How My Grandmother Marinated Meat
Add CommentMy grandmother knew how to cook! She also knew how to marinate meat. So I grew up heating up the grill and watching her mix up the special spices Daddy Hinkle used on Steaks and chicken. The mixture of spices wasn´t called Daddy Hinkle´s Instant Marinade when I was growing up. It was just a combination of spices that I saw used on steaks all my life. How easy it is today just to open up a bottle of Daddy Hinkle´s! Here´s how my grandmother did it for 50 years and how I use it today:
I wet the meat with the Daddy Hinkle´s liquid, water, or olive oil and then sprinkle on the Daddy Hinkle´s dry seasoning. 
The wet part and the dry seasoning mix together on the steak to form the marinade. I use a fork or a Jaccard meat tenderizer shown at left to fork and force the Daddy Hinkle´s deep inside the steaks.
After seasoning, I allow the steaks to sit at room temp for as much as an hour to allow the meat to tenderize and marinate.
This second part is as important as the first because the meat does not have to go from an internal temp of 38 degrees to say 140 degrees for rare but rather only 65 or even 70 degrees. Thus the cooking time is reduced and you don’t burn up and dry out the out side of the steak before reaching the your desired level of doneness.
I throw the steaks on a hot grill and turn them twice on each side rotating the steaks each time to make grill marks in an X pattern. By feeling the firmness of the meat as it is cooking you can judge how rare or well done the steaks are. A feeling of softness or mushiness means rare and very firm means well done.
With practice you will be able to judge rare, medium rare, and medium, or medium well with touch by feeling the firmness of the steaks. Of course a thermometer will eliminate all the fun of guessing. I use a Thermo Fork to tell me the how done the meat is.
I hope your next steak is with Daddy Hinkle’s Marinades, and I know it will be the best steak of your life.