Do you marinate your steak?

Question

I have always been a minimalist steak cooker. Salt/pepper perhaps. Brisket, yes I marinated the crap out of that. But otherwise not much.

I admit I've fallen in love with Daddy Hinkles wet/dry marinade. Love the original flavor. Southwest is good but can be a little overpowering. I've found myself doing steaks, even hamburger patties with the stuff. I think it tastes delicious, but I have to wonder if I've fallen off of some culinary cliff and perhaps that is something that is just "not done" by those in the know. I have another friend who swears by the Jack Daniels wet marinade as well. 

I guess I'm second guessing it because I remember when everything was marinated in Italian dressing when I was a kid, then later grew up and read that it actually was not a good idea. On the other and I'd love to audition for Masterchef and break out some Hinkles. Thoughts? I doubt I'll give it up, but I know it's probably not very foodie (hate that term) but it tastes so good.

Answer

when it comes to prime striip, porterhouse or tbone I don't touch it other than to do a salt and pepper crust before it hits the grill. when it comes to cheaper cuts, I pretty much always marinate (london broil, tips, chuck, etc.). I'm certainly not sure I'm right but my gut feeling has been you can't improve on great beef and should just get out of it's way.

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I marinate London broil, skirt steak, flank steak, and eye round steak. I leave NY strip and ribeyes alone.

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depends on the steak,

Porterhouse, NY strips, rib eyes, filet's etc just get a little salt pepper, maybe a rub with olive oil if I want to gild the lilly.

flank/skirt/london broil almost always gets a rub of some kind or a marinade

chuck roast steaks gett marinaded or braised

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I gotta chime in with the others, a cheap tough cut - you can rudely abuse it. if starting with a nice cut, use the soft gloves.

but then again, as Ray says: if you like it....

if at my table you pour ketchup on it may be your last time there, but in your own house, go crazy.

flank, skirt, chuck, round, sirloin get heavy treatment. (and even the sirloin depends on that particular cut)

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skirt..yes.. some game meat... I avoid Daddy Hinkles because there is something in it that trigers my moms migranes..

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Depends on how much time etc and the cut of meat - these days really expensive cuts are out... but, when I can afford them again Salt and Pepper only. 

For your average big box store meat - I love a bit of my rub (very similar to any one else's I assume). 

Dejon, Worechestshire (sorry about the spelling on that). and Wait for it *coffee grounds* 

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2013/01/coffee-rubbed-rib-eye

It's heaven... soo good. Use a pretty generous amount (tablespoon per side?). You won't taste it but it's really really good. Use a decent coffee of course folgers won't cut it.... I don't use the rest of the recomending ingrediants on mine.... it just sounded so insane the first time I tried it that I thought I'd post a recipe so you can see "everyone is doing it" :-)

Answer

Let me just echo the sentiments of others here.

It really depends on the steak, and to a lesser extent how I plan to cook it (and how I plan to eat it).

If we're talking about a cut like sirloin, ribeye, filet, porterhouse, strip, etc. *and* I plan on grilling it and eating the entire thing like an American caveman -- e.g., as is and with knife and fork -- then, no, I do not want a marinade of any sort. Salt, pepper, and a maybe a bit more salt to finish and that's it. No butter, no EVOO, no nothing.

Now, if we're talking about a cut like hanger, onglet, flank, or top round, etc., and esp. if I plan on using it for something like Korean BBQ, chicken fried steak, or Mexican fajitas, then, yes, by all means I marinade.

As an aside, when people mention aging (either wet or dry), that's technically a "marinade", right? I, mean, after all, the beef is being seasoned (and to some extent tenderized) during the aging process, which is what a marinade does, no? 

So, for those folks who say, "bah, I never marinate my dry aged beef when I cook it in steak form and eat it once big hunk of meat like an American caveman," they're really conflating the terms "marinate" and "aging" methinks.

