We take a look at the delicious walk that beer and meat down, holding hands, while on Churrasco Street. It’s the number one beverage for churrascos and barbecue lovers all over the world. Beer is used in cooking in cultures world wide. Not enough is used to get eaters drunk but enough to give recipes a regional flavor.
While you technically can tenderize your meat with any kind of beer, light beers like Pilsens and Lagers usually don’t make a lot of difference in the taste of your meat. On the other hand, strong beers like Porters and Stouts make the meat bitter or even give your Picanha skewer of meat a burnt flavor. The best beers for using in barbecue are Extra Special / Strong Bitter (ESB). Note that these hints apply mainly to beef. Chicken and fish meat usually go along great with beers.
Although you can choose to only marinate your meat with beer only, it is a good idea to season the marinade with additional spices. Soy sauce and ginger can be used to make an Asian style marinade, while rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano can be used to an Italian marinade.
An hour in any marinade recipe should be enough, but I’d advise using a plastic bag with a zipper. In addition, you can squeeze the air out of the bag and fully cover all the meat.
That’s the basics to marinate your meat with beer. Now let’s talk about doing that with Picanha. While the Picanha usually is good and has a lot of flavor by itself, nothing stops you from trying a different recipe once in a while.
One of my favorites is the Picanha Skewer Marinated With Beer:
500g of picanha in cubes
200 ml of beer. Choose from the different types of beer that we tasted above.
2 spoonfuls of butter
2 spoonfuls of Worcester sauce
3 chopped garlic cloves
1 chopped onion
1 chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper