Why should I marinate meat and what should I watch out for?

The role of the marinade is twofold. First of all, it softens the food, especially the meat that needs it the most. But it also has another role. The one of taste.

There are not a few recipes with meat that require marinating before cooking.

Marinating sounds like a tedious process, but sometimes it is necessary to get the best possible and tasty result. During marinating many reactions occur between the ingredients used and all contribute to the final food. However, there are also points that we must pay attention to in order not to have failures and eventual disappointments.

Why should I marinate a meat?

Flavor/aroma enhancement: Anyone can make their own marinade. The marinade gives a boost to the flavor of the food and it is everyone's choice if they want to give it a spicier or sweeter or smoky version.
Meat structure: The ingredients in the marinade help to change the structure of the meat in such a way that it becomes tender. The hardness of meat is due to collagen and elastin fibers. The main ingredient of the marinade either acid or enzyme aims to change the structure of these proteins through their action when they come into contact with them.
Tenderness: The effect of the marinade on tenderness depends largely on the type and size of the meat. For this, it is still evaluated whether the marinade softens the meat. Its action is mainly superficial and in large pieces of meat it does not manage to penetrate inside and relax its proteins as would happen in smaller pieces of meat.

What should I pay attention to when marinating?

There are some points to be aware of when it comes to marinating.

First, we should never use the marinade, which has been used on raw meat, after cooking. There is a risk of contamination by micro-organisms. For this reason, it is preferable to have prepared an extra marinade if we want to enhance the flavor of the meat even more. Also, while the meat is marinating, it should be refrigerated to inhibit the growth of bacteria.

Marinating should not be done in metal utensils for safety reasons because the acids of the marinade can cause corrosion of the utensil.

Finally, depending on the meat we want to marinate, we should also adjust the marinating time. Prolonged marinating will have a negative effect on the structure of the meat (it will become tougher).