Marinating the meat how and why?!

The marinade will make your meat tender and add flavor to it.

At first, you need to marinate a meat lets say at least 2-5 hours or overnight if possible (depending on cut and game). Be careful, some meats are more tender and don't need as much of flavor nor long time to marinade (chicken and fish), otherwise, you will kill the taste of the meat. 

For marinade, you need usually 3-4 types of ingredients: 

• salty 
• sour 
• spicy
• sweet

You have to mix these together and make the blend of your own but be careful with sweet part of it (sugar, honey, ready-made BBQ sauces) - because it can start burning on the grill very easy! Also be careful with over-salting, it will ruin the taste and drain the liquid out from meat. Sometimes it's better to NOT put sweet ingredients to your marinade but add it by mopping meat on the grill or add as a sauce to the ready dish. Sourness you need to tender your meat (it helps also spices and taste get into the meat) and I am using for this purpose usually natural yogurt, vinegar, wine, lemon juice or tomato (pasta) sauce. For the flavor, you can add to marinade also mustard, mayonnaise, chopped herbs, onion, and garlic. There are no limits - really! Also, its good to add some olive oil to your marinade - it helps protect meat on the grill, gets easier browned and also it will not stick to your grill so badly. I made a picture of spices and ingredients I have at home for everyday cooking.  

You don't need them all - there are some basic ingredients with what you can cook a lot of different meals. These are salt, black pepper, garlic, onion, "Italian herb mix", thyme, rosemary, meat rub for BBQ, tomato sauce, olive oil, natural yogurt, BBQ sauce.  

Try to use natural tastes and if possible avoid ready mixed spices, but of course, sometimes it makes life much easier :)

The easiest way to make a marinade for pork or lamb or veil:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (there are salt and spices already mixed)

2 tbs of tomato sauce or 1/2 of lemon juice

2 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of mustard or horseradish

1 tsp of BBQ sauce

1/4 of onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

The easiest way to make a marinade for chicken:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (for example "Peri Peri")

2 tbs of natural yogurt

1 tbs of mayonnaise

2 tbs of olive oil

The easiest way to make a marinade for fish:

1/2 of lemon juice

a handful of chopped dill

4 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of freshly grounded pepper