The Marinade Mistake That Could Spell Disaster For Your Whole Barbecue

One of the simplest ways to get meat that's guaranteed to be flavor-packed and irresistibly tender is with a good marinade. From tangy citrus to savory herbs and spices, once soaked into the meat fibers, a good marinade can turn even the most affordable cuts of steaks or some average chicken breasts into the star of a dinner table. However, here's where some well-intentioned cooks can make a critical mistake that could turn the party into a disaster. By basting the meat with the flavor-filled marinade that it was just soaked in, it should taste doubly good, right? No! You should never re-use raw marinade.

Think about it: raw meat is steeped in the marinade for several hours. That means all the raw juices and the bacteria they contain have leeched into the marinade and contaminated it. When you coat your freshly cooked meat with the marinade, you're more or less smearing raw meat juice on your food and run huge risks of getting food poisoning from it.

Right off the bat, there can be a couple of questions bugging you about this new piece of info. First, should the direct heat from a grill fully kill all the germs in the marinade? While grilling does kill some bacteria on the meat's surface, it's not foolproof. A few minutes on the grill isn't enough to completely sterilize the meat or the contaminated marinade. In fact, if you keep basting with the same marinade while cooking, you're just reintroducing bacteria with each brush stroke, so even cranking up the heat won't guarantee safety.

Next, if you're using an acidic marinade like the roasted red bell peppers and citrus juice marinade in this grilled citrus chicken, you may wonder if it'd help kill the bacteria. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, bacteria can grow even in an acidic marinade, so it's not as safe as you might think. The same applies to a marinade with alcohol in it. The USDA stated that while it'll help with the flavor and texture of the meat, it definitely won't make the marinade germ-free.

All in all, raw marinade is a big no-no to use. It's better to just prepare a proper basting liquid than reuse it ... but that doesn't mean it's entirely out of the question. With some work, you can actually make the marinade safe to use again.

While raw marinade should be discarded post-haste, if you really like the flavor or just don't want to see it going to waste, you can cook the marinade to make it safe to use again. Pour the liquid into a pot and heat it on high on the stovetop until it starts boiling. Let it bubble and steam for at least five minutes, and if you have a thermometer to hand, make sure the liquid is at 165 degrees Fahrenheit or even higher the whole time. The high heat will destroy any pathogen that would give your tummy a hard time.

And that's it! Take the pot of marinade off the stove and let it cool for a bit. The marinade could thicken a little on the stovetop. In that case, add water or broth to thin it out. Feel free to use it to baste your grilled meat now (just make sure not to use a brush that previously touched raw meat to do it, or you'll be back to square one). If you've made something like this Dinosaur Bar-B-Que's Korean marinade, it'd be an awesome dip for your meat, too!