How Bourbon Can Improve Your Meat, Beyond Flavor

It's common to marinate meat with alcohol, especially ones full of great-tasting notes, like bourbon. Some of bourbon's common tasting notes include smoke, nuts, wood, and spice, which all add great, nuanced flavor to meat. However, you can use bourbon to improve the meat you're cooking, beyond flavor. "Outside of adding great flavor to meats, another benefit of marinating meats in bourbon is that it breaks down enzymes within the meat. Meaning, it's a natural tenderizer," Michelle Wallace, chef, pitmaster, and owner and founder of B'tween Sandwich Co. told us. With all her credentials, including being a "Top Chef" and "BBQ Brawl" contestant and the James Beard Taste America Chef of 2022, we can trust Wallace knows her stuff.

Tenderizing meat helps it retain juice and softness. This is especially beneficial when you're preparing tougher, less expensive cuts like flank, chuck, skirt steak, or brisket, and want the meat to be tender with each bite. As the bourbon tenderizes the meat and breaks down some of the proteins, enzymes, and toughness, it also soaks in better, infusing the cut with all its beautiful notes. 

Ready to use bourbon to marinate your meat? We've consulted chefs to put together a list of the six best bourbons to use when cooking, and at the top of the list is Bull Run Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

Aside from adding flavor and tenderizing your meat, a good bourbon marinade can give your steak a nice char. Whether you cook that steak on the grill or in a skillet, it'll char up beautifully, thanks to the corn and grain sugars in the bourbon. 

When you make the marinade, note that bourbon's flavors can overpower other flavors. Don't be too heavy-handed when adding bourbon. Some of the alcohol will cook out of the spirit, but most of the flavor will remain.

For a well-balanced bourbon marinade, don't forget to add acidity. If the tasting notes in your bourbon leads more fruity and floral, choose an acid that comes from fruit, such as a squeeze of lime or lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar, which is made with fermented apples. Balsamic vinegars work too, as it's made from fermented grapes. It's also fine to use more acidic juices that are also sweet, like orange or pineapple to balance your bourbon marinade. The added acidity will help further tenderize your meat, making it the juiciest, softest cut ever upon cooking.