We talk about culinary mistakes in preparing the main May dish - shish kebab.
Every barbecue lover has his own proven recipe. And there are millions of these recipes, no less than those who love and cook meat over coals. But often all these millions of barbecue cooks make mistakes that lead to burnt or dry meat, a spoiled picnic dish. Evgeniy Isaenko, the chef of the Voronezh diner, warns about the mistakes that we make at the barbecue and which will turn into inedible dry something from the shish kebab:
Mistake #0: Origin of the term
We are used to associating shish kebab only with Caucasian cuisine, but this is completely wrong. The word “kebab” itself was coined by Ukrainian Cossacks and brought to Russia by Russian soldiers in the mid-18th century. It is a distortion of the Crimean Tatar word “shish” - “spit”, “shishlyk” - “what is on the spit”. Shish kebab as such was known in Russia until the 18th century, but it was called “spinned” meat, that is, turned over on a spit.
Mistake #1: Unsuitable meat
Good meat is a big part of the success of a barbecue. So you need to choose a piece that is suitable for grilling over coals. The meat of those parts of the animal that are most involved in life is not suitable: brisket, flank, hind leg, shank, shoulder - these parts are intended for stewing, boiling or minced meat. They are not suitable for barbecue, even if pre-marinated.
For barbecue, you need to take young meat that has a sufficient amount of fat layers.
Pork. Here, ham, shoulder, loin (preferably on the bone) and, of course, neck are suitable - the best cut, as it has even layers of fat, which will make the dish as juicy as possible.
Mutton. The fillet should not have a strong odor, the meat should be pink, without yellowness (dark red color is a sign of an old animal, yellowness is not characteristic of young meat).
Chicken. It is best to take thighs, legs and wings. The fact is that the bone on which the meat is located adds additional flavor and maintains juiciness.
Pay attention to the feel of the meat; juice and mucus indicate improper storage and repeated freezing. Fresh meat remains dry, the texture of the fibers is clearly visible.
Mistake #2: Incorrect cutting
Be sure to cut the meat across the grain. The pieces should be about the thickness of two matchboxes, connected to each other with the wide flat side.
If you make the pieces smaller or larger, they will not be able to bake well. Dry or underbaked. If you do not cut the meat across the grain, it will lose juice when frying.
Mistake #3: Too much acid
Vinegar, as well as other popular tenderizers - pineapples, kiwi - have a bad effect on young meat. Besides, if you choose the right meat for the barbecue, they are not needed at all.
Mistake No. 4. Too many marinade ingredients
You should not “fertilize” the marinade with everything that is in the refrigerator, because, first of all, we marinate the meat to give it additional juiciness and it is important to emphasize the taste of the meat, and not to overpower it.
When marinating shish kebab, I like to use fresh herbs, onions, and garlic.
Mistake No. 5. Long marinating
On average, meat is marinated for 12, maximum 20 hours (depending on the type and quality of the selected meat) at a temperature of 2-4 degrees, no higher, in order to prevent the growth of bacteria, which can lead to undesirable consequences. In addition, long marinating deteriorates the taste of meat and its texture.
Mistake No. 6. Salting meat when soaking
Salt helps to intensively draw moisture (juice) from the product, which will lead to dehydration and make the kebab dry. If you are really limited in time, then you can salt the meat in the marinade, but it is better just before baking.
Mistake #7: Wrong skewers
The meat may turn on the skewer, the skewer may be too short for the grill and fall - all this will not lead to high-quality roasting. I prefer stainless steel skewers, preferably square, as the meat cooks best on them. Unfortunately, most often in stores there are flat skewers.
The skewer should be placed on the grill in such a way that there is a margin of at least 4-5 cm at both ends. Otherwise, it can easily slide into the coals.
Mistake No. 8. Poor placement on the skewer
You cannot throw pieces of meat from skewer to skewer; unnecessary punctures will result in lost juice and the taste of the kebab. Therefore, first place the skewer on the grill and visually mark the distance that the kebab should occupy, so as not to place too much or, conversely, not enough meat. The pieces should be planted close to each other, leaving no empty spaces.
Mistake No. 9. Vegetables on the same skewer with meat
Onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and other vegetables should not be planted with meat, since the cooking time for vegetables and meat is different, the vegetables will simply burn. It is better to fry vegetables on a separate skewer and remove them earlier. Or put it later than the meat.
Mistake #10: Incorrect fuel
Under no circumstances should you use firewood from coniferous trees, as they emit resins and can ruin both the dish and the grill. Firewood and coals made from fruit trees are best suited: apple, cherry, grapevine. They create a unique aroma. Birch, oak and ash are also good.
Advice: when lighting a barbecue with wood, put in the maximum amount of wood at once, so as not to add more during the burning process, this can lead to uneven formation of coals and will not provide the necessary constant heat. As a result, the meat will cook unevenly.
Mistake #11: Too much empty space between skewers
This will provide too much oxygen to the coals, increasing the likelihood of them igniting. You will be tortured to stew, and the meat will burn. Therefore, the skewers must be placed tightly to each other.
Mistake #12: Baking unevenly
Turn the skewers over as soon as juice starts dripping from the meat and fry on all 4 sides. Do not leave the meat to fry until it is completely cooked on one side, then just turn it over to the other - it will burn and not cook through.
On average, you need to fry for a minute on each side until a crust forms over high heat. And 7-10 minutes on low. To obtain low heat, it is enough to remove some of the coals from under the kebab.
Important questions
Should you marinate meat when frying?
Whether or not to water the meat during frying is a personal choice; I dilute the remaining marinade with red wine and lightly sprinkle the meat 5 minutes before cooking, this helps give additional juiciness to the kebab, and the acid contained in the wine adds softness and a pleasant aroma. Also, at the end of cooking, you can throw a few sprigs of fresh herbs, thyme or rosemary into the grill. If you are cooking fish, it could be lime leaf or lemongrass.
How to determine readiness?
In the case of beef or lamb, which are not fully cooked, it is best to use a probe thermometer.
You need to make a puncture in the pork or chicken (note that it is not a cut!) and see what color the juice flows out; if it’s clear, it’s ready; if it’s pink, you need to wait a little longer.
Should I let my kebab rest?
Pork and chicken - no need to rest, because you fry the meat completely. As for beef and lamb, they should not be cooked all the way through to avoid getting dry, chewy meat. The recommended degree of roasting is medium-medium well (the inside of the pieces should be 60-65 degrees, you can check it with a thermometer probe), and such meat should “rest” a little. The juices will be evenly distributed and you will get a soft, juicy, aromatic dish.
The season of picnics has already begun. The smell of a fire, the alluring aroma of meat fried over the fire... it seems, how can you ruin the impression of such a wonderful vacation? It turns out that it is possible. You can’t imagine how the mood of all the participants of the holiday in the lap of nature deteriorates when the result of pleasant troubles and joyful anticipation is over-dried or over-salted kebab. How to make a kebab so that everyone is satisfied and remembers your meat as the most magical masterpiece of culinary art?
You need to start from the very beginning: with meat. Those who claim that “real” kebab can be made exclusively from pork or only from lamb are wrong. In no case! And proof of this is the huge variety of recipes for meat “spinned” over a fire, which has come down to this day from time immemorial. In Russian monasteries, they treated both a hare on a spit and a whole roasted wild boar carcass with great respect... so the meat can be very different. And in Kuban, for example, sturgeon kebab is as common as lamb kebab in Transcaucasia.
However, the choice of meat must be taken extremely responsibly. It is recommended to use fresh meat for barbecue. Chilled, but in no case frozen, since during freezing the taste of the meat is lost irrevocably. Next, the meat needs to be marinated. By the way, according to some very famous chefs, barbecue meat is marinated only if its freshness is in doubt. And if the meat is exceptionally fresh, then just cover it with onion rings and add salt, leave it to soak and salt for half an hour - and you can fry it.
If you still prefer marinated meat, then here are several marinade options that can be used depending on your mood or your taste preferences.
Marinade first. Cut carrots and onions into rings, several pieces at a time, depending on the amount of meat, pour red or white wine, add salt, pepper, and other spices, including cloves and bay leaves. Put this whole mixture on the fire and boil well, evaporating about a third of the liquid. Cool until warm, add a few crushed cloves of garlic and pour it all over the meat. The meat should sit in this marinade for a longer time, maybe even a day, and then it will turn out piquant and juicy.
Marinade second. Cut the onion into rings, place layers of meat on it, and then pour beer over it all so that the meat is completely covered. This marinade will prepare your meat for grilling within an hour.
Marinade third. Cover the meat with chopped onions, season well with salt and pepper, then pour in kefir and leave for a day.
Marinade fourth, The most common. Layers of meat are laid with onion rings, sprinkled well with pepper and poured (each layer) with salted tomato juice. In this form of marinade, the meat is ready for frying in three to four hours, and it turns out surprisingly tender and juicy.
