Using a vacuum sealer to marinate?

This works by increasing the porousness of the meat inside the bag. When a vacuum is created, there is a natural tendency for matter to occupy that space. It does this by increasing the amount of space between particles, otherwise known as density. This increases the size of the microscopic holes in the meat, and thus effectively increases the surface area in which the marinade can contact the meat. More surface area means by marinade sticks to your food.

If you'd like to see the effects of vacuum pressure on foods greatly exagerrated, put a marshmallow in a vacuum seal bag and see what happens. :-)

I tried to read a lot about the vacuum marination and was a bit surprised that there are so many different theories out there. One thing that really surprised me is that people talk about marinating in vacuum BAGS. If you use bags the main effect is to get the air out. After sealing the bag there is no pressure difference inside and outside the bag, the content of the bag has absolutely no idea if it is in a zip lock bag or vacuum sealed one. So unless the effect is dependent on a process during pumping down, this cannot work. Given that you normally struggle to "really" pump down marinaded goods in bags I am almost certain that this wont work.

So to get a vacuum, we need a box which stops the surrounding air to press on the goods. So will that work. This article suggests that is it not working even in boxes

http://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/pressuremarinade.html

I will start playing with it, but sadly so far this is the most compelling set arguments I found: The meat does not grow as a marshmallow and also does not start leaking out juices during pump down or when you squeeze it. So why would it suck marinade in during pump down or pump up...

It works. It's just physics. Vacuuming out air creates lower pressure inside the container. Lower pressure acts like suction, and the liquid 'rushes' into the meat much faster than during normal osmosis (marinating).

It's the difference between letting guests linger on your porch and come in as they please, or grabbing each one by the arm and yanking them inside as they arrive.

I don't think there is any physical principle that forces marinade into a meat under a vacuum by itself. Putting it under pressure, not vacuum, could have this effect. The vacuum removes air and some liquid from the meat. THEN, when you release the vacuum, the marinade liquid can flow by surface tension into the meat. Repeat the cycle several times and you have a well marinated item. It is the cycle of vacuum/pressure that infuses the food.

I have a small bucket of beef jerky in a Best Value Vac's system sitting at 25.5 Hg on the dial for several minutes. I allow air slowly back into the chamber and watch the marinade level slowly lower 1/4 to 3/8 inches as the chamber gets back to normal air pressure. I can surmise from this observation that the meat expands under the vacuum and contracts back when air pressure is returned. I have read that this is when the marinade infuses the meat. I also did this proceedure about three times after stiring up the meat and reapplying a strong vacuum. I didn't have time to dehydrate the jerky as it was about 11pm so I placed the 10#s of jerky inside of two one gallon zip lock bags overnight (air removed and zipped) in the frige. I expect my jerky to be awesome after dehydrating it for about 4 hours in my Excaliber digital dehydrator. Basically a combination of vacuum and timing in the frig over night. POINT IS: I saw expansion and contraction. I am also going to measure the liquid left when I take the strips and put them on the dehydrator trays. I started with about 2 cups of marinade but expect about maybe 1/4th remains after about 10# of meat is coated and absorbs the marinade.

Vacuum is quite commonly used in the industry to expel air. When you apply vacuum what you are actually doing is reducing the atmospheric pressure on liquid and soft porous material. A liquid will actually boil; meat will expand. It is like sending them in outer space. This expansion will create empty spaces down to molecular level. When vacuum is slowly released those empty spaces will suck mostly the liquid marinate because air is practically no longer present.

I have seen a website of somebody who tried to infuse various fruits in high vacuum, as well as some meat.

I could not find the link, but I remember the conclusion was that this method works well for food which originally had air in it and hardly works at all for food which did not have any air inside. So it was great with apples, where it also changed the texture, and not very good with bananas. They also tried it with meat and not surprisingly, there was no difference between standard marination and vacuum-marination.

But since I am just a random person on the internet, do not trust me and perform an experiment instead if you decide to buy the device. Take two identical pieces of meat and marinate them both ways. Then cook them both at the same time while keeping them in identical condition and ask someone who does not know which piece of meat was marinated which way to try both pieces. Can they taste the difference? If so, which is better? Ask them to give you a sample of each without you knowing which is which and do the same. Then either keep or sell the device, depending on the results ;-)

I'd love a factual scientific explanation on this.

