Background: Growing up, my mom’s go to marinade was Wish-Bone Italian Dressing mixed with soy sauce. It’s a brilliant move, really. It has everything you could want in a marinade: distilled vinegar, water, oil, sugar, salt, garlic (dried), onion (dried), red bell peppers (dried), rosemary extract, yeast extract, lemon juice concentrate. However, it also has some things I don’t care for like “natural flavor,” xanthan gum, “spice” (whatever that is) and annatto extract (color). I know that some of those are naturally occurring things, but, frankly, I can do just fine without them for a marinade. Also, I try to limit the number of processed foods and condiments I buy. That said, everyone needs a few quick go-to marinades so I’ve outlined one below. I’ll outline a bunch of other marinades that come from this basic principle in mods section below. This move is, of course, a nod to my mom and a rip off of her Wish-Bone Soy Sauce marinade.
Soy Sauce and a Bunch of Other Stuff That I Might Have Taken Directly From the Ingredients of a Certain Salad Dressing Because You Can’t Copyright a Recipe Marinade
- Get three parts neutral oil and one part distilled white vinegar.
- Add to that two parts soy sauce.
- Add turbinado sugar to taste.
- Season to taste with dried garlic, onion, and whatever other dried spices you like.
- Add some squeezes of citrus juice.
Why It Works:
- The oil will protect the food while the vinegar will start to break down the food. The oil also evenly distributes the flavor. Because you are going to be cooking the food, which also breaks it down, the oil is arguably more important so there’s more of it. Leaving the oil out would cook the food it does in ceviche.
- This is where the salt and umami comes from. I use extra dark soy sauce because it’s clingy and rich and helps the browning process.
- The sugar just rounds out the flavor. I don’t always use it. Needless to say, when you are adding things to marinades to taste, it should be before you put the raw meat in it.
- Dried herbs and granulated garlic and onion are tools and nothing to be ashamed of.
- Like the sugar, this is to round out the flavor. The vinegar is doing the heavy lifting, acid-wise. The reason is economics. You want to submerge the thing in the marinade. Citrus juice is more expensive than vinegar.
Mods:
- Swap out the neutral oil with sesame oil and the vinegar with rice wine vinegar and you have a marinade with more Asian flavor profiles. Season accordingly.
- Swap out the soy sauce with liquid aminos for a less-Asian, gluten-free, unfermented marinade.
- Use just the soy sauce for meats that don’t need tenderizing like the Pork Tenderloin in Soy Sauce move.
- Lose the vinegar and add tequila, lime, and jalapeñoes for a great Tex-Mex marinade.
- Swap out both the oil and the vinegar with water to make a brine-based marinade. (Great for birds and shellfish.)
- Add the odds and ends of onions, fresh herbs, and whatever other aromatic scraps you have lying around.
- Instead of dried herbs and spices, consider going outside and grabbing what’s growing around you. Where I live, I can forage for wild onions, lemon bee balm (similar taste to oregano), rosemary, and many others. I usually have at least sage, cilantro, and fennel growing in the garden.
- Add enzymatic ingredients to help tenderize especially tough meats. Good options are pineapple, papaya, yogurt, buttermilk, and ginger.