Tarantino - Marinades, Rubs, Brines, Cures and Glazes

Copyright 1992, 2006 by Jim Tarantino

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tarantino, Jim.
Marinades, brines, rubs, cures, and glazes / by Jim Tarantino.Rev. and expanded.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Marinades. Freedom, CA : Crossing Press, c1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Marinades. I. Tarantino, Jim. Marinades. II. Title.
TX819.M26T37 2006
641.7dc22

eISBN: 978-1-60774-376-7

v3.1

To the folks mentioned below Id like to say, Well gang, we did it. I was far from playing solo with this work; I had the help of a great back up band.

First, Id like to thank some very good friends of this book. The person I could throw a test recipe to over my shoulder and have him catch it every time is Peter Cravath. Peter is a well-seasoned serial griller who is detailed and relentless when it comes to cooking food over smoldering wood and coals. His recipe testing help was immense. Running the books Ministry of Science was fellow eGulletier Jared Solomon. Jared was my first science source to bounce ideas and theories off of, and hed return them to me in clean, clear laymans terms with a sense of humor. Id also like to thank Diedre Watters, who did the first pass proofreading of the book. Diedre really helped to clean up Dodge and clear out some of the deadwood.

Every cookbook needs honest tasters, folks who wont simply say, Well, its different! but will tell you why. My tasting crew this time around was Andy Haakenson, Carol Ann Brady, and Richard Newman. Id also like to thank recipe contributors Barbara Boswell and Carl Doebley. And thank you to Graydon Wood for my catalog shot.

At Ten Speed Press Id first like to thank Dennis Hayes, whos been around for both editions of this book and has never stopped supporting it. Next, Id like to thank Aaron Wehner, who helped get the revision rolling. In acoustic jam sessions, we have a saying, Tune it or die! and the folks who fine-tuned the book were designer Ed Anderson, copyeditors Karen Levy and Andrea Chesman, proofreader Beverly McGuire, and indexer Ken DellaPenta. But most of all Id like to thank my project editor, Brie Mazurek, for helping me pull the book together. She was an unflappable air traffic controller who brought the book down to earth and then corralled stray copy before the words stampeded out of control.

Last but not least, Id like to thank my wonderful wife, Ellen, to whom this book is dedicated. Living with a cookbook author really means living with spillovers and late-night mood swings. It means eating four variations of glazed chicken (sometimes for breakfast) and living in partial isolation while the writing is going full blast. She worked as hard as I did on this project.

In the last edition of Marinades, I took some mild pains to organize the recipes around food groups, but thats not the way I really cook. I dont do a month of fish, or a week of chicken wings. What mostly happens is that my wife or I spot something fresh in the market, haul it back to the house, and pull ingredients from the pantry to finish it off. Other times, Ill be out with my cronies for a Saturday lunch, and well be plotting and planning that nights dinner based on our cuisine mood swings, the fresh ingredients that we need to scramble for, and, most of all, what we have in our pantries.

The revised edition of Marinades is ingredient- and pantry-driven. Think of ingredients as flavor colors and the pantry as a palette. By stocking up on a series of ingredients youll be able to rack up some great flavors no matter what comes in from the market that day. These pantry items range from the basics to signature ethnic ingredients from some of the worlds greatest food pockets: the New World, the Mediterranean, and Asia. Youll see some overlap of spices and condiments, as well as similar recipe versions from across continents.

But reorganizing a book doesnt just revive or revise it. New recipes and techniques do. Ive included new ideas, brines, cures, and glazes, plus a dusting of kitchen theory.

The musician in me likes to improvise, and Im no different in the kitchen. There are times when I follow the recipe as a classical score, and other times I treat it as an old standard on which to improvise. What help my sense of improv are a little bit of music theory, some imagination, and lots of practice. The theory part calls on technique and knowledge as to how things fit together, the practice over time makes it intuitive, and the ingredient of imagination adds personality to make the piece unique. I know, and I have played with, some great musicians who couldnt read a quarter note if they tried. The same holds true for cooks without recipes. Some of the flavors that have blown me away have come from street food, barbecue pits, crawfish houses, clam bars, ethnic cafes, taquerias, neighborhood bars, and just plain old joints.

Knowing about food theory or kitchen science helps you understand how things work. Once you get a sense of the chemistry, youll be able to intuitively substitute or scale up ingredients, troubleshoot recipes, and improvise.

Speaking of improvisation, Im the last person in the world who would come to your door to confiscate this cookbook and cite you for recipe violations if you substitute an ingredient. In fact, Im more likely to be guilty of aiding and abetting by wholeheartedly encouraging it. This book is really about ingredient ideas and encouraging you to have lots of imagination on your own.

Cooking with modern tastes for modern times is a combination of traditions and creative improvisations. A single dinner can have many complementary flavors and courses that cross oceans and timelines. Take a cut of fish or chicken or beef and either cure it, rub it, soak it in brine, or marinate it; add the ingredient of smoke; and you are linked to other centuries and cuisines.

Marinades, brines, rubs, and cures started out as survival food. The majority of these began as food preservation techniques to keep populations alive, and then the flavorings came in.

The composition of early marinades was mostly determined by a countrys climate. The farther north of the equator you go, the fattier the meat and the oilier the seafood, due to cold winters and cooler waters. In these regions, marinades have a higher ratio of acid in order to cut the richness of the meat or fish. The closer to the equator you go, the leaner the meat, and the marinades ingredient ratio is reversed. Marinades and rubs in the tropical regions tend to be spicier. But there are exceptions. Anyone familiar with Korean cuisine will tell you that some of their recipes are among the hottest.