Brining, Marinades & the Vacuum

[Darrell]

I just got a tilia foodsaver, and I read in the manual about speed marinading meats with the vacuum attachment. (Use canisters to hold marinade, put meats in, vacuum seal "and in only 20 minutes" blah blah blah).

Is this just marketing b.s. or is there some truth / science to applying the vacuumit. More or less does it work? Has anyone tried it and had good results / bad results?

I have all the stuff I need to do it (but haven't tried it yet). Also, I don't have any brining experience to compare with.

 

[Doug D]

I have the marinating dish, and have used it in the past with steaks. Of course, I didn't do any blind comparisons of the various combinations of marinating/not marinating; vacuuming/not vacuuming, but...

I think the "science" is that vacuuming pulls air out of the material in the container, and that releasing the vacuum allows some "pull" of the marinade back into the spaces where the air was removed. True or not, who knows? Maybe I could have accomplished the same thing by pouring on some marinade and piercing the meat with a fork or Jaccard.

 

[Phil S]

Think pressure treated lumber. It's put in a big vacuum chamber with the "juice". When the vacuum is applied, the cells in the wood rupture and release the sap and water. When the vacuum is removed, the preservative is sucked in.