Everything you need to know about marinating meat

For a lot of home cooks, marinating meat is almost as automatic as cooking the meat itself. Douse the meat in some kind of flavored liquid, pop it in the refrigerator overnight and cook it the next day.

Seems straightforward enough, but there are reasons to put a little more thought into how you marinate. More and more, we're hearing as much about what marinades can't do as what they can. And in some cases, you may be doing more harm than good.

"I'm going to step on the conservative side of controversy," says grilling and barbecue expert Steven Raichlen, author of the new "Project Fire" cookbook, which has a companion public television series debuting this week. "I do believe they add flavor."

Here are some ways to ensure you're marinating the right way — and for the right reasons.

• Think about what goes into your marinade. Marinade ingredients generally fall into three categories, according to Raichlen: acids, oils and aromatics. Acids — think of them in terms of sour flavors — can include citrus juice, vinegar and yogurt. Oils, which help keep the meat from drying out, can be neutral in flavor (canola, vegetable, peanut); in-between (olive, nut); and assertive (sesame). The world of aromatics is wide, including garlic, onions, ginger, herbs, chile peppers and spices. Make sure your marinade contains a salty component, because that is one of the most effective flavoring agents. But "it doesn't have to actually be salt," Raichlen says, so feel free to use soy sauce, miso or fish sauce.

A marinade's flavor will evolve as it cooks, but it should taste good even before you use it, Raichlen says. Especially if you're winging it, be sure to sample along the way (before it goes on the food, in other words).

• Don't expect it to penetrate that much. Turns out, marinades are essentially a surface treatment. Most flavors will not go farther than a few millimeters into meat. Raichlen, however, is fine with that, because, as he points out, the surface is what you taste first. The limited distance traveled is another reason marinades are generally better for lean proteins — chicken breasts, flank steak, shrimp: You'll get a better ratio of flavored surface per serving than you would in a larger, thicker cut of meat.

• Longer does not mean better. Marinating for hours on end does not change the very shallow depth that a marinade penetrates. You can often get the same results in an hour or less as you would overnight. Still, it's hard to argue with the convenience of preparing meat in advance and using it later. But how long should you marinate? In "Barbecue Sauces, Rubs, Marinades — Bastes, Butters, and Glazes, Too," Raichlen gives a rough guide to marinating times.

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