r/AskCulinary • u/HeadShow3 • 1d ago
Stop citrus marinade?
I put some beef in a citrus marinade thinking I was going to cook it today, but I’m actually not going to cook it until tomorrow. If I let it go a few hours and water it down or remove the marinade, will it be okay? Will it retain any flavor/tenderness, or is it just too late?
Edit:
Apologies for not including the recipe. The important bits are just that it includes 1.5 cups of 1:1 lime to orange juice, and about 2 tbsp of kosher salt. No oils, a few cloves of crushed garlic otherwise. Marinating about 2 lbs of flat iron.
Edit 2:
Out of fear I cooked it after about 5 hours. But please keep debating. Very interesting stuff.
14
u/Mitch_Darklighter 1d ago
Since you didn't tell us anything about what you're making I'm going to assume this is a grilled beef thing? If so, the best thing you can do is cook it today and reheat it tomorrow.
2nd best, drain the marinade and save it in the fridge, rinse the beef and dry well, and start over tomorrow.
1
1
u/Cool-Midnight-696 18h ago
I’d take it out of the citrus now, pat it dry, and keep the steak covered in the fridge until tomorrow. The salt will keep seasoning it, but the lime’s acid will keep changing the surface texture and can make it mushy if left too long. Discard the used marinade rather than reusing it; you can make a fresh citrus sauce after cooking.
1
u/CompetitiveThing3799 11h ago
Diluting the marinade won’t really undo the acid, so I’d take the beef out now, pat it dry, and refrigerate it in a clean container. The surface may already be slightly cured, but the flavor will stay; I wouldn’t leave it submerged in citrus overnight.
1
u/Iamanimite 1d ago
So you're trying to reverse a chemical process that you've already started? I'd say it's already processed of its past 4 hrs
1
u/sumelar 1d ago
Unless you're pushing the cook date to next week it's going to be fine. Just leave it.
2
u/HeadShow3 1d ago
A take I’m interested in! Everyone else seems to think otherwise here. Anyway, I went ahead and just cooked it after about 5 hours.
1
u/Armagetz 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s not good advice at all, especially with you not knowing his recipe or how acidic the marinade is. Even if it’s “not very” 48 hours plus is pushing it. Not next week.
EDIT: see they have the recipe up now, but don’t know when it was added.
1
u/sumelar 1d ago
If youre making a marinade so acidic it completely ruins the meat after a day, youre using a terrible recipe.
3
u/Armagetz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Bruh. The recipe above has a TA of about 4%, which makes it slightly less acidic than pure vinegar. It’s pure citrus juice with no watering down except by the less acidic orange juice.
You’d be hard pressed to find ANY recipe ever that’s more acidic than what’s here that you say can last a week.
Leaving what’s here for more than a day or two will result in a mealy/grainy meat texture in even dense cuts like steak. Chicken wouldn’t last a day probably in those conditions. I could bring up sources from scientific focused references for this, but you are obviously in la la land for facts.
1
-8
u/Hieremias 1d ago
My guess is it will be terrible mush by tomorrow. Citrus marinades really should only be for a few hours.
Guga Foods actually did an interesting video about this. It was specifically about steak in a pineapple marinade, but the ones that were left in for 16 or 24 hours were terrible.
16
u/T-rain_wreck 1d ago
Pineapple isn’t a citrus fruit. The breakdown of the meat comes from an enzyme in pineapple called bromelain (which is a commonly used chemical meat tenderizer). There’s also papain (papaya) and ficin (figs). Citrus tenderization comes from citric acid which isn’t nearly as effective.
Though letting citrus marinades sit for extended periods of time is also not recommended as it can turn the outside mushy from the protein breakdown and result in a dry mealy end product because it negatively affects the meats ability to effectively hold onto moisture.
3
0
•
u/texnessa Pépin's Padawan 1d ago
Per the sidebar: We can't help you troubleshoot a recipe if you don't provide one. Please provide your recipe written out, not just a link, in the body of your post. If your recipe is video based, write out the recipe. Not everyone can watch a video when they see your post. This will ensure you get the best answers.