Well, the meat is marinated, it’s time to start preparing the grill. The golden rule of the grill: the meat should be at least five centimeters above the coals. More than five, by the way, is also undesirable. The same applies to the hearth if you decide to grill the kebab not on skewers, but on a grate.
It is best to use grape firewood for the barbecue - the best Caucasian barbecue masters unanimously agree on this. Firewood made from white acacia or oak will also be good, but in no case should you use coniferous wood, since such firewood will give your barbecue a not very pleasant taste. And the best way out in this situation is to use special charcoal, which is offered in a wide range by any supermarket today. Typically, this type of charcoal is made from birch logs, and this wood is ideal for grilling barbecue.
When starting to barbecue, make sure that there is not a single flame left in your grill, but only hot coals. The whole point of this magical dish lies precisely in the effect of infrared radiation on the meat, which is the heat of hot coals. If you do not meet this condition, then your meat will char, while inside it will remain raw - but does this mean real, tasty kebab?
And one last piece of advice: You’ve probably seen more than once how a real “kebab maker” sprinkles a kebab with water or wine from a bottle? Have you seen it? Here! This is where the most common mistake lies. If you take a closer look at the manipulations of a professional, you will understand that he is not spraying the barbecue at all, but the coals, thus trying to extinguish the hottest ones. But under no circumstances should you get on the meat itself, otherwise the temperature on the surface of the meat will become uneven and it will either not cook through or burn.
Have a good picnic and delicious barbecue!
Photo materials: Flickr.com
Even experienced housewives can sometimes over-salt their favorite dish. You shouldn’t be upset, because everyone has the right to make a mistake. Moreover, this oversight is very easy to correct.
Correcting over-salted meat
There are many variations in cooking meat dishes. Housewives bake a whole piece of meat, fry it in pieces, and roll it into minced meat. How to correct over-salting depends on how you choose to prepare your dish.
- If you cooked meat as a whole piece, there is a simple option to correct the mistake - prepare any sauce and cut the meat into pieces. Sour cream sauce is ideal for this situation; you can also make tomato sauce, but you don’t need to add salt to it. You need to boil the pieces of meat in the sauce, and the liquid will absorb all the unnecessary salt.
- If you cooked meat in pieces immediately in the sauce and over-salted it? Everything is simple here. Prepare more of the same sauce, but do not use salt when cooking. Add it to the dish. Or put the meat in new unsalted sauce and simmer.
Minced meat over-salted
Over-salted minced meat can seem like a disaster for the housewife. But don't panic. Here, the strategy for correcting the situation depends on at what stage of cooking you noticed something was wrong.
- If over-salting is noticed at the very beginning stage When the minced meat is raw, you can add more ingredients to it that will take on the salt.
- If you wanted to fry cutlets and oversalted them, add more loaf or potatoes to the minced meat, which need to be grated on a fine grater. These ingredients absorb salt well. You can beat another egg into the minced meat or add life-saving sour cream.
As an option, add vegetables to the cutlets - cabbage, zucchini, mushrooms, carrots or any others you like.
- If you notice over-salting in ready-made cutlets, pour boiling water over them and steam for 5-7 minutes. If you don’t want to steam it in water, you can do it in a sauce prepared without salt.
- If cooking cutlets is not important, make meatballs from this minced meat. Add rice, having previously boiled it until half cooked and, of course, not salted. Moreover, meatballs require sauce, which can be salted just a little or not at all.
What to do with over-salted pilaf and stew
- If you oversalt the stew with meat, the situation is simple to correct - add more vegetables to the dish, which will divide the amount of salt with other ingredients.
- If you over-salted the pilaf, boil some unsalted rice and add it to the dish, heating the pilaf for a few minutes.
What to do with over-salted chicken
- If you over-salted boiled chicken, you can cool it and use it to make salads, but it’s better to add a little salt to the salad. Or cut the chicken into pieces and simmer in the sauce. Ideal, as always, sour cream.
- If you cooked the chicken in pieces, rinse the pieces in cold water and prepare an unsalted sauce for the fried pieces.
- If you stewed chicken in sauce, prepare a new sauce for her with less or no salt.
Meat is prepared not only as a whole piece or by standard stewing of pieces. What to do in other situations with over-salted meat?
- If you over-salted the kebab, serve it with more raw and, of course, unsalted vegetables and herbs. Place a bottle of sparkling wine or champagne on the table. The bubbles eliminate the taste of salt.
- If you were preparing meat for smoking, prepare the same marinade, only without salt and leave the meat in it for several hours.
- If you don’t have time to correct over-salted meat, serve it with a bland side dish that will even out the taste of salt.