Answer

have no idea who the hinkles are, or what their daddy wants to do to my steak, but i'm with others on expensive,rich cuts like ribeye, vs. flank, etc.

most often with cheap, tough beef, i'll rub with dried/fresh herbs and some oil overnight. if it's a big tough piece, like chuck, it gets braised.

as mentioned, leaving the eat at room temp awhile before cooking helps A LOT. and no, you won't die.

Answer

A quick rub is always welcome - Stubb's is always a good call. Sometimes Paul Prudhomme's steak blackning is nice as well.
As a kid, I LOVED a local steak place's "Black Diamond" marinade. No idea what went into it, but to a 10 year old, it was pretty much the bee's knees.

Answer

I only marinate meats that will be cooked using a long, slow method such as slow cooker, braising, smoking, etc.

Otherwise, I've found that most "marinades" brushed at the end of grilling or other high-heating cooking taste as good without any uncontrolled char flavor.

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Yes if it's flank or skirt. Dry rub and some dry aging for a day or three in the fridge if it's a 2" thick ribeye or similar.

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Isn't that funny? I never marinade my steaks, not the tender cuts, not the tougher cuts.

I put three things on my steaks: salt, pepper and garlic powder. Depending on the type, I'll cook it differently (pan/oven, insanely hot barbecue, etc.), but the tenderness and palatability comes from the cooking method, in my kitchen, not the marinade.

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Rarely, if ever, though if you like it it's OK if it's "not very foodie" whatever that means.

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I've only skimmed the posts but are people making the distinction between marinating and a flavoring baste. To me, marinating is to tenderize while the other is to just add some flavor on the surface of the meat and to perhaps enhance browning.

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I never marinate my steak before cooking, but I will post-marinate skirt steak a la Cooks Illustrated. After grilling, put steak in marinade for a few minutes while it rests. SOoooo flavorful.

http://www.thebittenword.com/thebittenword/2012/06/post-grill-marinated-grilled-skirt-steak.html

Answer

<I guess I'm second guessing it because I remember when everything was marinated in Italian dressing when I was a kid,>

Boy do I hate that packaged and bottled Italian dressing. What a terrible thing to do to a good piece of meat. And I know people that still do it. They do the same with chicken breasts. It's just so nasty !

Personally I avoid most all wet marinades on a steak and will use a dry rub of some sort to add flavor.

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Depends on the cut. Rib Eye or Strip (Or Porterhouse) no way.......but skirt steak, flank steak, brisket, hanger steak.....yeah why not. 

Of course on those, I love making my own chimichurri sauce.

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No, except for flank or skirt steak or wet aging for flat iron, etc. but rib eyes, sirloins, filets and roasts I dry rub exclusively.

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Sometimes. Depends on the cut. Lesser cuts get a marinade with a bit of acidity, better cuts get just a dry rub.

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I do marinate my steak, but I use relatively simple ingredients -- for most cases.

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YES! We make our own teriyaki sauce and marinate the steak for about an hour before grilling it. Some of the marinade is set aside for dipping before being used as a marinade.

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I've got mixed feelings about marinating (marinading?) meat. On the one hand, all the food experts say that marinade only penetrates about a half inch or less into the meat. So, unless you have a really flat steak, why bother?

But a lot of beef is flat enough so that if you marinate the steak and you get a half inch of penetration on one side and a half inch of penetration on the other side, you've covered a substantial portion of the steak in a new flavor.

But generally, after I marinate any meat, the amount of flavor which I can detect from the marinade is minimal to non-existent. Maybe dry rubs work better. I will have to try them next.

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My Ribeyes get nothing

Same for a filet...but that needs a sauce for flavor

My favorite is London Broil. That and other cuts usually get a marinade of.......Marsala, soy, Garlic, and a bit of hot sauce(light) min 4 hours, better overnight

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That is strictly a personal preferance call. I like good steaks. I like them marinaded and I like them simply salt-and-peppered. I get grass-fed, grass-finished beef that is normally a bit tougher than store-bought. I usually marinade them in a bit of oil and flavorings. Daddy Hinkles is great and convenient. 
I have never tried Jack Daniels on meat, but normally I prefer my whiskey straight and my steaks pure.

