Should You Skip A Marinade? It Depends On Your Steak Cut

So you want to cook your steak quickly without wasting time on a marinade. This should be fine with cuts like ribeye, New York strip, or porterhouse. But if you're working with tougher cuts, you'll want to throw a marinade together.

Speaking to Chowhound about her steak marinade tips, chef Kai Chase had a few pointers. "Flank, skirt, hangar, and chuck take approximately two to eight hours to marinate to tenderize the meat and create more robust flavor." Shoulder and eye of round are also cuts that can benefit from it. Thinner cuts can usually be marinated for less time (2 to 4 hours). Marinades obviously add flavor. They also break down collagen, the connective tissue that makes meat tough. It's the acid in a marinade (which can come from wine, vinegar, yogurt, or citrus) that does this, or sometimes enzymes that come from pineapple or ginger.

How much marbling (fat streaks) there are in a steak is also an important factor in whether you need a marinade. Enough fat adds flavor while keeping a steak juicy as it cooks. This means some lean cuts, such as top sirloin, top round, and bottom round, can benefit from a marinade. While they may not need tenderization, a marinade can add moisture, which is important as leaner steaks are more prone to drying out when cooking. That said, a marinade is not the only solution here: Brining the steak or simply cooking it in a fat, like butter, can also do the trick.

Some cooks and chefs argue that not only can you skip a marinade with fattier cuts like New York strip, porterhouse, or ribeye, but that it's better if you skip it. The argument is that these cuts are more flavorful on their own, so marinating them might detract from the juicy, beefy taste. This is also the case with high-quality lean cuts like filet mignon (pictured above), which many people avoid marinating.

If you do marinade these cuts, it pays to keep things simple, said Eric Gruber, executive chef of elevated steakhouse Horn & Cantle in Big Sky, Montana. Speaking to Chowhound about marinades, he said, "Fatty cuts like ribeye already have plenty going on, so a simple rub or light brush with herbs and oil is more than enough." The same could also apply to serving the steak with sauces. "A generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, maybe a little butter to finish, and you're golden,"

These cuts are also typically more expensive, so one might even argue that you're wasting money by overriding that flavor with a marinade. Of course, this is totally subjective. How you enjoy your steak is up to you — after all, some people enjoy well-done steaks, even though many chefs hate it. But if you don't have those particular preferences, it's worth thinking about what approach to cooking steak will yield the most flavor — and sometimes that means skipping the marinade entirely.