Pre-Seasoning to Perfection
Using marinades & rubs with your George Foreman® Grill
Trying to make your summer BBQ or dinner meat cuts taste a little more distinctive? Why not try using a pre-seasoning rub or marinade to make your meats truly special? These simple flavor-adders will let you spice up your next meal without a hassle.
We’ll start with the basics – what exactly defines a marinade and rub, and how are they used in pre-seasoning meat before it’s cooked. Simply put, marinades and rubs: are part of a longer catalogue of pre-seasoning techniques – “they’re the essential seasonings that give grilled fare its character, personality, and very soul.”
Marinades
These are defined as liquid seasonings – a mixture of herbs, spices and aromatic veggies like onions and garlic – combined with flavorful liquids like wine, olive oil, citrus juices or vinegar. Marinades work by soaking the meat so it can absorb the flavors of the liquid. You typically soak a meat either for a few hours or overnight, depending on which ingredients you’re using and on the strength of flavor you want to achieve – the longer the marinade time, the more time the meat has to soak up these flavors.
In addition to providing flavor, marinades can help your cooking in other ways, too. Acidic liquids like wine, vinegar and citrus juices help tenderize meat by breaking down muscle fibers. Oil and other liquids in the marinades also help keep meat moist during cooking, for juicier results on your finished plate. This is why marinades are so commonly used with chicken breasts and other poultry, which can have a tendency to be too dry after they’re cooked.
To use a marinade and cook on your George Foreman® Grill, simply prepare the marinade in a dish or pan, add your meat, cover and place in your refrigerator, then allow it to soak for either a few hours or overnight for a big, bold flavor. Once your meat is ready, take it out of the marinade, place it on your preheated grill and cook for the standard time indicated in your Use & Care manual. It’s that easy.
Rubs
A rub is defined as a mix of spices, herbs and seasonings – often used with sugar – to give meats a strong base flavor. Not to be confused with seasonings – which are applied just prior to or during cooking – rubs are added to meats at least several hours prior to cooking like a marinade. This allows the flavors of the seasonings to “bleed” into the meat, much like what you see with marinades.
Rubs fall into two categories – wet and dry. As the name suggests, a dry rub has all dry ingredients, so you end up sprinkling it over the meat like a powder and physically pressing or rubbing it in. A wet rub is one that features a small amount of liquid – usually water, oil or yogurt – that’s used to mix the dry seasonings into a kind of paste.
Since rubs are made of mostly seasonings, they are often characterized by creating a crust on the outside of the meat. This is true of both wet and dry rubs. While the seasonings will encrust the outside of the meat, the amount of flavor that’s brought into the meat itself will depend on the amount of time the meat was allowed to rest (sit) with the rub.
To use wet and dry rubs with your George Foreman® Grill, simply prepare your rub and work into your meat in a dish or pan; cover and place in the refrigerator to give the seasonings time to bleed into the meat. Then, place meat on your preheated George Foreman® Grill and cook to the desired doneness as indicated in your Use & Care manual.
Marinades and rubs are a phenomenal way to add flavor and spice to your next grilled meal. They’re fast and easy, usually requiring little prep work, and they cook well on your George Foreman® Grill because, unlike sauces and bastes, the flavors are already soaked into meat so optimal cooking won’t be affected by the sloped surface. This way, you can knock out the fat and still have juicy, flavorful food on your plate.>/p>
