Marinating meat is like stretching. Stretching is important. You know, before going for a run or playing in your coed rec soccer league that you definitely don’t take too seriously. (Sarah needs to pick up the slack though. Everyone’s been talking about it. We shouldn’t have lost to the Lightning Bolts. Just saying.) But you can actually stretch too much, and when you do, your muscles get all messed up. The same goes for meat. You can marinate chicken, steak, pork, and lamb for too long. And the meat doesn’t like that at all.
Generally speaking, you shouldn’t marinate meat for more than a day. Yeah, probably shorter than you thought. For some reason, people (more specifically, dads) find some kind of perverse satisfaction in making declarations like, “These steaks have been marinating for five days.” Maybe it’s impressive? Maybe it shows a misplaced commitment to the meat? We’re not sure, but we can certainly say that it’s not doing those steaks any favors.
Marinades usually consist of some type of sugar, salt, and acid, along with a variety of other flavor enhancers. Salt and sugar both break down muscle fibers to some degree (in the same way a brine does), but acid is the real culprit in this scenario. We like a little bit of tenderizing with meat, but when your chicken thighs are exposed to lemon juice, lime juice, yogurt, or vinegars for too long, the texture of the meat turns from tender to mushy and stringy, two words that have never been used in tandem to describe something pleasant.
Soy-marinated pork gets a juicy kick from a quick marinade.
