A Family Secret Multipurpose Meat Marinade

Hello!

You might know about my ‘family secret’ multipurpose meat marinade that I use for lamb & chicken.

Well, I’m going to put the recipe here in a post all by itself.

It’s called ‘Salmuera’ and is a traditional Argentinian ‘sauce’ used for grilling / barbecuing or ‘braaing’ meat.

According to my uncle, P Henning, ‘Salmeura means dead {muera} salt {sal}.
Basically the salt is saturated in boiling water so it cannot draw any moisture to dissolve itself when it’s put on meat, chicken, fish or whatever.
It does not contain any fat, sugar, preservatives or oils. {Hooray!!!!!}
The sauce will not toughen the meat since the salt is dead.
If the meat is tender, it will stay tender, if the meat is tough, it will become more tender.’

I use this as a brine for chicken, turkey & lamb; the longer it is left to marinade, the more flavourful the meat becomes.

While cooking, I also use it to baste.

I use it as a secret ingredient for my coleslaw… {Not so secret anymore now, is it?}

It’s also great as a condiment, drizzled lightly over cooked lamb!

See – endless uses…

This really is something I always have in my fridge – it keeps for a long time and also freezes well…

{Makes 4 x 750 ml bottles}

You will need:

empty plastic bottles with screw tops – pierce holes into the tops
2 packets of whole pickling spice

{If you cannot find this, use the following spice mix:
20 whole pimento seeds
10 whole cloves
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 small pieces dried ginger root
3 tsp coriander seeds
2 small cinnamon quills
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp thyme
1 small dried red chili}

500 ml fine salt
1 cup vinegar
3 large onions, finely chopped
garlic – to your taste, I usually use 3-4 cloves
dash of worcestershire sauce for colour

Mix everything together in a large container with a 3 litre capacity.
Fill with boiling boiling and let it stand overnight for the salt to dissolve.

Pour into 4 bottles of 750 ml – 1 litre and top up with more boiling water.

So, with National Braai Day coming up, I suggest you make a batch of this multipurpose meat marinade  and give it a try – it will take your meat from nice to AMAZEBALLS  out-of-this-world!

Here are some of my recipes that use Salmuera:

Lamb & Aubergine Bake
Greek-Style Lamb Bowls
Leftover Lamb Salad
Roast Chicken

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