Red wine in marinade and tough meat

[highchef]

Half a bottle of red wine sitting on my counter insist that I do something with it. Since we're grilling all weekend, I sent dh out to buy some ribeyes and hit the web, checking out recipes and reading some reviews. Surprise! A good many writers claimed tha marinade, instead of tenderizing, toughened the meat!

Whether this was do to the addition of red wine to the marinade isn't clear, but seems to be the main variable. I know time in the sauce is important...always thought more the better. All I can imagine is they either had piss poor meat to begin with, or the tannins somehow affected the meat. I think I missed that episode of 'good eats'......

When I decided the risk to the ribeyes was not worth it, I came across this.

Which might just tip the balance if I knew the culprit for the tough meat. Anyone know about this stuff?

Edited July 3, 2011 by heidih
Fix link (log)

[heidih]

The article just seems to be saying that using a red wine marinade for a few hours cuts the carcinogens in grilled red meat by 88%. It does not address toughness.

[highchef]

the article is about health benefits of grilling with red wine, the toughness issues came from reading reviews of specific recipes...like

this

so is there a formula that allows for use of the wine, without messing it up? less time, more time,more oil,no vinegar (seems redundant)?

edit: typos

Edited July 3, 2011 by heidih
Fix link (log)

[djyee100]

I think this will answer your question. Read Remy's reply.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080719081451AAoylWY

This piece from Fine Cooking gives you the science. See the paragraph, "Acidic marinades 'denature' proteins."

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/marinades-flavor-tenderize.aspx

Basically, a brief soak in a marinade that is not too acidic will do the trick. To me that says, keep the red wine, ditch the lemon juice for your steaks, and maybe keep the steaks in the marinade for about an hour at most.

Anybody else with ideas about timing the marinade?

As for that lesser-carcinogenic business, somebody is playing games with the anti-oxident properties of red wine. Personally, I think the jury's still out on the anti-oxident benefits of anything. I drink red wine because I like it.

Enjoy your wonderful steaks!

[highchef]

That ecplains a lot. Yhank you. Still curious about all the recipes that have you go all night...maybe thats one of those things that you really have to be careful of when you read the recipe, and just go for an hour or so like you said. Would't have even really worried about it except for the reviews.