I always do *very* improvised marinades. Usually I just put whatever meat in a plastic bag and try to create some basic balance between salt, sweet, acid, heat and turpentine - like olive oil, japanese soy, lime/lemon (I never use vinegar, too tart), wine, thyme/rosemary/pine/juniper (that's the turpentine; if you are hardcore, use diesel... ;), honey, and my weekly favourite peppers (right now that'd be Tepin powder from JimC). If you have tough meat, add some kiwi fruit. It will tender everything in just 15 minutes. Proportions? It is all in the wrist... Just pour it all into the plastic bag, and leave it for a few hours, occasionally massaging it. If you barbeque it, finish it off with JimC's Original Finishing Sauce or Fiery Hot Habanero Sauce (both are sweet and glaces well). Guess I'm not that organized, (big surprize), Kris On 23 Oct 01, Love2Troll wrote: > I ordered some pepper powders & flakes from Uncle Steve recently & > would like to incorporate them into a marinade. > Can olive oil be used as a base for a marinade? Vinegar? > A store clerk suggested Seven Seas Italian dressing. > Am just looking for something simple that doesn't need a lot of > ingredients. I can always tweak it if I like the basic taste. ____________________________________________________ Kristofer Blennow ° Stockholm, Sweden Non Sive Sive, Sed Et Et