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French Marinating Mixture
FOR 2-4 POUNDS OF MEAT: 1/2 CUP DRY WINE I SMALL ONION, QUARTERED I SMALL CARROT, QUARTERED PEPPER I GARLIC CLOVE, SLICED I SPRIG THYME I SPRIG PARSLEY OR CHERVIL I SPRIG MARJORAM OR SAVORY I BAY LEAF Stir all together, spread over meat and turn meat over every few hours to season evenly.
After your buffalo cut has soaked and tendered 12-24 hours, depending on its toughness, wipe it off, strain the juice that has collected, roast the meat, and use the juice for basting. No further seasoning necessary except salt, and some butter if you drew a lean cut. After a good marinading, most meat is quite tender broiled if given a deep brushing with oil or butter first.
A classic French red-wine marinade scaled for game, written for a cook who already knows how to handle a roast. The quantities are modest, so the technique matters more than the volume.
- Refrigerate, do not leave outA 12-24 hour soak belongs in the refrigerator at 40F or below, not in a cool pantry or camp box. Use a glass, stainless or food-grade plastic container; aluminium reacts with the wine and the result tastes metallic.
- Half a cup will not cover the meatThat amount of wine plus the vegetables is a wet rub rather than a bath, which is why the instruction is to turn the meat every few hours. A zip-top bag pressed flat around the roast keeps the whole surface in contact with far less liquid than a bowl.
- Pepper quantityThe original gives pepper with no measure. About a teaspoon of coarsely cracked black pepper suits 2-4 pounds; whole cracked corns are better than fine grind, since they will be wiped off later.
- Dry wineThe original says only 'dry wine' and does not specify a colour; a dry red is the usual choice for game, but any dry wine you would drink works. Avoid anything labelled cooking wine, which is salted, and avoid sweet wines, which caramelise and scorch when the basting juice hits a hot roast.
- Strain and reduce before bastingThe strained juice is raw meat marinade. Bring it to a full boil in a small pan for a minute or two before you start basting, and stop basting well before the roast comes out so nothing raw goes to the table.
- Roasting the buffaloBison and most wild red meat is leaner than beef and dries out at beef timings. A moderate oven, 325-350F, and a thermometer pulled at 130-135F for medium-rare gives a better result than roasting by the clock.
- Marinating does not really tenderiseWine and aromatics penetrate only a few millimetres and mostly flavour the surface. Real tenderness in a tough cut comes from the cut itself, from slicing thin across the grain, or from long moist heat.
- The lean-cut butterThe advice to add butter for a lean cut is the important one. Bard the roast with fat, or brush generously with oil or butter before broiling, or the exterior will be dry before the centre is warm.
- YieldAs written this seasons 2-4 pounds of meat, roughly four to eight servings. Scale the marinade in proportion rather than doubling the soaking time.