What to do if you oversalt your fish
There is nothing complicated in cooking fish, but these dishes can also be over-salted. Fixing over-salted fish is as easy as fixing meat. You need to know a few secrets.
- If fried fish is over-salted, sprinkle it with lemon juice. You can also add a little sugar.
Another secret recipe for over-salted fried fish- This is a pillow made of vegetables. You need to fry a large amount of carrots and onions in a frying pan. There is no need to salt the vegetables; sprinkle them with lemon juice and add sugar. If the salting is small, you can lightly add salt and pepper. Then place the fish on a layer of vegetables and cover it with a second layer of vegetables and heat for 4-6 minutes. Vegetables will absorb unnecessary salt, the fish will become tastier.
- For over-salted fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel or halibut, it is better to cut the lemon into slices and place it on the fish, sprinkle a little sugar on top.
- If you over-salted fish stewed in sauce, prepare the same sauce, but not salty, and marinate the fish pieces in it.
- If the already salted herring is too salty, you need to fill it with milk. Dairy products are excellent at removing unnecessary salt from foods.
- Over-salted small fish You can fill it with water and change it periodically. After 2-3 hours, the salt will come out. If after testing you feel too salty, the procedure should be repeated.
If you think that you can fix over-salted soup by simply adding more unsalted water to it, then this method is best left as a last resort. Such seemingly simple manipulations can completely ruin the soup. There are several more cunning, but also simple ways to revive a dish.
- If your freezer size allows, it's great to have frozen unsalted broth for these occasions. It can be used to dilute an over-salted dish.
- Another way is to put a bag of rice into the boiling broth. Rice absorbs salt well.
- You can use refined sugar. Place a piece in a tablespoon; when the sugar melts, replace it with a new one. Try the broth.
- Potatoes and pasta work the same way as rice. If your soup recipe doesn't include potatoes, add a few whole peeled potatoes to the broth. When the potatoes are cooked, remove them from the soup; the vegetable will absorb unnecessary salt.
To avoid over-salting situations, it is better to add salt to the dish before it is ready or before you intend to under-salt it. After all, adding salt to a finished dish is much easier than correcting over-salting. No wonder they say: “Under-salting is on the table, over-salting is on the back.”
It is not uncommon for a housewife to add a lot of salt to a dish due to inexperience or “out of care.” Every woman has encountered this at least once in her life, involuntarily asking the question: “How to correct the situation?” There is a way out, so you should not immediately throw the prepared dish into the trash container.
Over-salted soup
- The easiest way to correct over-salted soup is to add rice to it. To do this, wrap the grains in gauze and place them in the first dish; the grains will absorb excess salt.
- In a similar way, you can correct the mistake by putting several peeled raw potato tubers into the pan with the contents. Then boil the soup for about 7 minutes, remove the potatoes.
- If you don’t have the above components on hand, arm yourself with flour. Wrap the bulk mixture well in several layers of gauze and place in a saucepan with soup. The liquid will become cloudy, then you can add minced meatballs to the soup or strain the broth.
- In cases where clear soup should be served at the table, but you have over-salted it, place a handful of small noodles inside. It will absorb all the salt and the dish will taste acceptable.
- There is another method by which you can correct your mistake. Add a cube of refined sugar to the prepared salty soup. Assess the taste and add another piece if necessary.
- If you have time, you can remove all the ingredients from the soup and then make a new broth using meat or poultry. Alternatively, dilute existing over-salted soup with water.
Over-salted potatoes
- If you prepared mashed potatoes and overdid it with salt, a portion of unleavened porridge and potatoes will help correct the situation. Stir the dish thoroughly, problem solved.
- If you have fried a root vegetable and you need to restore the original taste, you can mix the potatoes with sour cream sauce and herbs. Or prepare an extra portion of the vegetable without salt.
- Boiled potatoes can be removed from excess salt by rinsing the root vegetable with cold water. After this, add a small amount of liquid to the pan and wait until it boils. The potatoes will be steamed and some of the salt will be washed away.
Poultry dish
- If you have prepared a poultry dish and overdid it with salt, do not despair ahead of time. To correct the situation, you need to remove the meat from the bone.
- Next, prepare any sauce to your taste. No need to add salt. Simmer the bird in the prepared mixture for 10 minutes.
- If you have cooked chicken, it is enough to stew it with assorted vegetables. Excess salt will be absorbed into food without any problems. When marinating meat, water or milk will help restore the original taste. Leave the bird in the mixture for 20 minutes.
