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There's s new shop in town and I was given a bottle of toasted sesame olive oil and apricot basalmic vinegar. They smell wonderful.

I'd like to marinate a pork tenderloin in these. Half & half for a couple of hours?

Any suggestions?

fitzie

I wonder if you might have to cut the sesame oil with a bit of olive or vegetable oil, as it tends to be pretty powerful stuff. I might be tempted to mix a small amount (like a tsp of each), taste it, and adjust as necessary.

Edit: you might also want to go with a more classic ratio for a vinaigrette, which is usually 2 or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, depending on how tart your balsamic is.

Fitzie,

Typically the ratio of a vinaigrette and marinade are opposite, i.e., a vinaigrette has a ratio of 4:1 or 3:1 oil to vinegar, and marinades have more acid than oil. The two you mention are both extremely potent in their own right, so I'm with Carey about not using straight sesame oil. I'd cut it with some other, e.g., olive oil. And, I'd add some aromatics to it, perhaps some cumin, cayenne and ginger (and S&P of course).

Amy

Amy and Carey, thanks for your advice. I'd forgotten that we were given two bottles of vinegar and the one I want to use is ginger Basalmic, not apricot. I was hoping for an Asian flavor and plan on stir frying some veg to go along with it. There's so much going on in the next few days, I may have to put the tenderloin in the freezer and make it sometime next week.

Suddenly I'm realizing why my "winging it" marinades need work. I never knew that!