How to marinate lamb

Here's how to marinate lamb: a very ancient technique that serves to enhance the flavors of the meat and keep it tender.

In ancient times, marinating lamb served to increase the preservation times of the meat (not just sheep). In fact, there were no refrigerators or freezers and it was essential to find techniques that would allow the meat to be preserved for longer. Oil, vinegar and salt were the ingredients used for this purpose. The addition of aromatic herbs during cooking is a consequence of what has been said: with their flavor and intense aroma, they were perfect for covering the smell of meat that was no longer fresh.

Today this argument clearly no longer applies, but marinating lamb is still widely used in kitchens. The reason is simple: it allows you to enhance all the flavors and, in a certain sense, attenuate the wild taste that is often found. As always, when we talk about marinating, we use a specific combination of acidic ingredients and fatty ingredients as well as a fair amount of flavourings . Here are our tips for marinating meat before cooking.

The marinating phases

As already written previously, the basics for marinating lamb meat are very simple, there are 3 elements that cannot be missing:

– The fat part . Such as extra virgin olive oil.
– The acidic part . Which can be wine, vinegar or lemon.
– The aromas . Like, also added to the spices to make them tastier and enrich their taste.

Having said this, let's proceed immediately with the marinating steps.

How to marinate lamb

1. Before proceeding, it is of fundamental importance to wash the meat with water .
2. If you wish, you can also remove the thin layer of fat that covers the ribs and leg, which is responsible for the gamey flavour.
3. Once this is done, place it in a sufficiently large baking dish and pour inside an emulsion obtained with white wine and oil (the white wine can also be replaced with lemon juice or vinegar).
4. Once this is done, add spices and aromatic herbs to taste, leaf or chopped. The qualities that go best with this animal are those of the Mediterranean scrub, therefore sage, rosemary, laurel but also juniper berries and myrtle.
5. Don't forget to add a few grains of black pepper , salt and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic .
6. Massage the meat then cover the baking dish with cling film and leave everything to marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours , although ideally it would be overnight.
7. Once the lamb has marinated, drain it before proceeding with cooking.

At this point, you can dedicate yourself to preparing one of the many recipes with lamb: undoubtedly the simplest is baked lamb , but our ideas for preparing lamb chops can also be right for you, even if you are novice with these preparations.

storage

Even if in the past marinating was a technique to increase preservation, we find it really a shame not to cook the meat immediately , after having had its well-deserved rest among wine, oil and herbs! It would be a shame not to do it because it is on this occasion that the lamb is at its best !

How to cook marinated lamb

As previously mentioned, there are many ways to work with marinated meat. Among these for example:

– Breaded and fried . In this case you won't need to filter the marinade to use it, you just have to dip the meat in the beaten egg and breadcrumbs, then move on to cooking it in a pan.

– Cooking in a pan or in the oven . In the first case, place the meat in a baking dish, filter the marinade and add it to the meat, then cook in the oven at 180° C for at least 30 minutes . If you want to cook in a pan, however, heat the pan well and seal the meat for a few minutes on all sides. Then add the filtered marinade and cook over low heat for at least 25 minutes .

– Finally grilled or barbecued . Also in this case the marinade cannot be used in cooking. There is only one technique to use it: take a pastry brush, dip it in the marinade and pat the meat until it is ready.

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Lamb: 10 recipes for cooking it