A Marinade Guide

Copyright 2009 Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Please remember these are suggestions and ideas, not hard-boiled recipes. Making homemade marinades is a good way to begin to learn to trust your OWN taste. They are a snap to pull together, very satisfying and extremely inexpensive to produce at home once you have gathered the ingredients.

Italian balsamic marinade:

Combine garlic, balsamic, olive oil, black pepper, and dry or fresh basil. A nice trick is that you can make inexpensive balsamic taste more like the pricey stuff by boiling it for 10 minutes with a little sugar... figure 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar per cup of inexpensive balsamic.

Simplified hot jerk marinade:

Puree together a scotch bonnet or habanero chile (use gloves to handle these searingly hot beauties) and blend with 1/4 cup each of oil and vinegar, half an onion and generous teaspoons each of thyme, allspice, black pepper and cinnamon.

Basic Asian marinade:

Puree together equal parts of fresh ginger and garlic with soy sauce. Add sugar and pepper to taste.

Grilling Tips

• Marinades and sauces containing sweeteners like sugar, honey, or molasses will burn quicker than those without sweeteners. Watch them closely, and move to indirect heat if they start to burn.
• If time allows, meat could be marinated in the refrigerator from 3 to 12 hours. Don't marinate vegetables as some will throw off water and become soggy before they ever touch the grill.

Be notified when new recipes are posted and talk with other fans of the show for people who love to eat.
See what it's all about»

Weeknight Kitchen® is a free weekly e-mail newsletter full of new recipes and tips from Lynne and our guests.
Sign up »
This week's newsletter »

The Splendid Table®, is available in podcast form. Follow the Sterns as they travel the country, hear all our unique and wonderful guests and, as always, Lynne takes your calls, downloaded direct to your computer every week.
Get the podcast