Soaking meat in wine

[Ludovic]

So I was planning on trying a self-made recipe this evening:

1/2 pound of beef round chunks
some broccoli sprigs
marinade the above in 1/3 bottle of wine

after soaking, take out broccoli and beef and cook on low heat for several minutes.
add some cooking oil (not sure if I this is necessary)
add chopped green pepper and onions
cook on high to sear the veggies and meat
add rest of wine and simmer until done.

When I made this before, it was without marinading extensively and the meat came out very tender. Now, I am marinading for a whole day -- if I plan on something else for dinner tonight, will it taste different if I cook it tomorrow instead? Better, or worse?

[Solfy]

Most meats can be marinated overnight in the refrigerator just fine. The flavor of the wine will be more pronounced.

When you say "add rest of wine," is that the wine the meat was marinating in? While I don't think it will kill you to reduce the leftover marinade over the meat/veggies at the end, most commercial marinades I've bought warn against doing so. The bacteria that was in the meat has been swimming in the marinade. Reducing it will probably kill it the same as it has in the meat, but better safe than sorry.

Your cooking order surprises me a bit. I'd start the pan with a little cooking oil, heat to high, add the meat and sear on all sides, then add the veggies and deglaze with (fresh) wine, lower heat to simmer until done.

[Ludovic]

I plan on simmering a bit first to see if and how much oil I will need since some fluid will come out and I have never marinaded in wine for more than an hour. Yes, I will be adding the wine from the marinade but will be simmering enough that I don't think bacteria will be an issue. Then again, if most of the wine is soaked up by the meat then maybe I will skip that entirely due to both the bacteria issue since I'd simmer for less time and also needing less wine.

The oil is mainly for the peppers and onions which I don't like the rawer taste of and would prefer to taste a bit fried. Perhaps I will pan fry them in oil for a bit before adding them.

[The Devil's Grandmother]

Might add a little salt to the soaking wine.

[Ludovic]

I was thinking about that and I think I will try it. It's always a chore though because I add so little salt to my stuff that it's always in chunks.

[krisolov]

Here's what I would recommend:

Sear your meat in a hot pan with oil after you're done marinating. Once it's suitably browned on all sides, remove it to a plate.

Reduce heat to medium. Add some more oil, sauté your onions, peppers, garlic, etc... until it is softened to your liking.

Add your meat and juices back to the pan with the veggies. Let it come up to temperature, add your liquids.

Broths are better than straight wine in my experience. A mixture would work well. You can also use broth and an appropriate beer.

simmer until meat is suitably tender and veggies are done. At least 30 minutes in my experience. Longer is better.

[Ludovic]

Well the meat didn't turn out to be particularly tender even after soaking for a whole day. I started off with not particularly tender meat and wound up with something about as tender as high quality meat cooked in an offhand manner. It's not money efficient either because the 1/3 bottle of wine cost around $4.

And I could barely taste the wine in the beef. However, the wine combined with just a bit of salt tasted incredible with the veggies. I think I will try this again some time but just marinade broccoli in wine+salt with no meat. It will make the preparation simpler, since I can then fry up the onion and pepper beforehand and then add the broccoli, which will already be soft enough for my tastes due to the soakage, and I wouldn't have to worry about bacteria. I'll add some peanuts at the end for umami.

[Solfy]

The tenderness issue could be a fundamental limitation of the cut of meat, or it can be the cooking method. Some meats must be cooked long and low to break down the connective tissue bits that make them tough. Searing at the outset, rather than a slow temperature ramp up, can help keep meat fibers from contracting and driving out juices that help maintain tenderness.

IOW, your best bet is to either cook long and low or high and fast.

Some people have good luck pre-salting the meat, and I don't mean just the amount you'd normally use for seasoning. There's a great explanation why at this site.

You can also use commercially purchased meat tenderizer made from papaya enzymes, but it can make meat mushy if you leave it on too long.
And of course there's the old fashioned brute-force method with a spiky mallet.

[Nonny J. Nonnington III]

Vaguely related to your question. I made this a week or so ago. It involved reducing down the wine and vegetable mixture after deglazing the pan. It was a chuck roast which is flavorful but tough, but after cooking it was fork tender. I strained out the veggies and it made an incredibly savory sauce to pour over the beef. The gremolata was an interesting finishing touch.

Solfy hit it - tougher cuts (like chuck) need low temps, cooked slowly while more tender cuts (Porterhouse, T-bones, ribeyes, etc.) should be cooked quickly at higher temps. At least when we are talking ovens - sous vide is a completely different process.