Posted October 13, 2007 by Nick Lindauer in Reviews

Review: Granddaddy’s Ultimate Marinade – Smoke & Fire Spicy Chipotle

I first came across Grandaddy’s Ultimate Marinades at the Fiery Foods Show in 2006 – and ever since then I look forward to seeing their booths at any of the shows on the circuit. At Zest Fest this year, I grabbed the Ex and lead her over to the booth to have her try the marinades they were sampling and after that, throughout the weekend,we kept returning for more. Before leaving on Sunday, I made sure to stop by and grab a few jars to take with me. You know you have a winning product on your hands when it’s the first item opened after a long weekend of tasting. And that’s just what happened with Grandaddy’s – the Ex & I returned home Sunday night and both wanted some more of their delicious marinade.

Ingredients: Italian Dressing (Soybean oil, water, red wine vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, white wine vinegar, Romano and Parmesan cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, powdered cellulose to prevent caking), salt, red bell pepper, spices, xanthan gum, onion, garlic, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (as preservatives)), water, chicken base (chicken meat, salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, malodextrin, chicken fat, onion powder, food starch-modified, turmeric, oleoresin turmeric, flavoring, oleoresin paprika), Worcestershire sauce (water, distilled vinegar, salt, sugar, caramel color, malic acid, molasses, citric acid, onion, garlic, food gums (Arabic, xanthan, guar, cellulose), dextrose, liquid smoke, salt, molasses, apple cider vinegar, chipotle pepper, salt, spices, garlic, brown sugar, onion powder, apple juice concentrate, chili pepper, sugar, malodextrin, monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast exract, natural flavor, modified food starch, corn syrup solids, tricalcium phosphate, citric acid and FD&C Red #40. Contains Milk.
(did you get as tired reading that list as I did typing it?)

I’m not big on ingredient lists on products as long as it tastes good – but damn, that’s a long ingredient list.

Sunday night after Zest Fest and a 3.5 hour drive home – we weren’t very motivated to fire up the grill and make something that required more then 20 minutes of work, so we decided to go with what we had seen at the show. At the show Granddaddy’s had been sampling their marinades with meatballs and that’s about it. So out of the freezer came the meatballs and into the pot they went with the Smoke & Fire Marinade. Add some rice and you’ve got dinner – that’s it!

Straight to the Tongue: The marinade contains just enough chipotle to make the tip of your tongue notice. Flavor wise – well, it’s fantastic – the ingredients mingle together to create an array of flavors that compliment the meat, not overwhelm it. The marinade makes your mouth water and instantly visions of marinated steaks danced in my head.

Overall: Well, honestly – I should have known that was too simple of a recipe to be true. Dinner turned out to be a salty disaster. But it’s not the fault of the product – it was the end user, me. At the show – in small quantities, meatballs and the marinade were delicious. And at home, the same was true – the first 2-3 bites were amazing and the rest was a salty creation that wasn’t fit for even the biggest salt lover (like myself). Next to the Meatless MeatLoaf this will go down as one of the better cooking disasters in our household – a recipe never to be repeated.

But make no mistake, I’ll be opening up my other jars of Granddaddy’s very soon – and using them to the specifications on the jars. “Directions: Prior to cooking, marinate any type of meat or vegetable for 30 minutes to 4 hours.” And don’t let my dinner disaster influence your purchasing of this product – when used properly, Granddaddy’s Ultimate Marinade will rock you tastebud world. In fact, I think I’ll be trying their Garlic & Herb version out on some chicken or pork next weekend.