Easy Steak Marinades
KC Kudra's Articles
Christine's Articles
Easy Steak Marinades Make a Truly Mouthwatering Meal
Spice up any cut of steak with a tasty and easy steak marinade recipe. Marinating a steak in herbs, spices, wine, vinegar and other fresh ingredients allows you to add just the right amount of flavor to a steak, tenderize it and bring out the wonderful natural flavors and juices of any cut of meat. A good easy steak marinade can also often improve the texture and moistness of the beef without sacrificing any of the meat's own natural flavor.
There are many choices for marinades, both wet and dry. Many of the ingredients for a great dry rub, or an incredible marinade you let your beef steak soak in for a few hours or overnight, can be found right in your cupboard or refrigerator without the need for special shopping trips for a hard to find list of ingredients. In fact, some of the best steak marinade recipes use no more than three or four ingredients.
What Makes the Best Steak Marinades
A great steak marinade will impart a unique flavor; perhaps one from a foreign cuisine or a smoky barbeque into your oven roasted or grilled steak. The first thing to do to choose the best steak marinade recipe is to determine two things - what type or cut of steak will you be using and what flavor you want to add to the meat.
Marinades not only add a unique flavor but also break down tougher cuts of steak and tenderize the meat as well as helping them stay moist throughout the cooking process. This applies whether you want to broil your steak in the oven or add even more flavor by cooking your steak on a nice hot grill.
Our Commitment to Only the Finest Steak Marinade Recipes
We here at Easy Steak Marinades take steak very seriously and are true steak lovers. In a house of four boys, one man and myself, the lone girl, cooking steak is not only a requirement but also a passion. Nothing is quite the same as steak night around our house and we love using different marinades to bring out the best in our meat.
That is why we have had our chef develop a winning group of easy steak marinades that we hope you love as much as we do. We also know that in the fast paced world of today, time is precious and money can be tight, which is why we have had our writers develop a wonderful series of articles to help you get marinating and cooking your steak right the first time and every time you cook it for your family.
We have carefully compiled a growing collection of tried and tested marinades that you can experiment with today in your kitchen or backyard grilling area to get winning results each time you serve steak. We are very proud of our steak marinade recipes and information and we hope you enjoy your stay with us. Please feel free to bookmark us in your favorite social bookmarking sites so you and your friends can come back often to get the best easy steak marinade for your dinner tonight.
Thanks for visiting,
Christine and everyone here at Easy Steak Marinades
Featured Steak Marinade Recipes:
Thyme and Garlic Ribeye Steak Marinade Recipe
This ribeye steak marinade recipe is simple to make and one of our very easy steak marinades. Steak marinade recipes do not have to be difficult and you can even get great results from a 3-ingredient steak marinade. It is a myth that the best steak marinades contain a lot of different ingredients because keeping the flavors simple always works best and every flavor you add will shine through, complementing your meat perfectly.
The following steak marinade recipe is suitable for different cuts of meat and you should choose a tender steak such as tenderloin, strip, T-bone or rib-eye because this marinade is to give flavor rather than tenderize. Two steaks, about an inch and a half thick and weighing one pound each are great for this easy rib-eye steak marinade recipe but you could use it on three small steaks or one very big one instead. Of course, you can also double the recipe if you are cooking for more people.
Garlic is a classic flavor, when it comes to easy steak marinades, and actually, garlic goes with most meat, poultry, and fish dishes. The garlic in the following recipe is combined with thyme for an herby taste, red wine for a bold flavor, olive oil and some salt and pepper. This might sound very basic but you will be amazing just how much flavor this easy steak marinades gives to your meat. For a juicy finish and a simple yet undeniably wonderful result, try this deliciously simple garlic and thyme ribeye steak marinade.
Simple Garlic and Thyme Ribeye Steak Marinade
Ingredients -
6 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
½ cup red wine
Coarse salt and pepper
Preparation:
Smash and coarsely, chop the garlic cloves.
Combine the garlic, oil, red wine, and thyme in a bowl, add the steaks and turn to coat. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours, turning the steaks occasionally.
Heat the grill to medium high and oil the grates lightly.
Remove the steak from the steak marinade and let the excess drip off. Discard the marinade.
Season the steaks with salt and pepper, cut each one in half, and grill them, covered, until they are done.
Allow 12 to 16 minutes for medium rare.
(Serves 4)
Photo Description:
A Picture of a wonderfully cut ribeye steaks and ingredients to make a fresh easy steak marinade for them on a cutting board just waiting to be put together; marinated, grilled, and served piping hot and full of delicious marinade and steak flavor for your family dinner tonight.
