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asian marinade

For your grilling pleasure – Asian marinades and cooking styles to use this summer

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People have been marinating meat for a long time. The word “marinade” is derived from the Latin term for seawater, aqua marina, a language evolution that is connected to the long-used practice of brining meat. Brining involves salt or saltwater and was primarily used to preserve meat so that it would last longer. It is also believed that brining was used to add flavor to poultry, fish and other meats.

While brining has been used in areas close to the sea, like areas bordering the Mediterranean, the process of marination is a global phenomenon. Whether done to add flavor or to tenderize meat, most marinades and meat sauces contain some acidic or enzymatic ingredients such as lemon juice, red wine, vinegar, ginger or fruits.

Southeast Asian marinades are sweet and savory, due to their propensity to include soy, ginger, and fruits. Marinades that come from tropical islands tend to rely heavier on fruits like pineapple and papaya, while marinades in western Asia rely more heavily on curry, a combination of turmeric, fresh ginger, chilis, and cumin.

Marinades and sauces of Asia — heavy on the soy

Soy sauce marinades

Many Asian marinades are sweet and savory, and, at times, spicy. Some of the more popular marinades from Asia are sauces used as condiments or added after cooking. A large number of marinades and sauces that derive from Asia are made from soybeans or their byproducts.

Soy sauce was first made in China and is believed to have first been created almost 2,000 years ago. Soy sauce is also derived from soybeans. It is fermented soybeans with grains, some salt/brine, and even mold cultures like Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae. Although it originated in China, the use of soy sauce spread rapidly across southeast Asia and eventually made its way to Europe.

In Chinese cuisine, there are many different types of soy sauce that can be used in dishes featuring vegetables, pork, chicken, beef or fish. It is one of the most commonly used “spices” in food originating in China. In Japanese culture, soy sauce is prominent in what is known as the teriyaki style of cooking, which involves grilling or broiling glazed foods with the namesake teriyaki sauce that is a combination of soy sauce, sugar, and sake or mirin. Teriyaki-style and the simple marinade used for cooking is great with some chicken breasts (thinned of course), steaks, or pork tenderloin.

For other marinades, soy sauce is combined with sesame oil, sesame seeds, green onions, ginger, and sometimes fish sauce or hot chili sauce.

Soy sauce is not the secret ingredient for Chinese and Japanese cuisines only; its use is widespread across southeast Asia and is even a key ingredient in many traditional Hawaiian dishes.

Beyond China and Japan, soy sauce is used to marinate beef — with brown sugar, garlic, rice wine vinegar, ginger, sesame oil, and freshly ground black pepper — for Korean barbecue. In Indonesia and the Philippines, soy sauce is most commonly mixed with brown sugar and sometimes molasses and used as a marinade.

Soy sauce is used in marinades outside of Asia, as many steakhouses use soy sauce in some of their steak marinades across Europe and America.

Hoisin

Hoisin is a sweet and salty Chinese sauce is most often added as a glaze after cooking. Most commonly made with some combination of vinegar, soybeans, fennel seeds, red chilis, and minced garlic, it is used primarily as a dipping sauce or glaze.  However, hoisin is also used in stir-frys and as a barbecue sauce.

As a marinade, Hoisin sauce is best for pork chops or fried or grilled chicken thighs or tenders. Some chefs experimenting with hoisin have combined it with fresh garlic cloves, chilis, and some sugar for a pre-cooking marinade for steak tips, tougher steaks like skirt steak, and even rib-eye.

Interestingly, the word hoisin is Chinese for “seafood,” yet it contains no fish and is used on other meats like pork, duck, and beef more prevalently than seafood. Fish sauce, which is very salty like soy sauce, is a completely different Chinese condiment.

Indian-inspired flavor

Heading west, you find fewer beef marinades and more sauces used for fish and chicken. One major reason for this is the influence of Hinduism — which prohibits eating cattle — in countries like India. Chicken dishes that derive from India, such as tikka masala and tandoori chicken, rely on marinades that combine a range of different spices with yogurt. Both tikka masala and tandoori are marinated in a yogurt-based sauce that can include ginger, chilis, cayenne, cumin, turmeric, minced garlic, and sometimes coconut and cinnamon.

These foods that rely on what are known as “curry” marinades or sauces are most often used on chicken or fish. However, because of religious beliefs, the eating of meat is forbidden in some circles, and so this popular sauce is also used in vegetable dishes.

Middle Eastern and Mediterranean marinades

In Mediterranean Asia, the shawarma cooking style is one of the most popular ways to cook meat like chicken, beef, turkey, or lamb. The meat for shawarma usually is marinated in spices similar to Indian cuisines; they use a marinade or rub that is some combination of turmeric, cayenne, garlic, cumin, paprika, and olive oil.

Once marinated, the meat is packed onto a spit and then grilled over a long period of time, such as an entire day. This style of cooking eventually gained popularity in Mediterranean Europe; if you’ve ever eaten a Greek gyro or kebab, you’ve had the meat cooked shawarma-style and combined with a yogurt-based sauce and fresh vegetables.

