The Difference Between Wet Pickles, Dry Pickles, and Marinades (and How to Use Them)
In this week-long “Adult Kitchen” installation, we dive into the open waters of meat seasoning. Whether you’re grilling for the first time this year (or ever) or already worried about throwing Thanksgiving dinner in the fall, knowing how to spice things up is part of adult cooking. Here’s an enigmatic nugget of culinary philosophy to keep juices flowing: Flavoring begins before cooking. Let’s look at the differences between marinades, brines, and dry brines.
This is part of Skillet’s Adult Kitchen series designed to answer your most basic culinary questions and fill in any gaps your home cooking education may be missing.
Let it marinate
At its simplest, marinades are fat-flavored salty baths that can work wonders in as little as 15 minutes. Marinades can coat and tenderize fish, meat , and vegetables while imparting additional aromatic flavors. Some can even help with browning and create a great crust while cooking.
Start with a simple marinade of salt and a base such as butter, mayonnaise, or yogurt . Salt is not only the easiest way to flavor food, but it also denatures the proteins in the outer layers of a piece of meat, making it tender and flavorful, while the fat base helps to disperse the salt and brown the meat during cooking. Many marinades contain acidic ingredients, such as vinegar, wine, or citrus juice, which can balance out the sharp, sour flavors and help tenderize the meat.
Acids, however, can interfere with browning, so keep the amount low if you want color or a crust. When you have salt, base, and acid, consider adding sugar or other flavorings such as spices or herbs. Sugar can also help with browning and of course add balanced flavor notes. For a simple starter marinade, try half a cup of olive oil, two teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and one teaspoon of white or brown sugar.
After preparing the selected marinade, dip raw meat in it for a period of 2 to 24 hours. For seafood, 15-30 minutes will be enough, depending on the thickness of your fish or the size of your shellfish. (Be careful with acid, as it can effectively “cook” seafood, much like you do ceviche.) Vegetables can be marinated for as little as 15 minutes, or up to overnight for hardy root vegetables.
Bring the pickle
Speaking of flavor baths, let’s talk about wet brine. Brine is a flavoring process in which meat or vegetables are placed in a solution of salted water. You can add other flavors, but this is not necessary. Vegetable pickles may also contain an acid, such as vinegar. Depending on the vegetable and how long you leave it in the brine, salt and vinegar will flavor and soften the vegetables by breaking down some of their cell walls, resulting in a tender, savory vegetable that you might call a “brine.” “Make pickles from almost any plant with this ratio .
When it comes to salting meat and fish, salt is the main factor. The idea is to soak the fabric with salt without losing moisture . Turkey has a reputation for being a dry region, which is why wet salting has been and continues to be such a popular pretreatment method for poultry. The salt in the solution breaks down some of the outer proteins and the salt water can penetrate further into the meat via osmosis .
The turkey wins the “Best Salted” award, but any meat can be soaked in brine. In fact, if it’s your first time bringing in a whole turkey, you’ll most likely never do it again. Try a smaller, more manageable piece of meat, you know, anything that doesn’t weigh 22 pounds. Beat the brine mixture and pour it into any container or bag that will fit a piece of meat.
Add the meat and let it rest in the refrigerator, turning if needed. Boneless chicken breast marinates for about 30 minutes, and fish and shellfish for 15-20 minutes. Cuts with bones, loins or cuts weighing four pounds or more can be left in the brine for four to twelve hours in the refrigerator. Before cooking, remove the meat from the liquid and let it dry on a wire rack in the refrigerator or pat it dry with a paper towel. A damp surface will steam rather than fry, so drying it thoroughly will help with browning. For the starter solution, dissolve a quarter cup of kosher salt in four cups of water. Add meat and let it soak.
Dry pickle for victory
It turns out that a good roasting of meat is not only visually appealing, but it also imparts excellent flavor through the Maillard reaction . Unfortunately, if the surface of the meat is moist, as is the case with a wet brine or marinade, the water must first evaporate before browning occurs, and this extra time on the heat can cause the meat to overcook. Dry brines eliminate this danger.
Dry salting, sometimes referred to as “curing” or “salting”, is the process of coating a raw piece of meat with dry salt or sugar and possibly some herbs (although you should actually save these for dry rubs , as they are not at the curing stage). To do nothing). The salt will draw the natural moisture out of the meat, which will dissolve the salt and/or sugar crystals on the surface. The salt solution will return to the meat, no additional moisture is needed. Dry pickling is an outdoor activity; the meat is left uncovered while marinating in the refrigerator, allowing the surface to dry. No need to dry it before cooking, and you will be rewarded with a nice roast or crispy crust.
You can dry meat and fish in brine (sorry, vegetables, this is not exactly for you). Just rub a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt all over the raw meat to get a good coating. For larger cuts of meat, poultry, or fish , use more salt . Place the meat on a rack over a baking sheet in the refrigerator and leave uncovered. For small cuts or tender fish, it will take from 45 minutes to an hour.
Periodically check that the surface must appear dry. If it looks wet, give it a little more time. Once the surface is dry, start cooking. Salt does not need to be washed off, it is more for salt treatment . In this case, it will moisturize the skin that you have worked so hard to dry it out. If lumps of salt bother you, just shake them off before cooking. Any of these three ways will help add flavor to your dishes, so try whichever one seems to suit your cooking style and let it rip.