Beef marinade: meat preparation recipes before cooking

It is not easy to choose the right meat for various dishes. More often, housewives prefer to buy pork due to the fact that the tenderloin always turns out juicy and tender. Few people know how to properly make beef marinade, so that even a lean cut after frying always melts in your mouth. There are many recipes, and the article will not only help you choose the option you like, but also teach you to choose a good veal and cook it deliciously.

Meat purchase

This is the first thing to start with. The most important advice is to choose chilled meat. Never take freeze, as it will be difficult to assess the quality of the piece and the age of the animal. If the cow was old, then even the best beef marinade will not help soften it.

Pay attention to the color. The lighter the piece, the younger the calf. The layers of fat should be cream colored. For baking, barbecue, frying and stewing, meat of the 1st category is suitable: rump, tenderloin, brisket, rump, fillet, rump.

Freshness is determined by the smell, and when pressed on a piece of a dent, it will crack.

Meat preparation

It is better to defrost pieces at ordinary room temperature. Never use a microwave. So the piece will become just rubber.

Before sending the pieces to the beef marinade, immediately remove all the cores and the film, rinse well with water and dry a little with paper towels.

Cut meat only across the fibers and pre-beat with a hammer. So the pieces will become more tender. Never salt meat before cooking, as it will give up its juices.

Tips

If you are cooking beef marinade for the first time, then strictly follow the recipe.

Work with a sleeve or foil:

• check the packaged piece for leaks to avoid loss of juice;
• for baking, usually extra fat is not required;
• A brown crust on the finished meat will turn out only if a few minutes before the end you tear the wrapper on top and add a little temperature.

Do not use aluminum cookware, as it reacts with acid and releases substances hazardous to the body. The residence time of the meat in the sauce depends on the thickness of the pieces and is usually more than 3 hours.

The recipes will not have a specific cooking time. Just stick to the middle ground: a piece weighing 1 kg can be served on the table 2 hours after heat treatment at 200 degrees, the fillet weighing 2 times less should be in the oven for about 1.5 hours (180 degrees).

The method of preparation of marinade

Let’s figure out which products are part of the beef marinade for baking, frying or barbecue. Most commonly used:

1. Acids. There is a wide selection: lemon, pomegranate, apple, pineapple juice, soy sauce, wine or wine vinegar, kefir, beer.
2. Vegetable or olive oil is always added.
3. For a beautiful color, you can sometimes find granulated sugar or honey in the marinade.
4. The aroma can be achieved using various seasonings: garlic, nutmeg, ginger, rosemary, black and red pepper.
5. For pungency use mustard, chili pepper.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly so that the taste and aroma are evenly distributed.

Popular pickles

We begin to study the most popular beef marinades. The fact is that this meat is quite fresh and tougher than pork. Therefore, all will contain foods with a high acid content. Believe me, a simple soy sauce or ketchup will not work.

1. Wine marinade. This recipe is quite popular. Dry red wine is required here. In one glass of this drink, add about 100 ml of vegetable oil, juice from 1 lemon and a little allspice. Fresh greens will not be superfluous.
2. Marinade with mayonnaise. The second option is not inferior to the first. To make it, mix in a bowl half a faceted glass of fat mayonnaise, juice of 1 lemon and add a few cloves of garlic, passed through a press.
3. Kefir marinade for beef skewers. Preparing too fast enough. We buy kefir, in which the fat content is not more than 1%. For 1 liter of product you will need 60 ml of vegetable oil. Cut 3 large onions and mix with the rest of the mass.
4. Garlic marinade with mustard. Suitable for spicy lovers. In boiled water or mineral, add a couple of spoons of Russian mustard, chopped garlic and ¼ tsp. a mixture of black and red pepper. Pour lemon juice from 1 fruit here and mix everything well.
   
5. Honey marinade. With this sauce, the meat will not only turn out tender, but also acquire a pleasant golden color. To prepare, mix in a cup a tablespoon of warmed honey with soy sauce (100 ml). To this also add Dijon mustard (1 tbsp. L.), A little nutmeg and a mixture of peppers for pungency.

Another option based on 1 tablespoon of honey can be prepared with 80 ml of wine vinegar, a glass of beer, mustard and olive oil. Perfect for preparing meat for baking.

All calculations of sauces are given per 1 kg of meat. You can add that you should not use table vinegar, as for other species, because it will pull all the juices out of the pieces.

Keep beef soft when frying

It is with such heat treatment that mistakes are made more often and the meat is dry and tough. Fried pork chops will be familiar to us, but beef with the right approach will not yield.

But here are your own rules:

• We chop the prepared meat into portions (it doesn’t matter if it is chops, steak or minions).
• Carefully beat off with a hammer.
• We prepare the beef marinade sauce and send the meat there.
• We heat a thick-walled pan, it is better if it is cast-iron. Pour the minimum amount of oil, but ideally fry completely without it.
• On high heat, fry on both sides to form a crust. Then we reduce the flame and bring to readiness.

