Cooking a delicious steak is no easy task. You have to find the best cut, choose a recipe that fits your needs, and worry about cooking the steak for the right amount of time. On top of all of that, you also need to consider whether or not you want to marinate your steak, and if you do, for how long.
To learn more about marinating steak, we talked with a handful of professional chefs and butchers about their recommended marinating times, as well as which cuts of steak work best with marinades and which cuts may not need it at all. Read on, and for more, don’t miss The Best and Worst Cuts of Meat To Buy, According to Butchers.
Marinating times for different cuts of steak
According to the chefs and butchers we spoke with, different cuts of steak require different marinating times. Not only that, but some cuts of steak don’t do well with a marinade of any kind.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e
Skirt or flank steak: 2-4 hours
One of the most popular cuts of steak to marinade is a skirt steak. “Marinades are great for cuts of beef that are tough, such as flank or skirt steak, as the salt and acid help break down the beef to make it more palatable,” says Chef Noah Poses from The Fulton NYC.
Chef Jordan Buendia, the executive chef of Rococo Steak in St. Petersburg, Florida, says skirt steak is his favorite type of beef to marinate because “it’s a versatile, flat cut with incredible flavor and tenderness that can withstand a good marinade.”
When it comes to the marinating time, “The thinner the steak, the less amount of time it needs to be marinated,” says Tony Sudak, the Butcher at Walden Local Meat Co. “Steaks such as skirt, flank petite, and blade should only be marinated for a few hours (2-4 as a rule of thumb).”
