Braai marinades

I'm always amazed at how people go about preparing their marinades for the week end braai-meat without really giving any thought to what the hell they're doing. The most popular technique seems to be a bit like Ready Steady Cook - open the cupboard , see what you've been given and whack the whole lot into the blender and give it a whizz. It's bound to turn out all right or does it ? Unfortunately what you're going to end up with is a sweet, sickly sauce which will be only marginally less disgusting than what you can buy from your local supermarket. If you really want flavour and not sugar in your marinade then sit down and think about it for a moment.
Usually people use store cupboard staples like black peppercorns, chilli flakes and other whole spices probably thinking to themselves, well if I can see it in the marinade then it's obviously adding flavour - wrong ! Flavour must be released from herbs and spices and the basic thing to remember is that the flavour is contained in the essential oils. With fresh herbs and spices it's easy to get at the flavour, simply whack with a wooden rolling pin et voila ! With dry spices it's a little bit more complicated, oil is the operative word and because it is insoluble in water or other liquids so it stands to reason that the way to get the flavour out is in an oil solution.Simply heat your spices in a little olive oil to about 92 C, hot enough to release those essential oils but not hot enought to fry or burn the spices. Add your spices to cold or room temperature oil and you'll be waiting till the cows come home to extract any flavour. Allow the heated oil and spices to cool before adding to your marinade and you'll be amazed at the flavourful results