A Marinade Guide

Copyright 2009 Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Please remember these are suggestions and ideas, not hard-boiled recipes. Making homemade marinades is a good way to begin to learn to trust your OWN taste. They are a snap to pull together, very satisfying and extremely inexpensive to produce at home once you have gathered the ingredients.

Italian balsamic marinade:

Combine garlic, balsamic, olive oil, black pepper, and dry or fresh basil. A nice trick is that you can make inexpensive balsamic taste more like the pricey stuff by boiling it for 10 minutes with a little sugar... figure 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar per cup of inexpensive balsamic.

Simplified hot jerk marinade:

Puree together a scotch bonnet or habanero chile (use gloves to handle these searingly hot beauties) and blend with 1/4 cup each of oil and vinegar, half an onion and generous teaspoons each of thyme, allspice, black pepper and cinnamon.

Basic Asian marinade:

Puree together equal parts of fresh ginger and garlic with soy sauce. Add sugar and pepper to taste.

Grilling Tips

• Marinades and sauces containing sweeteners like sugar, honey, or molasses will burn quicker than those without sweeteners. Watch them closely, and move to indirect heat if they start to burn.
• If time allows, meat could be marinated in the refrigerator from 3 to 12 hours. Don't marinate vegetables as some will throw off water and become soggy before they ever touch the grill.