When It Comes to Marinating Your Meat, the Third Dip's the Charm
Several years ago I spent a Sunday in the sunny Chicago backyard of chef Paul Kahan. Most of the people in the yard that day were there to relax; I was there to work. I'd been assigned to cover the barbecue for Bon Appetit, and my job was to suss out every grilling tip chef Kahan had.
And as I stood by Kahan’s side at the grill, I found one. Kahan was grilling country-style ribs, and I watched as he pulled the ribs from a bowl of spicy, gingery, sweet marinade. He proceeded to grill the ribs for a few minutes, and then, when they were halfway done, dunked them in the bowl of marinade again.
“You succumb your ribs to the marinade twice?” I asked. (Note: I definitely did not use the word “succumb.”)
“No,” Kahan said. “I do it thrice.”
That was my introduction to Paul Kahan’s Triple-Dip Method, which, even these handful of years later, still feels like a new technique, even though it also seems obvious. The premise is that by exposing it to a triple-dip of marinade, the meat takes on triple the flavor. "It’s the best way for meat to soak up a ton of flavor, particularly cuts that are excessively fatty by nature," Kahan told me recently.
The Triple-Dip can apply to any recipe (though I wouldn't try it with fish). Here’s how it works:
Make the marinade as the recipe states. The marinade Kahan used that day had brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and chili paste; you can use any marinade you like, but make sure it has some sugar in it. The Triple-Dip "really works best with a marinade that has a good amount of sugar, so you can build up the caramelization," Kahan says.
Pour 1/3 of the marinade into a separate bowl and store it, covered, in the refrigerator. You won't use this bit of marinade until the very end of the grilling process.
Marinate your meat in the remaining 2/3 of the marinade. (The country ribs marinate for at least six hours, and up to overnight.)
When the time comes to grill your meat, transfer the meat from the marinade to a platter. (Some of the marinade can—and should—be clinging to the meat!) Pour the marinade into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer for 3 minutes. Set marinade aside.
Have the just-boiled marinade nearby when you start to grill. Grill your meat as instructed, but halfway through the grilling, use tongs to pick up each piece of meat and dip it into the bowl of the just-boiled marinade. That’s the second dip.
When the meat is just about finished, dip the meat into the marinade one final time, this time using the reserved (untainted) bowl of marinade. That's the third dip.
Slap your meat on the grill one last time. "Just 30 seconds or so per side is perfect for sealing in the flavor," Kahan says.
(Is that fussy? A little bit. But the reserving of some of the marinade, and the boiling of the rest of it, is for your safety—you don't want to dip your meat into bacteria-laden marinade!)
Close readers of the recipe may notice something that contradicts with the method I lay out above: in the recipe, there are only two dips, not three. That was an editorial choice, but I've long since forgotten why that choice was made. I can tell you this, though: it was not the right choice. A double-dip is nice, but the Triple Dip is revolutionary.
Country-Style Ribs with Quick-Pickled Watermelon
Originally Appeared on Epicurious
