There’s nothing quite like the sizzle of marinated pork, chicken, fish, or beef hitting the grill. Instantly, the air is filled with the scent of garlic, soy sauce, pineapple, or whatever other flavor-enhancing ingredients you included in your marinade. Getting a marinade just right can take a bit of practice, however. Chowhound talked exclusively with Matt Abdoo, the executive chef and co-founder of Pig Beach BBQ, which has locations in New York, Boston, and Florida, to get some help on overcoming one of the most common marinade mistakes: how to infuse flavor without making the meat overly salty.
“The best way to prevent a marinade from becoming too salty is to limit not just the added salt, but also salty ingredients like soy sauce or Worcestershire,” Abdoo says. “Always taste your marinade before using it — if it tastes too salty beforehand, it’ll likely make your meat too salty, too. You can always add a pinch of salt before or after cooking if needed, but once it’s in the marinade, there’s no taking it out.” Of course, even if you end up with an overly salty marinade, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. There are a few ways to fix it.
How to fix a too-salty marinade
From a food science perspective, marinades offer a one-two punch to create delicious meats. First, they break down tough meat fibers to create tender bites. Secondly, they infuse the fibers with flavors more easily, as the broken-down proteins are readily able to absorb the four key marinade ingredients: oils, acids, seasonings, and aromatics.
In the event that you add a little too much seasoning — namely, salt — to your marinade, there are a couple of things you can do, depending on the situation, according to Matt Abdoo. “If you haven’t made a large batch yet, the simplest fix is to start over and reduce the amount of salt or salty ingredients from the beginning,” the chef recommends. “If you’re working with what you have, you can dilute the marinade with water, stock, citrus juice, or any other non-salty liquid already in the recipe.” Additions like vinegar and honey can also help to balance out a too-salty marinade. If your marinade is already on the watery side, you can add more oil to help mellow out the salty flavor, he suggests. So long as you taste your marinade along the way, there are plenty of paths for improving its flavor and saving your dish before any real damage is done.
