With warmer weather arriving here in B-more, I decided to whip out the grill. Why? Because it isn't spring until I grill something. Looking through my fridge and freezer for grillables, however, I dug to the bottom and found an econo-pack of London Broil that I'd completely forgotten, or pretended to forget, about. I may have been avoiding using this cut- London Broil gets a bad rap which isn't entirely undeserved. It usually cooks tough, doesn't have great beefy flavor, has almost no tasty fat, and what it does have is the one kind of connective tissue that doesn't break down with slow cooking.
Well, shit.
Today, though, I decided to take up the challenge, following the logic that a hot sear on the grill may be just what the meat needs to stay tender- cooking only to rare or medium rare. What to do about the lack of flavor... If only there was some way to infuse flavor into the meat, while keeping it moist and tasty. Maybe a liquid...
IT'S MARINADE TIME.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a marinade is some mixture of liquid and aromatic ingredients (herbs, garlic, ginger, peppers, etc) which you soak your meat or veggies in to infuse their flavors. This is also a good option if you need to tenderize the meat (by adding an acid) or add fat (by adding oil). Techniques vary here- some say the meat needs to be "tenderized" (read- hit with a hammer), others that the meat needs to be punctured, and so on and so on. We're not going to worry about that, and outside of very specific recipes, I wouldn't do any hammering or puncturing as standard practice.
What we will do is cut the meat into cubes for kabobs. This allows for more surface area in contact with our marinade, thus more of our marinade gets into the meat. Make sense? good. Another nice thing about marinades, is they make for incredibly easy recipes. combine stuff, let it sit, then cook it. Amazing.
So, in our marinade, we want vinegar to try and tenderize the meat a bit, and olive oil to make it a little richer. Mediterranean cuisine integrates these two ingredients rather nicely, so let's stick with that. Some pepper flakes, fresh herbs, a touch of garlic... yeah, good times.
However, it turns out this was to be a learning experience for me too.
After building a nice hot fire on my grill, searing the meat after a full night of marinating, I bit into one of my kabobs (though the technical term for these particular morsels is Spiedies) and... still couldn't chew through the tough fibrous meat. for a moment, I was at a loss. I couldn't figure out what happened, or why. More importantly, I had 4 lbs of cooked London Broil that, as is, I physically couldn't eat. I'd solved the flavor conundrum, but not the toughness. Time to put my nose back to the grindstone- there was no way in hell I ccould let that much effort and food go to waste. Thankfully, this leads to point number two of the day- slicing on the bias.
Now slicing meat has one cardinal rule- Cut across the grain. This means that the "lines" of muscle that make up your meat generally run one way, and your knife should cut across them, not with them. However, one tip that can make your slicing results even better for flat cuts of meat (not long round pieces, like tenderloins or rib roasts) is called cutting on the bias. It's a little hard to accurately convey this in text, so take a look here-
(4:40 is the demo of cutting on the bias. I strongly recommend you check out the whole video, though. Don't get too caught up on how many knives he has, a chef's knife cuts on the bias perfectly well.)
What isn't explicitly said here is slicing across the grain on the bias helps to make tough pieces of meat easier to chew. So, what began as kabobs (which would still work plenty well with pork, lamb, or plenty other cuts of beef) we now convert into thin slices for a salad.
Here's the marinade and grill recipe. All that changes is how you cut the meat. If you want to make a London Broil for salad, don't bother cubing the meat beforehand. Just cut the whole steak after it's cooked.
Spiedies-1 1/2 lb trimmed pork loin or lamb
3/4 C olive oil
1/4 C White wine vinegar
3 tbsp mint, chopped
3 tbsp oregano, chopped
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp chili flakes
2-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
After chopping your aromatics and cubing your meat, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Cover, refrigerate and allow to sit 3 hours to overnight.
In the meantime, if you are using wooden/bamboo skewers, SOAK THEM IN WATER.
Remove your meat from the marinade, and skewer. 4-5 pieces per skewer is usually enough to ensure even cooking.
Prepare a fire on your grill.
Grill for 5-6 minutes, then flip and cook for another 4-5 minutes, depending on the size of your cubes.
Enjoy as is, or on some nice crusty bread!
Until next time, stick it to 'em.
Great post, Will! Soak the skewers in water! That makes a lot of sense!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: How long is too long to let something sit in a marinade (while refrigerated)?
Thank you, Ben!
ReplyDeleteTiming a marinade depends on what goes into the marinade and the size of meat that's being marinated. For stronger marinades (containing a high ratio of vinegar or strong flavors, such as rosemary or chili peppers) I prefer not to let them sit past 24 hours. For lighter marinades (those that use fruit juice as an acid, have a smaller amount of vinegar, and/or have a higher fat content), they can keep for up to 3 days if properly stored. While they may keep longer, depending on the freshness of the meat, this is when adverse effects can start to show up. The meat will still be edible, but some of the flavors may be muddled or overpowered.
The one exception to the rule of marinades is fish. As acid of any kind "cooks" fish through a chemical reaction, you should not attempt to marinate fish. This creates an entirely different dish.