Interestingly, the shawarma method of cooking is also connected to Latin American cuisine. Al pastor — a popular Mexican pork dish used in tacos — is supposed to be cooked on a spit and is prepared in a shawarma-like marinade that often adds pineapple. How did that happen? Lebanese refugees who arrived in Mexico in the twentieth century combined the cuisine of their home with the fruit and spice influences they discovered in Latin America.

Try out an Asian marinade

Now that you have a whole plethora of different flavors to try with your grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and heritage-breed pork this summer., it’s time to make like a true chef and get to mixing these amazing marinades together. Whether you let them marinate for an hour or an entire day, once you pull your Asian-influenced meat off the grill, you’ll thank us.

Check out some of our favorite recipes and cooking methods from ButcherBox Head Chef Yankel Polak for a deeper dive into Asian marinades. 

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The view from our outdoor kitchen.

How ButcherBox — and our fantastic chef — pulled of a fall farm dinner in New England

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Early last month, on a surprisingly mild October evening outside of Boston, ButcherBox held a farm dinner for some of its most loyal Boston-area customers. The food and conversation were both fantastic that night, as was everything that went on behind the scenes.

One secret we have not yet shared from that night was how we pulled it off; or, to be more specific, how the team, led by our in-house chef Yankel Polak, made a challenging endeavor both seamless and enchanting.

There was a lot that went into this dinner, and, the degree of difficulty was a bit higher than your typical run-of-the-mill event because of the locale: A pristine, New England farm in Lincoln, about twenty minutes from the ButcherBox office in Cambridge.

In addition to setting up the tables, lighting, and other decór, a makeshift kitchen had to be outfitted, and everyone working the event needed to know their roles and fill them out as if they were in a top restaurant in the city.

First, the menu had to be created, and, as Chef Yankel has mentioned before, “The food was sort of a conglomeration of who I am, paired with the needs of the event.” In addition to featuring some of the Chef’s favorite ButcherBox cuts of meat, there were also two menu items that included meat from Matlock Farms, the small family farm that hosted the event.

“I take a good hard look at the menu,” said Chef Yankel, “and given my time constraints, space constraints, staff constraints, and the outdoor setting, I ask: Is the menu executable?”

As he further explained the process, the chef said that after reexamining the menu, he often “makes adjustments to prep, to ingredients, to style, and design until the whole scenario feels right.”

“Then the real planning begins.”

According to Chef Yankel, once set, the menu drives the event. “From the menu, I hire my crew and draw up the equipment rental needs, which includes everything from industrial ovens and outdoor sinks right down to the butter knives we’ll use.”

“From there, I decide which type of dishes the food will be plated on and served in, as well as the garnishes and other decorations we will use.”

One other key is that Chef Yankel then writes up an event timeline and assigns everyone their roles well in advance so its easy for all involved to know exactly what is being asked of them and they can ask about the specifics of their roles before the intensity of the event day arrives.

The real work begins on Monday of the week for a Thursday event. Yankel does a final check through of all lists: makes sure staff notes get sent out; double checks the guest list; checks the weather for the night of the event; gets the equipment rental quote finalized; gets the shopping, prep, and tools lists finalized; confirms the meat orders; and then, Yankel gets his home kitchen reconfigured for catering.

“At this point, my apartment begins to resemble industrial kitchen,” Chef Yankel said.

The next day is a lot of preparation and running around. Coolers and ice need to be picked up, as well as the wines and meat. “The order got mixed up, so I had to do a last second menu change while at the meat facility,” Yankel said. A final check through of all lists is done and contingency plans are put in place in case of rain or staff failures.

Last on the list for Tuesday is another key to the event: The U-Haul trailer that will be used to transport everything to and from Lincoln is picked up.

The day before the event is even more hectic. Shopping begins at 6:00 AM, for the 150 or so ingredients needed. Around 11:00 AM, everything is brought back to Yankel’s apartment which, at this point, is packed with more food than a local grocery store.

Preparation begins immediately, Yankel said and continues nonstop until 11 PM, at which point, the coolers are repacked with ice, the prep list is rewritten and triple checked, and the tools and equipment are packed in the truck. The apartment is left smelling like a restaurant kitchen.

The day of the event is both a marathon and a sprint. At 7 AM,  everything is packed on the ice again and loaded into the U-Haul.

At 9:30 AM, with his apartment looking like it just held “a frat party,” Yankel heads out to the farm.

Once on location, Yankel meets the equipment rental guys, who showed up with an unorganized truck full of rentals for four different parties. After pulling the 100 pieces needed for the event off the truck, it all needs to be expertly organized.

Next, members of the ButcherBox team arrive to prepare the site, rigging lights and setting up the event space, which, in this case, is a small grass grove, next to a field of roaming cattle.

By noon, the kitchen support staff arrives and gets a quick overview of the remaining preparation. Everyone then gets right to work finishing the food.

“I spend the rest of the afternoon setting up tables and chairs and fire pits, hauling hay, getting people into positions, putting out place settings, mixing salad ingredients, putting out appetizers, and cooking meat,” Yankel said.

