Optimal Ratios for Beef Marinade: A Beginner's Guide

[wukunlin]

Alright, so I bought some diced beef from the supermarket cos they were cheap and decided to just fry them on a non-stick fry pan with only salt and pepper and I didn't like the taste of it at all. Juices flowed all over the place and ended up boiling the meet instead of fry it... bleh.

So I looked around the kitchen and found that I have some aged soy sauce (i.e. really salty) and a bottle of apple cider vinegar. So I decided I will marinade the remaining diced beef with these things. A quick search on the internet seem to agree this to be a good idea but I can find anywhere saying what a good ratio for it will be?

TL;DR

I am marinating some diced beef with

• aged soy sauce
• apple cider vinegar
• garlic (maybe?)

What is a good ratio and how long should I the beef sit in the marinade?
(This is someone who hasn't done much cooking so I may need some basic knowledge on things )

 

[Danger]

I don't actually know any traditional cooking stuff, other than brushing sauce onto a steak while it's grilling. The only thing that I've ever marinaded is my own liver, and I have no intention of eating it.
That being said, I cook both solid meat and lean ground beef in a frying pan. (I own 2 propane BBQ's, but I'm a bit timid about using them now that I'm on an oxygen supply.) My flavouring is always the same, just because I see no reason to alter something that I love. For solid meat such as a steak or chops, I use the mix in a thin layer instead of my usual margarine as a pan lubricant (mine aren't non-stick). For ground beef, I usually add a lot more and let it stew.
Anyhow, what I use is soya sauce, Bovril, medium chunky salsa, and most important of all La Grille Montreal Steak Spice. In the case of a thin layer, it reduces down to a gooey conglomeration about the consistency of butter that I then shovel off of the pan and spread on top of the meat for serving. It's ugly as hell, but I can't tell you how incredible it tastes. Do be cautious if serving to others, though; it's extremely salty, almost too much for me (and I'm one of only 4 people I know who puts salt on bacon—Evo is one of the others). If you have guests, go easy on the soya sauce since that's the primary source of salt. The Montreal spice is available with all of the regular ingredients except for salt, so maybe that variant is a good choice.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Learn kitchen chemistry. Brining/marinades are hypotonic solutions, marinades with flavoring/tenderizing additions. As with simple brining, the excess saltiness should be rinsed away.

Wisconsin's Walworth KikkomanUSA is the worlds largest producer of shoyu/soy sauce.

 

[Danger]

By the bye... to show the depth of my perversity (and maybe because I'm a Canuck), I fry my ham steaks in maple syrup and add nothing else.

 

[Monique]

Brining/marinades are hypotonic solutions, marinades with flavoring/tenderizing additions. As with simple brining, the excess saltiness should be rinsed away.

I think you mean to say hypertonic.

 

[Danger]

I think you mean to say hypertonic.

You're both wrong; gin and tonic is the proper way to go.