It can be a wet brine or a dry brine, but doing it for more than 4 hours with the correct amount of salt for the weight of the meat will give you a much better result, depending on the size and type of meat. Denaturing the proteins in the meat doesn't necessarily mean you'll cook it. It does mean more tender, juicy meat if done right.
 
It will really depend on what meat you'll be braaing. For a steak, I'd ideally prepare the meat ahead by aging it, then rub it in salt, pepper, fresh thyme and garlic and butter - and sometimes I cut slashes in the meat and insert peppercorns and garlic and butter in for penetration. Then you want it to cook on a high heat for a short amount of time, and the timing is crucial so you need to stand guard and watch the interior of the steak.

For ribs, I normally make a coating from ingredients such as balsamic, honey, soy, mustard, paprika and put it into a ziploc bag with the ribs and slather it all round - but I don't bother marinating it for long because I can't tell the difference.

For chicken it's a different matter, I'd say you should brine it for a long while in a measure of salt water to keep it moist on the fire, then also marinade it - something like this recipe for half an hour or so. Again, I'd experiment with coatings but you're aiming to get a crispy skin outside and very moist meat inside, so just immediately as the meat has gone from raw to cooked in the centre take it off because it will dry out very fast.

For fish, you want simple light tasting ingredients with fresh herbs like lemon, butter, garlic, dill, tarragon, parsley, basil, mustard seeds, cracked pepper, lime, sesame, soy. Again a short marinade is good, because flavours penetrate easily and can 'turn' the fish after a while. I almost don't marinade fish at all actually, just slather it over and cook, and rather under-do the sauce than overdo it because fish is sensitive to overpowering and good fish is immensely satisfying on its own.
 
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cerebus said:
It will really depend on what meat you'll be braaing. For a steak, I'd ideally prepare the meat ahead by aging it, then rub it in salt, pepper, fresh thyme and garlic and butter - and sometimes I cut slashes in the meat and insert peppercorns and garlic and butter in for penetration. Then you want it to cook on a high heat for a short amount of time, and the timing is crucial so you need to stand guard and watch the interior of the steak.
For ribs, I normally make a coating from ingredients such as balsamic, honey, soy, mustard, paprika and put it into a ziploc bag with the ribs and slather it all round - but I don't bother marinating it for long because I can't tell the difference.
For chicken it's a different matter, I'd say you should brine it for a long while in a measure of salt water to keep it moist on the fire, then also marinade it for several hours - something like this recipe for half an hour or so. Again, I'd experiment with coatings but you're aiming to get a crispy skin outside and very moist meat inside, so just immediately as the meat has gone from raw to cooked in the centre take it off because it will dry out very fast.
For fish, you want simple light tasting ingredients with fresh herbs like lemon, butter, garlic, dill, tarragon, parsley, basil, mustard seeds, cracked pepper, lime, sesame, soy. Again a short marinade is good, because flavours penetrate easily and can 'turn' the fish after a while. I almost don't marinade fish at all actually, just slather it over and cook, and rather under-do the sauce than overdo it because fish is sensitive to overpowering and good fish is immensely satisfying on its own.
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Paragraphs, please.
 
Mortymoose said:
Thought I would be clever and called the Buyer at SPAR Dc in KZN to find out if the warehouse stocked Jimmy's..

Turns out not, it's a regional item that is manufactured in the Cape.

Namibia has it , as all our stores are serviced from Cape Town.....

Sorry....
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Thanks for checking. I haven't been able to get a bottle to sample.

Making lamb and chicken. Would the Spur bbq work on that?
 
mintydroid said:
Thanks for checking. I haven't been able to get a bottle to sample.

Making lamb and chicken. Would the Spur bbq work on that?
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Fk no. Rather buy some proper stuff or make your own.

I can't help but think of that poor meat being destroyed by that cheap generic crap. It won't taste like Spur, and the idea is to not have it tasting like Spur. :p

Olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper for lamb FTW.

Woolies sticky/peri marinade for chicken... Trust.

Don't forget to turn the chicken often.
 
PostmanPot said:
Fk no. Rather buy some proper stuff or make your own.

I can't help but think of that poor meat being destroyed by that cheap generic crap. It won't taste like Spur, and the idea is to not have it tasting like Spur. :p

Olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper for lamb FTW.

Woolies sticky/peri marinade for chicken... Trust.

Don't forget to turn the chicken often.
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I want the bbq taste on the lamb. I'm not a pro at anything food related. Time to get the SO involved. Maybe I should check in Woolworths too. Will check the Internet for ideas.
 
mintydroid said:
I want the bbq taste on the lamb. I'm not a pro at anything food related. Time to get the SO involved. Maybe I should check in Woolworths too. Will check the Internet for ideas.
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You don't have to be a pro to follow the basic instructions to make a decent authentic bbq marinade. It's really easy.
 
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