Guests start arriving around 4:30. They have wine and beer sitting by firepits, while appetizers are served. Around 6:00 PM, everyone sits down to dinner, and by a little after 8:00, the event ends.

“Then the party begins, and, in a blur, everything goes smoothly, and we are done,” Chef Yankel said.

It got dark quickly, which made cleaning up and taking down the kitchen difficult. “I definitely did not plan enough light for the kitchen,” Yankel said. But even with that, everyone is home by 11 PM.

The night was a success by any measure.

Friday morning, the team head back out for followup. Yankel checks in with farm to make sure rentals are all picked up and that the location is cleaned properly.

All of the chef’s personal equipment is put back into storage, tools get rewashed and put away, the U-Haul is returned, and then, according to Chef Yankel, “The apartment begins to look like home again.”

Here is the entire menu from the fall farm dinner:

Passed Apps:

  • Matlock Meatball – Smoky, sweet sundried tomato sauce
  • ButcherBox Filet – Orange nutmeg dusting, shallot jam, crispy onions, parsley
  • BB Sausage Stack – Manchego cheese, ButcherBox Italian sausage, walnut charoset
  • BB ‘Ants on a Log’ – ButcherBox bacon jam, celery, pickled currants, pomegranate seeds

Plated salad: Local lettuces; marinated cucumbers, onions, and peppers; heirloom tomatoes; lemon thyme vinaigrette; micro greens and Matlock Farm harissa beef merguez.

Family Style Dinner:

  • ButcherBox New York Strip Steak: Marinated in coriander, lime, cilantro, garlic, EVOO
  • ButcherBox Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs: Herb marinade with cumin
  • Grilled assorted veggies
  • Grilled corn with chipotle butter and lime
  • Herb and vinegar potato salad
  • Cornbread with grass-fed butter

Dessert: Maple bacon whoopee pies wrapped in ButcherBox paper.

Customers at the Matlock Farm in Lincoln.

New cuts, cooks, and creativity: The ButcherBox customer experience

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Recently, we had an incredible farm dinner that gave us the opportunity to talk with a few of our ButcherBox customers. The conversations confirmed that the same foundational ideas ButcherBox was built upon are some of the reasons these loyal customers love our ButcherBoxes.

Everyone we spoke with appreciated the access we provide to meat that is free of antibiotics and hormones and is raised humanely.

But we were surprised to hear how many of our ButcherBox customers enjoyed the experience of getting a curated box of different meats each month.

The more unusual and difficult-to-find cuts that we often include in our shipments were mentioned often. People enjoyed having to work with foods they were not used to, either using our recipes or their own creativity and cooking ingenuity.“

“I like how it is a surprise every month of what you can get,” said customer Sam Malekiani. “It keeps you on your toes.”

Karen Reid said “It is tough to find grass-fed, grass-finished meat. I could find it periodically at supermarkets, but not consistently. I like these meats and cuts because they have more flavor.” Customer Eric Kneidel had a similar sentiment: “You get more tender cuts with no hormones and drugs. You can taste the difference.”

Longtime ButcherBox subscriber Jeff Freedman told us, “There have been a lot of types of meat that we’ve gotten that we might not have thought about buying. So we are able to try different types and try different ways of cooking it.”

Introducing people to new cuts of meat is an essential part of the ButcherBox experience. And while we love the recipes we’ve developed and share in our boxes, it was also great to hear how people are using these flavorful meats and unique cuts in innovative ways.

To Alison Fedolak, the chicken thighs we include in some boxes are an “added bonus.”

“They’re tasty; they’re fresh. They go really well on the grill, and they don’t dry out, so you can put a nice rub on them, or marinate, and they taste delicious,” she said.

Matthew Medeiros was never, by his own admission, a big fan of drumsticks, but now it’s his favorite cut. “They are so tender and juicy,” he said. “I slow roast them, and then I’ll broil them to char them or throw them on the grill if it’s nice out.”

Dawn Reid cooks our flank steak on the grill with some chimichurri sauce on it. “Real simple,” she said. “It’s a great summer dish, and it’s great cold in a salad. “

Her sister Karen likes a good flank steak marinated in what she calls her “1/3 recipe”: “A third acid, such as vinegar; a third sweet, could be maple syrup or brown sugar; and a third salty, for which I use soy sauce.”

“Marinate and throw on the grill, and it’s beautiful,” she added.

Greg Loftus uses ButcherBox ground beef in his chili, and, as he said, “It’s a world of difference.”

“Even in chili where there are so many things, it still makes a massive difference.” Greg’s brother Eric confirmed: “The flavor is outrageous.”

And Eric isn’t the only one who has noticed the difference using our meat can make. As Jeff and Jane Freedman explained, “People are always asking where we get our meat, and they want to be invited over whenever we get a new ButcherBox.”

In all, it was great to hear from customers that are enjoying healthier, more humanely-raised meats, but it was fascinating to hear about the new experiences that come with each month’s ButcherBox.