You are right about the sometimes grainy appearance and texture of "Thick Curd" marination. It does get a bit caked on and transfer a lot of spice to the final curry dish. Some Tandoori / Tikka recipes actually stipulate to transfer excess marinade from the bowl to the meat before, and again during, the cooking process.
I recall reading somewhere a few years ago a discussion about the use of Yogurt / Curd in the marination of meats and especially chicken. It maybe on this site, I can't remember where I read it. Specifically, it related to the actual conditioning affect that a yogurt marinade has on the fibres of the meat and the time that should be allowed in such marination. There was some pretty contradictory arguments in that some recipe instructions call for minimum overnight, 24 or even up to 48 hours and obviously this is a fairly common practise. From memory, apparently food science actually recommends only 30 minutes to an hour in a yogurt based marinade otherwise it starts to have a detrimental affect on the tissue and can actually lead to break down, toughening and / or drying out.
I know that I have experienced purchased Takeaway Tikka that was clearly left in a yogurt based marinade for way too long and you can't miss the tell-tale, almost powdery texture of the resultant chicken. In my own cooking experience, I can't say I've had problems with a 24 hour marinade but I'm usually equally happy with one that is performed over a much shorter period.
Topic: chicken tikka from the Zaal in Fleet ( 27,888 )