Try to leave more juice inside the pieces.

Fried chops in mushroom sauce

Do not leave a piece of meat without a good sauce. According to this recipe, it is necessary to prepare 1 kg of meat, as indicated above, and for the sauce we take:

• 120 g of mushrooms (better than morels);
• 1 liter of chicken stock;
• 6 tbsp. l maple syrup;
• as many spoons of good brandy.

For this recipe we use beef wine marinade. We use a little butter to fry the chops. After the pan, send it to the plate for a while and prepare the sauce.

Pour the syrup into the pan and wait for it to boil. When it begins to thicken, add cognac. All liquid should evaporate. Cut the mushrooms into pieces of different sizes, as small ones will add flavor, and large ones will add flavor. We send them to the pan and almost immediately fill everything with broth.

Put the fried meat in the sauce and boil a little to make the chops soft. Serve with any side dish.

Grilled steaks

Now we will cook the meat in our favorite way. But first, you have to make a marinade for beef steak. And for this we take:

• White wine vinegar - 40 ml.
• A couple of cloves of garlic.
• Oregano - 3 g.
• Lemon juice - 0.5 cups.
• Olive oil - 1 cup.
• A little allspice.

So, mix all the ingredients without salt. Dip the prepared steaks there. It is advisable if you pickle them overnight. Then take out and fry in a pan or charcoal, constantly pouring the remaining marinade. Serve ready-made with a side dish or as a separate dish, with fresh herbs.

Steak marinated in balsamic vinegar

Getting ready for a picnic, did you decide to cook meat on the grill? In the evening, think about how to surprise your family. Such a marinade for beef steak will not only make the meat soft, but will also give a beautiful color to the finished dish.

All that is needed is to mix based on 1 kg in the bowl: 2 tbsp. l brown sugar, 2 cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of rosemary, black pepper. It is better to add salt immediately before starting frying on charcoal or on an electric grill.

We place the steaks in a bag, pour the marinade and mix well. Close and put in a cold place all night. Before cooking, let the liquid drain and add salt. On each side, the meat is fried for 4-5 minutes, and then covered with foil and infused for a while.

How to Make Tender Baked Beef

Even chefs do not all know how to bake veal to get a real delicacy. This meat must be handled skillfully, so experience comes to some over the years. We’ll give some tips to help you get started. Suddenly you will succeed right away?

1. Choose low fat meats for juiciness.
2. Be sure to make a marinade for baking. For beef, this is very important.
3. Do not cut meat, but bake immediately in a large piece. Serving is a better finished product. So you will not lose juice.
4. First you can fry the tenderloin in a hot frying pan.
5. You can bake with coarsely chopped vegetables. They will help the meat stay juicy by giving away its juices.
6. Be sure to use foil or a special sleeve for baking.

Using any of the sauces that is offered, and tips, you will certainly succeed.

Roast beef in the oven

It turns out that you don’t always have to go to the store to get a sleeve or foil for baking a piece of meat. You have the necessary auxiliary “material” at home - this is an ordinary glass jar, which we will use in this recipe. But first, we’ll select the right piece of veal and dishes.

Firstly, the diameter of the neck should not differ much from the diameter of the can so that you can easily get a piece. Secondly, choose the meat itself, suitable in size.

Now, using one of the recipes for beef marinade, we leave the meat in a cool place for 6-8 hours. After we put it inside the jar and close it with a plastic lid. We put in a pan with water so that the glass containers are completely covered, and put in the oven (200 degrees) for a couple of hours. After time, we take out a piece from the jar and fry in a pan from all sides.

Of course, this recipe is also suitable for foil, but here the meat will turn out even softer and will be beautiful, rounded.

Beef Kebabs

With proper cooking and excellent results, you will surprise your guests with a choice of meat, as veal for barbecue is considered an inappropriate product. All this is due to the fact that table vinegar is often used, which is more suitable for pork or lamb. The right marinade for beef skewers will be the main "hero" of the picnic.

Here you should pay attention to the exposure time, which should be increased to a day. But overexposure is not worth it. As always, add salt when the coals are ready. You can use any of the previously listed marinades or see another selection of original ideas:

1. Pomegranate pickle. You can buy ready-made juice or cook it yourself: separate from the peel, sprinkle the berries in a colander and, using the pusher, crush. We need it half a liter. We also add 20 ml of olive oil, juice from 1 lemon, fresh cilantro, ground coriander, a large amount of onion and allspice. The calculation is given for 1 kg of beef. Pomegranate juice, if desired, replace with pineapple.
2. Kiwi marinade. First, mix lemon juice with a couple of spoons of vegetable oil, a spoonful of sugar, ground pepper. 1 hour before cooking, add 2 kiwi pulp to the pickled meat.

Water, constantly turning the skewer, strained marinade residues. Then a fragrant and tender kebab will brighten up your vacation.

It doesn’t matter what kind of beef marinade you cook, you will grill or fry it in a pan. Always adhere to the recipe until you learn how to choose the composition yourself.