| I agree that one of the best things about living in | | | | parts of the cut that you are intending to cook. These |
| Australia is that you can come home and throw a | | | | marinade injectors are at most good kitchen |
| couple of chops on the barbie and have a meal in | | | | equipment suppliers and many on-line stores. |
| very short time. However, with a little preparation a | | | | OK, here are a few points about marinades that you |
| few hours ahead you can improve the flavour and | | | | need to know before you use them - nothing complex, |
| texture of this meal ten-fold. | | | | more of a 'heads up'; |
| If you're a hard-core griller who's motto is catch it - kill it | | | | - Marinades typically contain some kind of oil and olive |
| - grill it - eat it - I understand as I spent many years | | | | oil is my personal favorite. The oil serves to hold in |
| living by that approach as well. | | | | moisture on meats and to reduce the moisture loss |
| One night I shared camp with an old prospector who | | | | during cooking by healping seal the outside surface. |
| had shot a kangaroo that morning and had been | | | | - Cooking meats over a direct flame can result in |
| marinating a leg in a 50:50 mixture of vinegar and | | | | heterocyclic amines (HCA)'s being created. These |
| cheap red wine, with a lot of salt and pepper. | | | | potentially cancer-causing agents can be reduced by, |
| He then roasted it in an enormous camp oven and | | | | as much at 99% when foods are marinated in an |
| shared the meal with me. I couldn't believe the | | | | acidic marinade, according to the American Cancer |
| improvement of flavour over all the kangaroo I'd eaten | | | | Research Institute. |
| before. | | | | - However, the big health risk with marinades is when |
| I was converted. | | | | people take the meat out of the marinade, put it on the |
| A good marinade contains flavorings, spices, herbs, | | | | grill, and then use the remaining marinade as a baste. |
| and because a marinade is acidic, it unravels the | | | | This can make you very sick as you are putting the |
| proteins at the meat surface and carries the marinade | | | | bacteria from the raw meat (and all meat has them) |
| flavors into meat. | | | | onto the cooked meat. |
| Of course it can only travel so far, so marinating a | | | | - To avoid the problem above, simply make a little |
| thick roast will not get the added flavor you would get | | | | extra marinade and put it aside, before you put the |
| with a thin cut, but it is still beneficial. | | | | marinade on the meat. Then when you are cooking, |
| There is a growing trend, coming out of the USA, to | | | | use the marinade you kept aside as the baste. This |
| inject marinade into larger cuts of meat prior to | | | | way there is no cross-contamination. |
| BBQing. | | | | - As an extra safety measure, as soon the meat in on |
| Poultry and pork benefit more from injecting than beef | | | | the barbecue, tip out the marinade that it was in - it's |
| and lamb does. Haven't tested it on kangaroo yet. | | | | done it's job and is not really any good for anything |
| The injecting process is very simple. You need a | | | | else anyway. |
| special syringe that has holes in side of the needle to | | | | - Lastly, don't let food sit in marinades for too long. |
| prevent clogging. You also need a liquid marinade to | | | | Meat marinated for too long can become soft and |
| inject and then do so in several of the thickest, meaty | | | | mushy, not something you would want to serve. |