No. 115

Raw Marinade

Marinade Crue

There are two kinds of raw marinade; the first one is made of oil, minced onions, branches of parsley, thyme, bayleaf, slices of lemon, salt, mignonette, garlic and basil. The second one is made of two quarts of vinegar, four quarts of water, minced carrots and onions, bayleaf, a clove of garlic, thyme, basil, mace, whole peppers and sprigs of parsley.

← No. 114 Cooked Marinade Elementary Methods No. 116 How to Dress Meringues →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two component preparations rather than finished dishes: an oil-based marinade for short seasoning, and a large vinegar-and-water bath for game and coarse meats. Ranhofer gives quantities for the second only, so the first has to be built by proportion.

MignonetteMignonette (or mignonette pepper) is coarsely cracked white peppercorns, sifted of dust. Cracked black pepper is the usual substitute; ground pepper turns the oil muddy.
Proportions for the oil marinadeFor about 3 lb of meat, figure 1 cup oil, 1 medium onion minced, 3-4 parsley branches, a sprig of thyme, 1 bay leaf, 2-3 lemon slices, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cracked pepper, 1 crushed garlic clove and a few basil leaves. The oil is a carrier, not a submersion bath; turn the meat in it every few hours.
The vinegar marinade is a large batchTwo quarts vinegar to four quarts water makes six quarts, enough for a saddle of venison or a whole leg. Scaled down, hold the one-to-two vinegar-to-water ratio; period vinegar was not standardised in strength, so taste the bath and adjust if yours is sharper or weaker than expected.
MaceMace is the outer casing of nutmeg, sold as blades or ground. One or two blades is enough for the full six quarts; ground mace at about half a teaspoon will do, though it clouds the liquid.
VesselUse glass, glazed earthenware, or stainless steel. Aluminum, cast iron and unlined copper react with the vinegar and lemon and will throw a metallic taste and gray the meat.
RefrigerateThese were built for a cold larder. Marinate under refrigeration, not on the counter: the acid does not sterilize, and a leg of meat sitting for two days at room temperature is the whole problem in miniature.
TimingSmall cuts and fish need 1-4 hours in either bath; large joints of venison or mutton take 1-3 days in the vinegar marinade, turned daily. Past that the surface goes chalky and the texture breaks down.
AfterwardDrain and dry the meat thoroughly before browning, or it steams instead of searing. The strained vinegar marinade is often reduced into the braising liquid, which is where the carrot and onion earn their place.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's, laid out The Epicurean (1894) as a working reference, with these numbered "Elementary Methods" as the building blocks cross-referenced throughout the rest of the book — hence a marinade with no dish attached to it. The distinction between marinade cuite and marinade crue is standard French kitchen practice: the cooked version is simmered and cooled before use, the raw one simply assembled. The second formula here, heavy on vinegar and aromatics, belongs to an era when venison, hare and older mutton came to the kitchen well hung and needed both tenderizing and taming; the first, an oil-and-herb dressing, is essentially the ancestor of the marinades still used for grilled meat.