Lamb Marinade

Lamb marinade refers to the liquid in which lambs are soaked before cooking.  The word marinade, also refers to the process of marination, which involves soaking meats or other food items in an acidic liquid before cooking.  Most of the marinades used for cooking lambs are made up of highly acidic ingredients like vinegar, lime juice and wine; and they also contain various kinds of herbs, oil, spices, etc.

The marinade used for lamb can be applied to other meats too. Different types of marinades are prepared throughout the world to cook the lamb. Lamb is an integral feature of Christmas and Easter dinners around the world.

The original taste and flavor of many lamb based dishes like Spiedie Sandwich totally depend on the marinade used for soaking the meat. Many culinary experts believe that making the right marinade is important for the dish to attain the exact flavor. The acidic marinade used for soaking lambs or any other meat, actually helps in breaking down its tissue and absorb the moisture. This gives a more juicer and tastier end product.

History of Lamb Marinade
The origin of the marinade used for soaking the lamb meat is very associated with the evolution of lamb as a food item. The lamb is used as a food item since 10,000 years, and experts believe the idea of marination might have caught fancies of cooks sometime in middle ages, when people started serving tasty lamb preparations for traditional Easter dinner.

Varieties of acidic, spicy, and salty ingredients can be used in the preparation of the marinade. On close observation, it could be judged that many sheep dishes were mentioned in most of the European culinary books of middle ages and they largely varied in terms of marinades used for the preparation. The marinade preparation largely depended on the availability of the ingredients and taste preferences of people living in a particular area.

Commonly Used Ingredients and Preparation Overview of Lamb Marinade
 There is no common recipe for making lamb marinade because choice of ingredients largely vary depending on the taste preferences of the eaters, but most of the cookbooks give out the following recipe for making the marinade for lamb.

The ingredients used in preparation of the marinade include red wine or water, vegetable oil, garlic, onion, lemon, sprigs of thyme, and salt –pepper. All the ingredients are combined in a bowl and the lamb meat is soaked in it for about 6-24 hours before grilling or roasting.

Lamb Marinade Recipe Variants

• Greek Styled Lamb Marinade: This Greek- style marinade serves good for any meat preparation, especially the ones involving lamb. Lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, oregano, thyme, bay leaf, and salt – pepper are specially required for making this marinade.

• Spiced Mint Marinade:  This is considered one of the classic recipes of lamb marinade. Fresh mint leaves are used to make the marinade.  Fresh mint leaves, orange juice, golden brown sugar, dry sherry, apple cider vinegar, garlic cloves, orange peel, ginger, Szechuan peppercorns, Asian sesame oil, soy sauce, pink peppercorns, are required to make the marinade. for the lamb leg. At times sansho or wild pepper is used for seasoning the marinade. The ingredients are combined for marinade and poured over the skewered lambs before grilling. The resultant lamb dish is usually teamed with bok choy and jasmine rice. This starter dish goes well with Cabernet Sauvignon Wines from California.