Marinating
Also called marinade, wet marinade
Quick answer
Coating food in a wet mixture of spices, aromatics, salt and usually acid, fat or dairy, and leaving it for hours before cooking.
What it does to spices
Marinades penetrate far less than is usually assumed. Over hours, salt and small molecules move a few millimetres into meat, and acid or dairy tenderise the surface; most spice aroma compounds, being fat-soluble and larger, stay on or near the outside. A marinade therefore flavours the surface and the crust above all, which is why marinated meat is usually cut thin or scored, why yoghurt marinades carry fat-soluble colour like Kashmiri chilli so well, and why a long marinade cannot season the middle of a thick joint.
Why it works
Salt dissolves some muscle proteins and lets the meat hold more water, and it diffuses inward slowly; acids and the lactic acid of yoghurt denature surface proteins; some fresh fruits contribute protein-digesting enzymes. Aroma molecules move through meat far more slowly than salt, and those dissolved in the marinade’s fat stay with the fat on the surface — which then browns, carrying their flavour into the crust.
How it goes wrong
- Leaving delicate fish or meat too long in a strongly acidic marinade, which turns the surface mushy or chalky.
- Expecting a marinade to flavour the inside of a thick piece: score or slice it instead.
- Reusing a marinade that has held raw meat without boiling it first.
Spices it matters for
- Kashmiri chilli — The tandoori marinade, where yoghurt fat carries the colour.
- Turmeric
- Scotch bonnet — Jerk, where the marinade sits on the meat for hours.
- Allspice — The other defining ingredient of a jerk marinade.
- Gochugaru
- Ají panca — Anticuchos.
What it changes in the spice
The chemistry this technique sets off, explained in full on the science page.
Where it is used
The pairings that specifically call for this technique.
- Gochugaru with pork — Jeyuk bokkeum — pork stir-fried in a gochugaru and gochujang marinade — is one of the most common Korean home dishes. Pork fat carries the capsaicin and the carotenoids equally well, and the chilli’s fruitiness reads clearly against the meat’s sweetness.
- Turmeric with yoghurt — A marinade base across South Asia: yoghurt tenderises and carries, turmeric colours and adds an earthy depth, and the acidity keeps the turmeric from tasting raw the way it would in a dry rub.
- Scotch bonnet with chicken — Jerk chicken, and the pairing is inseparable from the method: the marinade sits on the bird for hours and the chilli fruit works into the meat rather than staying on the surface. Chicken is mild enough that the scotch bonnet sweetness reads clearly.
- Kashmiri chilli with yoghurt — The tandoori marinade, and the pairing shows what Kashmiri chilli is for. Carotenoids are fat-soluble, so the colour transfers into the dairy fat and stains the whole marinade red — a hotter chilli could not be used at the quantity that colour needs.
- Ají panca with beef — The marinade of anticuchos — beef heart soaked in ají panca paste, vinegar, garlic and cumin, then grilled over charcoal. The chilli gives the colour and a smoky sweetness that stands up to the fire, and its low heat means it can be used by the spoonful.
Questions this page answers
- how far does a marinade penetrate
- does marinating overnight work
- how long to marinate with spices