Over-salted cereals
- To correct the situation with over-salted cereals, you need to discard the prepared raw materials in a colander. Rinse the product with running water. Wait until the liquid has completely drained. After this, transfer the cereal to a saucepan and pour in a little water.
- Mix a little butter into the ingredients. Simmer over low heat until the liquid has completely evaporated. As for over-salted pilaf, the situation is also fixable.
- To do this, you need to boil a small amount of unleavened rice. Stir the cereal with salted pilaf. You can add aromatic spices. Pilaf will also help rid soaked raisins of saltiness.
- There are often cases when it is urgently necessary to remove excess salt from a piece of meat or a future kebab. There is an exit! In this case, it is necessary to marinate the meat in a small amount of butter/vegetable oil or flour sauce.
- The sauce is added before stewing or frying on the grill or in the oven. Let the meat sit in the marinade for about half an hour, then rinse each piece.
- You can only slightly improve the situation. Prepare any side dish for an over-salted meat dish that does not require salt at all. This can be unleavened pasta, rice, buckwheat and other options to choose from.
- If you do not have the task of frying, stewing, or baking meat in this form, grind it through a meat grinder. Add soaked bread crumb, onion, and a little boiled rice to the resulting minced meat. Make meatballs or cutlets.
- You can try to revive meat, poultry, or rabbit by soaking a piece in fresh filtered water. Periodically it is necessary to drain the fluid and replace it with a new one.
Other over-salted dishes
Pasta
If you have prepared a naval dish, solve the problem of excess salt in several ways. Mix pasta with tomato sauce.
You can also deal with excess salt as follows. To do this you will need an additional fresh portion of pasta. Stir the ingredients, problem solved.
The last method is not for everyone. You can add beaten chicken eggs to navy pasta with extra salt. Send the dish to fry in a frying pan. The eggs will absorb excess salt.
Vegetable salad
In the case of over-salted vegetable salad, the problem can be eliminated by simply washing the food with running water. You can also simply add a small amount of fresh ingredients to the dish.
Vegetable stew or goulash
If you oversalted one of the above dishes, solve it with tomatoes. Chop the tomato into slices and add the contents into a heat-resistant container. Simmer the dish for a few minutes. Leave to infuse for a quarter of an hour. Give it a try.
Fish
To restore the original taste of a fish dish, you can add unleavened flour-based sauce or sour cream. If you marinated fish in brine, you should replace it with a fresh mixture. Next, place the products in a new marinade. Boil the fish and cool. After manipulation, it is recommended to simmer such a product in fresh water for several minutes.
If you are faced with the problem of an over-salted dish, do not despair. Just follow some simple tips and you can easily fix the situation. Try not to let this happen. Some dishes irrevocably lose their original taste.
Video: what to do if you oversalt a dish
Irina: Urgently! I over-salted it. What can you add to chicken kebab so that it absorbs salt.
Answers
Daniel:
Rinse the kebabs under cold boiled water
Ilya:
You can add chicken, you can rinse a few pieces with water.
Galina:
Rinse with water of course))
Faith:
Chicken and add.
Basil:
Soak in milk
Emma:
Add more pepper. It will be completely unclear whether he salted it or not.
Victoria:
In general, it’s good to salt shish kebab when frying, when the meat gets a little crusty, then it doesn’t lose juice as much. Have you tried marinating in dark beer and then in mayonnaise?
Lyudmila:
Pour in citric acid, then kefir.
Gella:
Rice absorbs salt
Konstantin:
The first thing is to rinse it, the second thing is to rinse the rice thoroughly, put it in a damp cloth (preferably gauze) and put it in the kebab. But rice only absorbs salt when it's wet!!! and it has moisture to swell. Otherwise it won't help. Therefore, after washing, do not strain the water, and do not dry the meat!!!, but so that the rice absorbs this salty water. There is no need to skimp on rice, just like cold boiled water. Filling with kefir is also a good idea. The only thing you need is to have fresh kefir at home at 10 pm...
Timur:
Just as you soaked it in the marinade, soak it in water. You can add more meat, the salt will be distributed evenly. If you urgently need to cook, add minced meat to the marinade, then fry it, there is no minced meat, add rice, raw potatoes. Over-salting is eliminated in various, but always not particularly effective ways: in meat dishes and in soups - by adding sour cream, rice, potatoes and other salt-absorbing starches products (flour, cereals), in porridges and purees - by adding fresh, similar, but completely unsalted food material, in fish - sour cream and adding water, in mushrooms - sour cream and flour sauce. In some cases, oversalting can be irreversible. 10. [link will appear after checking by moderator]
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