How to Make a Ribeye Steak Marinade Recipe
A rib eye is one of the classic steak cuts and this steak is very juicy and tender, thanks to the marbling throughout the steak. The rib-eye steak remains tender throughout cooking because of the marbling.
Rib eye is cut from the roast that is located on the top of the cow's ribs and other names for this cut of meat are Delmonico steak, beauty steak, market steak, Spencer steak, and Entrecote. Rib eye is boneless. If it has a bone, it is a rib steak, not a rib eye.
Choosing and Preparing Your Rib-Eye Steak
It is important to choose a medium thick steak when using a marinade and that applies to all steak marinade recipes, not just a ribeye steak marinade recipe. For a steak marinade recipe, you should use a steak between an inch thick and an inch and a half thick.
Before you put together your ribeye steak marinade recipe, you will need to prepare the steak by trimming any excess fat off with a sharp knife. Score shallow crosshatched lines on both sides of the steak to allow the marinade to soak through.
Rib eye stays tender right up to medium and is still edible when you cook it to medium well. Grilling is the best cooking method for your delicious ribeye steak marinade recipe.
Ideas for a Ribeye Steak Marinade Recipe
Rib-eye steak is packed with flavor and marinades containing red wine vinegar or red wine goes well with this cut of beef. Garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and other strong flavors go nicely with this tasty steak.
Inside Easy Steak Marinades
Best Steak Marinade
A Guide to Making the Best Steak Marinade - If you have never tasted marinated steak before you are in for a real treat because we have a collection of the best steak marinade recipes. Some marinades only need to be left on for an hour or so and others can be used overnight for a stronger flavor or to tenderize a particularly tough cut of steak...
International Steak Marinades
International Steak Marinades for Unique Meals - If you love Chinese recipes, Mexican recipes, Italian recipes or another type of international flavor, why not marinate your steak with one of our international recipes? The steak will be tenderized and take on your favorite taste. International steak marinades give a unique and delicious flavor to your steaks and there are plenty to choose from...
Steak Marinade Articles
Handy Steak Marinade and Cooking Articles - Do not worry if you are new to cooking steaks or making steak marinade recipes because everyone has to begin somewhere. Our steak marinade articles could be just what you are looking for if you want to learn more about easy steak marinades, how to make the best steak marinade or ideas for cooking the perfect steak...
Five Very Useful Steak Cooking Tips
When cooked properly, steak melts in the mouth. It is tender, full of flavor, and versatile enough to be cooked in plenty of ways. Perhaps you have already experimented with steak cookery, trying out different easy steak marinades, steak cooking methods, or cuts of steak.
Here are five useful steak cooking tips to help ensure your steaks come out beautifully:
1. Choose your steak with care. A steak, which has marbling all over, is going to come out juicy and flavorful whereas a lean filet mignon or top loin will need to be watched carefully.
2. Browning a steak all over kills any bacteria so do not be concerned about serving a rare steak. Steaks cannot be contaminated with bacteria inside because cattle have thick skin, so as long as the outside of the meat is browned the steak is safe.
3. Use one of our easy steak marinades to enhance the flavor of your steak rather that to mask it. A steak marinade recipe is used to bring out the steak's natural juicy flavor and to tenderize the meat.
4. If you are grilling your steak, you will need a very hot grill, which will sear the outside of the steak and lock in the juices. Do not cut your steak open to check doneness because juices will escape. You can feel it instead. A rare steak is soft. A medium steak is springy. A well done steak is firm. If you have a meat thermometer, a medium rare steak will be 145 degrees F.
5. Always let your steak rest for five minutes or more after cooking to allow the juices to spread out.
Three Reasons to Use a Steak Marinade
There are many different steak marinade recipes to choose from and steak marinades are incredibly popular. You can choose from spicy marinades, tangy marinades, sweet marinades, fruity marinades and many more. If you are new to marinating your meat, you will be pleased to know that there are many easy steak marinades you can start off with, some of which only contain three or four ingredients.
Here are the best reasons to use a steak marinade:
1. A Wonderful Flavor
A steak marinade adds plenty of flavor to the meat and you can customize the flavor you are going for by using different combinations of herbs, spices, fruit juices and much more.
2. Tender, Juicy Steak
The acid in your steak marinade will chemically alter the fibers, making your steak more tender. Examples of acids include lemon juice, lime juice, wine, beer, and vinegar. Some foods also contain enzymes, which break down tough muscle fibers in the steak, and some of these foods are fresh ginger, raw onion, green papaya, and pineapple. Fermented products like buttermilk and yogurt contain bacteria to add moisture to the steak and help to tenderize it even more.