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One other Marinade - Rub - I've only tried it once but it worked pretty well, and I will do again, (on the lesser cuts we talked about here). 

Beef Base / Powder / Cube etc works really well as a rub. 

Also, to me it's very easy to over marinate a steak - I like and hour or two more than that and what little beef flavor there is in a super market cut is gone.

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Presently, only salt and pepper. Any extra flavoring now comes after the meat is cooked.

In the past, I've used dry rubs and marinades that added flavor to the meat, but those rubs and marinades tended to mask the flavor of the beef and interfered with getting a good char on the meat.

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Does anyone not marinate flank steak? If you slice thin, what's the result?

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Mrs. G marinates while I prefer olive oil and a rub, usually pepper, seasoned salt, ancho chili powder/Cajun spices.

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"Daddy Hinkles wet/dry marinade.....I've fallen off of some culinary cliff and perhaps that is something that is just "not done" by those in the know. "

I would have to say yes you have fallen off a culinary cliff and using some kind of pre-prepared marinade crap is just not done.

I will season a steak at times. but always make up a suitable seasoning mixture to go with the rest of the meal.

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Honestly, I have never read or heard a convincing reason that expensive cuts should not be marinaded while inexpensive cuts should be. I believe it just boils down to fashion.

- Expensive cuts taste good on their own? 
Yeah, and so does skirt and hanger steak, both often marinaded.

- Expensive cuts need less tenderization?
Most marinades have much less tenderizing effect than they're given credit for. If a cut tends toward toughness, the real trick is to cook and cut it right. 

- Grilling works better on non-marinaded meat?
Kalbi. Fajitas. Bulgogi. Yakiniku. Kebab.

Eat beef however it tastes good to you. But I don't think there is any more reason to recoil at the thought of marinading a dry aged rib eye than there is to recoil at the thought of marinading a nice hanger steak.

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The problem with marinades is that, in addition to tenderizing, it masks or overpowers the taste of the meat. I want to taste beef, not teriyaki or whatever.

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I marinate my beef about a quarter of the time. (To do so, I have to think ahead--not one of my strong points.) I do so because I figure, "Hey, it couldn't hurt!" But, to tell you the truth, I rarely taste the marinade in beef or any other meat that I cook. 

(This is opposed to a sauce, such as barbeque sauce, painted on at the last minute before serving. I CAN taste that!) What I have read is that marinade, as opposed to a sauce or rub, only penetrates down about a quarter of an inch from the surface--hardly deep enough to impart much flavor.

When I was a kid, my mother made lamb shish kabobs on special occasions and I could taste the marinade on that lamb, but then, a penetration of a quarter inch all the way around an "inch and a half by an inch and a half" cube of lamb is a much higher proportion of marinade to meat than in--say-- a flank steak. 

Ironically, though, I cannot taste that marinade in the lamb anymore--the difference between being 15 and being 62. But even at 15, the marinated lamb flavor was subtle.

Also, frankly, I can't see much difference in the tenderness of marinated meat versus non-marinated meat. Heresy, I know, but that's my experience.

Marinating is kind of like waxing your car. You know it is good for it in theory but --

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No, not a marinade for flank or skirt steak, but we do salt and epper tm and generosly anoint them with lime juice, en la estillo de mexico norte.

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I used to be very minimalist when it came to steak when I lived at sea level in Florida. That changed when I move to New Mexico and to an altitude of 6000 feet. I couldn't get my rare steaks to come out right. Before I used to do just a dry rub of my own but that wasn't working anymore. So now I marinate. Usually a citrus and vinegar, salt or soy, and seasonings, sometimes fresh garlic, onion. Now I can have a nicely seared RARE steak, tender and juicy and tasting like a steak. Works on the grill or in the iron skillet. I even had to learn to cook rice all over again because of altitude! Lol!

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