I know from experience that vacuum marinating does work and works faster than without vacuum. You can marinate meat like steak in minutes as apposed to hours and hours otherwise.

But why does this work? I haven't read an convincing explanation. I know it does work....from experience...but why?

I'm thinking as such:

1) you are lowering the pressure outside of the meat. Of course 2) So...the internal pressure in any cavity inside any pores or spaces inside the meat will be greater that the outside...at least for a time until equalized. 4) So what ??? How does that help marinate the meat any faster?

Maybe since the marinade starts out below the meat at the bottom of the container...it is drawn up into the meat thru any pores or cavities via pressure differential.

This would require a pressure differential between the bottom of the container, where the fluid marinade is, and the atmosphere above the meat. So in effect you are drawing the liquid marinade from the bottom of the vacuum container through the meat to equalized the pressure differential. I can believe that...but is that what's actually happening?? I don't know for sure.

Opening or widening of any cavities is possible too. Put a marsh mellow in a food saver container and draw a vacuum and you can watch it expand. But this would only work with closed cell cavities. Pressure inside the cavities remains at one atmosphere but the outside becomes less that one atmosphere.

So why would that help draw a liquid into a piece of meat? I don't think it would. I also don't see a piece of steak expanding when I put it in a food saver container and draw a vacuum.

I think my first explanation makes the most sense. When you draw a vacuum in the container it first develops above the meat. Below is a pool of liquid marinade...an incompressible fluid. The meat acts like a gasket or seal between the area below it, filled with fluid marinade, and the low pressure area above.

This imbalance isn't natural...and lower pressure region seaks to balance with the higher pressure region below....so the marinate fluid is drawn up and thru any pores or cavities in the meat, trying to fill the vacuum above...because nature abhors a vacuum.

Meat may or may not have pores. I don't thing it does....but it certainly does have gaps and spaces in it's mass.

So to be succinct and scientific...I suspect...you are just sucking the marinade thru the meat with a vacuum marinade system like a food saver container.

I will totally consider other theories.

My theory is as follows

3 areas of air

area 1 outside the bag area 2 inside the bag arera 3 inside the pores of the meat

When the air is sucked out of area 2, it only has access to area 3 air, which isn't enough to fill area 2. Still area 2 isn't as tight as initially vaccumed.

Area 3 now compensates for the lack of air by filling with whatever is available. 2nd best option is the liquid.

In my opinion, vacuum marination only works on compressible items such as cucumbers. Meat such as beef steak and chicken breast are vitually incompressible and vacuum marination has absolutely no effect and is a complete waste of time. There is an excellent scientific justification for this view here.

https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/pressuremarinade.html

Think the 'sucking' theory is plausible. I imagine any gaps in the meat will act like straws drawing in any moisture around them to replace the air being sucked out. Any air spaces in the meat that are open to the surrounding vacuum will also become part of the vacuum as the air is removed. Only completely closed off air pockets would retain atmospheric pressure. Perhaps osmosis is sped up as the liquid isn't competing with any air for contacting surface area. But I wouldn't have thought that would have sped the process up that much. Perhaps as a vacuum is created, moisture inside the meat is drawn to the surface, contacting the marinate outside and creating a free flow of liquid, again speeding up the transfer of flavours as the solutions combine.

Or it could just be magic. The thing is I guess, stuff sometimes JUST WORKS. Sometimes even science doesn't have all the answers.

When you apply a vacuum to the container the effect is present throughout the container. The meat in the container slowly equalizes its internal pressure to that of the container which draws out any air and juices from the meat, allowing the marinade to seep in better. I would expect that releasing the vacuum slowly in stages would increase the effect as the meat will be slower to respond which will allow the marinade to be absorbed. Performing the cycle a few times over a few hours will also increase the effect. Another way would be to inject the meat with marinade first and then apply the vacuum to try to draw the marinade through the meat. Either way it is the difference in pressure between the container and the meat which drives the marinade.