3. Steak Marinade Health Benefits
When steak is cooked at a high temperature over a flame, cancer-causing agents called HCAs are sometimes produced. Using marinades is thought to discourage HCAs to form on char-grilled meat. A steak marinade will add plenty of flavor to steak and most of them are healthier than smothering a non-marinated steak in mayonnaise or a high sugar sauce afterwards.
Not only does marinating your steak make it tastier and more tender but also you can choose from literally hundreds of different steak marinade recipes. The best steak marinade depends on personal taste and which type of steak you want to work with but, by following our easy steak marinades, you simply cannot go wrong.
Try These Delicious Easy Steak Marinades Recipes
Here is just a sampling of our delicious easy steak marinades recipes you'll find plenty more inside the site.
Zesty Herb Marinade with Garlic
Lime Marinade for Rib Eye Steak
Asian Orange Juice Steak Marinade
Authentic Mexican Beef Fajita Marinade
Webmaster's Notes:
It has been about a year since we changed the domain of the site to better reflect our recipes. You see, the word "easy" just had to be part of the name, as steak marinade recipes are among the simplest recipes you can make. Despite their ease of preparation, they add so much to both top cuts and budget meat choices.
We are undergoing a site rework to better suit the coding advances we have made. These coding and slight design changes on the surface will not be very noticeable, apart from the new wider format. As more people switch to higher resolutions on their monitors, we have put this extra real estate to good use. The site should also function even quicker, as we clean up the CSS design from our early generation coding.
As always, we stay committed to bringing you the best Easy Steak Marinades and recipes that will make your next steak a hit with everyone. If you like what we do here, please spare a few minutes to add us to your favorite social bookmark site and share us with friends and family, so we can keep putting the maximum amount of resources into new content, articles, cooking tips and recipes.
Thanks,
Christine and everyone here at Easy Steak Marinades
A Delicious Guide to the History of Fish Recipes
Beef and steak have been enjoyed for hundreds of years, although beef was not so popular before the civil war because cattle were not indigenous to the Americas. The first cattle appeared in the New World when the Spanish introduced them to Mexico in 1540.
The French and Spanish colonists began to raise cattle in the 1700s and they transported herds on the new railroads. Refrigeration cars were introduced in 1871, which transformed the industry and meant that cattle could be slaughtered and the meat could be transported more easily.
The First Steak Marinades
Tough cuts of beef take longer to cook than tender cuts. Shank, flank, and skirt steak are examples of tough cuts of beef and the earliest steak marinades were developed as a way of preserving and tenderizing the meat.
Heat turns the connective tissues found in meat to gelatin, which means that cooking can only partially solve toughness. A marinade contains acids and enzymes, which break down the meat’s connective tissue and marinades, have been understood and used for hundreds of years throughout Asia, Europe, and the New World. Cooks discovered the tenderizing effects of wrapping their beef in papaya leaves before cooking in pre-Columbian Mexico. Today we know that papaya contains an active tenderizing enzyme.
Bottled sauces are an interesting part of the history of steak marinades too. Bottled sauces have been available in the United States since the 1800s and some of these were used for marinades. Steak has been a symbol of American prosperity since the Second World War and steak marinade recipes are more popular today than ever, with lots of easy steak marinade recipes available that anyone can make.
How to Marinade the Perfect Steak
Marinating steak makes it juicy, succulent, and flavorful and there are plenty of easy steak marinades to choose from out there. Use low fat cuts or tough steak cuts like sirloin, flat iron, flank steak, hanger, and round steaks for marinating. Do not ruin an expensive steak such as filet mignon, porterhouse, and T-bone or New York strip by using a marinade. Marinating tenderizes meat as well as adding flavor so do not use a marinade on meat which is already tender because you might ruin its texture.
It is a good idea to wash the cut of meat before using the marinade in case there are any particles or bone fragments on the surface. Rub some salt and pepper on to the steak and some of your favorite spices if you want. You need to make sure the steak is completely covered in the marinade for it to work properly. Avoid reactive containers such as metal bowls if you are using an acidic marinade. A plastic or glass bowl or a Ziploc bag works much better.
