Interesting Marinades To Use for Your Next Roast

Marinades are undoubtedly a great way to add flavor and tenderness to prime rib roast. Read on to learn about a few unique and delicious marinades.

While you generally don’t need to marinate high-quality cuts of meat, prime rib is a special case as you want as much flavor as possible to cut through the fatty collar of the cut. But if you’re tired of the same old garlic or barbeque sauce marinades, this article will highlight a few interesting marinades to use for your next roast.

Canned Chipotle Peppers

If you want to add some heat to your prime rib, canned chipotle peppers are the way to go. Now, you might ask why canned specifically. That’s because the canning process enhances the spices and the deep smokey flavor of the pepper itself. This is because the peppers sit in their capsaicin for a long time. However, fresh chipotle peppers will do just fine if you can’t take that heat. Blend the peppers with a few tablespoons of honey and lime juice for extra flavor depth.

Blackstrap Molasses 

You want to stick to backstrap molasses when using molasses as a marinade. Regular molasses has a red undertone and tastes pretty sweet. Blackstrap molasses is a dark, inky black that tastes salty and bitter while still having a little sweetness at the end. Mix some brown sugar to taste with the molasses and crust the roast with coarsely ground black pepper for a rich and complex flavor profile.

Dark Beers

Dark beers like porters and stouts make great bases for a deeply flavorful liquid marinade or broth, Guinness being the most popular to use. Dark beers will bring out the natural richness of high-quality meat and is an easy and cheap way to season smoked meat without searching high and low for specific seasonings. Add cracked pepper, thyme, and salt to taste. To finish off this marinade, pour in a can of beef broth. 

Remember, marinades differ from rubs, sauces, and brines because a marinade makes the meat softer while adding flavor. So, if you have a tender piece of prime rib, you may not want to soak it for too long. Additionally, if your prime rib is from the end of the rib section near the chuck, it will likely be less tender, meaning you’ll need to marinate a little longer.

Keeping these interesting marinades in mind for your next roast will ensure you impress anyone you cook for. Just keep in mind the fat distribution of your prime rib—the less evenly distributed fat, the more you’ll have to marinate for tenderness.