Time for cookouts, cold beers and evenings with friends!
Discover how to make delicious grilled meats and fish with the right marinade. Every BBQ chef knows full well that there are rules to be abided by to boost the flavor of grilled meats and fish.
We gathered a few tips, only and solely for you. Oh, and don’t forget to pair your BBQ with a pitcher of fragrant Lemon Shandy.
6 rules for a perfect marinade
- When mixing the ingredients, remember to balance the oils, acids, and aromatics. Oils are needed for moisture, acids to tenderize and aromatics to flavour the food. In combination, they make meats and fish more flavourful and tasty.
- It is important to add the ingredients in sequence: first add the acid ingredient, meaning lemon, then the fat (Aulus oil), and lastly the aromatics (spices and salt)
- Do not reuse or marinate different foods in the same batch of marinade, to avoid cross-contamination with the bacteria from the meat.
- A good marinade will take about 2 hours to work well.If you are looking for a truly tender texture, marinate everything for 3-4 hours, but keep in mind that some meats, like chicken, tend to get stringy when exposed to acids for too long.
- Use only bowls made of ceramic, glass, or plastic, because aluminium or copper bowls may release toxic substances into the food.
- Remember that perfect marination can only be achieved in the refrigerator: never leave meats of fish to marinate at room temperature.
Meats and fish marinating times, and recommended aromatics
- Red meats (beef, veal, lamb): 4 to 6 hours. Recommended aromatics: oregano, parsley, sage, thyme and rosemary, cumin, pepper.
- Pork: 2 to 4 hours. Recommended herbs and spices: bay, wild fennel, cumin, coriander seeds, thyme. To flavor sausage, you may also try terragon. rosemary or sage.
- Poultry: 2 to 4 hours. Recommended herbs and spices: basil, chives, marjoran, sage. For turkey, preferably use parsley, rosemary and thyme.
- Entire fish: 1 or 2 hours. Recommended herbs and spices: bay, marjoran, wild fennel, mint, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds.
- Fish steaks (such as swordfish): 1/2 hour to 1 hour. Recommended herbs: parsley, thyme, chives.
- Wild game: 4 – 8 hours or more, depending on the type of meat. Some meats, such as hare or boar may require several days. Get specific instructions from your butcher. Recommended aromatics: cinnamon, curry, juniper, bay, pepper.
Special: How to marinate fish for grilling
Need to know how to perfectly marinate fish to be cooked on the grill? Just place 3 tablespoons of Limmi Lemon Juice and a handful of salt in a bowl, then mix it with a fork until the salt dissolves.
Chop up some parsley, a sprig of rosemary and two sage leaves. Add the herbs to the bowl with the salted lemon juice, and then add extra-virgin olive oil. Thoroughly mix the marinade to fully combine all the aromas and flavours.
Brush marinade on both sides of the fish, and let it marinate for at least a couple of hours before grilling it.