You can use Worcestershire sauce, Italian dressing, oil, herbs, balsamic vinegar or lemon juice for your steak marinade recipes and you might like to experiment to find the best steak marinade. Start off with an acid based steak marinade such as fruit juice or vinegar and add herbs, oils, spices and sweeteners such as honey, molasses or brown sugar. If you use something very acidic like lemon juice for a twenty-four hour marinade, you can make even the toughest meat cuts tender. Egg white is a great tenderizer and does not add flavor to the meat.
What is the Marinade Time for Steak?
The marinade time for steak depends on the recipe you are using and the cut of steak but, as a general rule, a minimum of two hours is a good idea. Letting the meat marinate overnight in the refrigerator is even better. The longer you marinate your steak the longer the ingredients have to soak into the meat, tenderizing, and adding flavor.
Do not marinate it for more than twenty-four hours because the meat will go mushy. Meat needs to be kept cold until you cook it so always marinate your steak in the refrigerator to avoid the risk of bacteria.
If you are using a moderately tender cut of steak, you will only want the steak marinade recipe to add flavor, rather than tenderize the meat, so soaking the steak in the marinade for a couple of hours is all it will need.
How to Cook a Marinated Steak
A steak should not take more than fifteen or twenty minutes on the grill. The best way to cook a marinated steak is to grill it over a high heat until the outside is seared. You can broil a marinated steak if you do not want to grill it.
You can use any leftover steak marinade recipe to baste the steak while it cooks or you might want to use it for a sauce. In both cases, it is necessary to bring the leftover steak marinade to a boil first since it has been in contact with the raw meat.
How to marinade the perfect steak can involve trial and error so it is best to make some easy steak marinades first before experimenting with your own versions. Marinated steak is succulent, juicy and full of flavor and the making the best steak marinade is sure to transform even the toughest cut of steak into something tender and delicious.
What Makes the Best Steak Marinades?
The best steak marinade recipes help to enhance the natural flavor of the meat. These marinades contain ingredients, which work well with each other and tenderize the steak as well as flavoring it.
Steak marinade recipes are becoming increasingly popular. Some companies known for their condiments and sauces now produce bottled steak marinades. However, the best steak marinade is one that you can make yourself because it will taste fresher and you have complete control of what goes into it.
Steak marinade ingredients vary, as do marinating times. A lot of marinade recipes call for pungent or piquant ingredients like onion, chili, or garlic. Marinating times vary from an hour to overnight but this depends on the recipe as well as the cut of steak.
Popular Steak Marinade Ingredients
Beer, wine, and sometimes spirits can make a tasty base for easy steak marinades. Cooking sherry is another nice choice but a lot of steak marinade recipes call for a less potent base like soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or steak sauce.
It is important to remember, if you want to make the very best steak marinade, that marinades are meant to enhance the natural steak flavor rather than cover it up with heavy flavors. You will want to be able to taste both the marinade and the meat in the finished dish. This is why tasty vegetables and aromatic herbs are popular steak marinade ingredients.
Different people have different opinions as to the best steak marinade so the best thing to do is experiment with different steak marinade ideas and see which you prefer.
Find additional "Easy Steak Marinades" on our Steak Marinade Recipe index page just look trough our marinade categories to find that perfect steak marinade for your dinner tonight. Whether that be a wonderful domestic marinade or a tasty International steak marinade recipe with exotic flavors and spices. We have everything from easy steak marinades to wonderful grilled steak marinades.
Choosing the Best Steak Marinade to Make
Most people have cooked a steak before but not everybody has made their own easy steak marinades. The best steak marinade is one that you put together yourself rather than using a bottled marinade and you can make a great steak marinade in mere minutes.
There are plenty of different steak marinade recipes including international steak marinades, spicy steak marinades, citrus flavored marinades, herby marinades and many more and all of our easy steak marinades will enhance the meaty flavor of your steak and give it an added flavor too. Marinating steak also breaks down the tough connective tissue to give you a tender and juicy piece of meat.
Different Steak Marinade Flavors
If you are new to making steak marinade recipes you might like to begin with a simple three or four ingredient marinade. Once you have more experience, you can adapt existing steak marinade recipes, perhaps changing the spices or using a different type of citrus juice. Some of the best steak marinade ideas come from experimenting with existing recipes.
If you enjoy spicy food or Asian flavors, you might like to try one of our international steak marinade recipes. If you usually have BBQ sauce with your steak, you will love our smoky BBQ sauce based steak marinade recipes.
There are easy steak marinades for everybody, no matter which flavors you find the most enjoyable. A good steak marinade recipe is quick to put together, easy to use and results in a juicy and tender piece of meat, which melts in the mouth and is bursting with excellent flavors.
