Vacuum and marinades

[Guest]

In the discussion of vacuum packing I had read a few years ago that if you vacuum pack raw meat with a marinade or some liquid seasonings the vacuuming will have an affect of drawing the liquid into the meat quicker and better than just soaking. Have any of you used this method?

 

[Kevin K]

Depending on the amount of marinade, there are a few options:

1) If there is a little bit of extra marinade (or if you are just sealing some juicy stuff), you can put a bit of paper towel and the end of the bag. When the liquid starts getting sucked out, the towel will absorb it and allow the bag to seal. This is a good idea anytime you seal anything with a lot of moisture.

2) Most of the sealers have a quick seal feature, where you can cause the bag to seal before all the air is removed. This is good when you seal pure liquid (like storing sauces etc).

3) Finally, the double bag approach. Put your items and liquid in a ziplock bag - the freezer bags work best since they have a very firm seal. Take out as mush ir as you want manually, then drop that bag in the vacuum sealer bag. This one works well with pickled type items, where you want to seal an item in a lot of liquid, and be able to open it without spilling stuff all over the place. Also, it won't overmarinate an item. If you were to vacuum seal somethign porous without the ziplock, a lot more marinade would be drawn into the item.

k

 

[Chris Allingham]

Alan,

I have not used my Foodsaver to quick-marinate meats. However, I believe it works because there are commercial-grade units used by butcher shops that perform the same function, so applying a vacuum to meat with a marinade must do something.

As far as doing it in a Foodsaver bag, if you watch the infomercial closely you'll notice that they place steaks and marinade into a Pyrex baking dish which is placed inside a very long Foodsaver bag. Most of the marinade stays in the dish as the vacuum presses the surface of the bag into the meat, and what little marinade flows over the side of the dish doesn't make it to the end of the bag before the sealing process is complete.

For smaller pieces of meat, you could use the vacuum canisters sold by Tilia. I have also heard of people using Rubbermaid storage containers with holes poked in the lid which are placed inside Foodsaver bags and sealed that way.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Don Hilliard]

I received my fall catalog from Cabela's and they sell several sizes of marinating canisters(2 1/2, 6 and 8 qt) for the Foodsaver vacuum unit. The prices range from 24.99 to 39.99 and they are also available at Cabelas.com. I would think that with the 8 qt unit you could do some fairly large chunks of meat.
Don

[This message has been edited by Don Hilliard (edited 07-08-2001).]