Vacuum Sealing with Marinades & Rubs

thirdeye

I've read lots about the advantages of vacuum sealing to speed up the marinade process and today I'm trying this on a salmon fillet but with a dry rub. Earlier today, I seasoned it up with an Asian blend and some Raging River for some sweetness before vacuum sealing. I'm hoping that the moisture of the fish will turn the dry rub into a wet rub, or at best that the vacuum will drive the rub into the flesh a little. [p]Has anyone played around with this idea?[p]~thirdeye~

Sundown

thirdeye,
I've done some vacuum marinating. Shouldn't take too long with it. The meat flavor will be overpowered by the rub/marinade. For beef it can't go more than an hour from what I've read and experienced. Did a brisket once a while back and froze it. It seemed to draw out a lot more moisture than the regular process. Experiment on guy you just never know. Let us know what the result is.

Sandbagger

thirdeye, marinading via vacuum sealing confuses me. I get conflicting information on the process. Some say it works, while some say it does not add anything. Kind of like the steak searing debate. [p]I've come to the conclusion; it may help a little but probably not much. My hunch is household vacuum sealers do a great job removing air at equaling pressures, inside bag vs. outside bag, but can't generate enough negative pressure in the bag to make a dramatic difference. Everytime I think about pulling out the sealer to marinade something, I come to the conclusion it is more hassle than it is worth. So I just start earlier with the basic pan marinading. [p]Just an opinion. Tom

Clay Q

thirdeye,
I will marinate in a food saver bag if the meat is a big piece such as a shoulder, turkey breasts, whole chicken. The marinade is drawn tight all around the meat and so eliminates tossing and turning. I think it works fine, easy to rest in the frig, uses less marinade to coat, less clean up, more sanitary. I bet dry rubs on fish or other meat would work just as well in a vacuum bag.
Clay

thirdeye

Well the results were not as noticeable as I had hoped.[p]A few things that may have made a difference were:
1. The fillet was 1" thick and I did not remove the skin.
2. The rub did not liquify and turn into syrup like my dry cure for smoking does. Maybe I should have misted the surface.[p]Now I need to play more with liquid marinades & brines. Foodsaver makes a marinating tray that connects via the hose but I only have the Mason jar attachment, so I may play with it using some boneless breasts or skinless fish fillets or shrimp.[p]~thirdeye~

Charbon

<p />thirdeye, I have used the marinade tray made for Foodsaver and have had good results with it. Photo is of a chuck filet marinaded about one hour in Teriaki! Could fool a lot of folks with this cheap cut of meat.

thirdeye

Charbon,[p]I may check the tray out, any idea how expensive they are?
BTW, those are ice lookin' fries, it's darn near lunchtime in the West.[p]~thirdeye~

Charbon

thirdeye, Tray is around 20 bucks at Wall Mart. It really does speed up marinade process. Fries are Fast Food fries from Ore-Ida which another forum member mentioned and are also worth trying. A couple of these ideas and you are able to compete with fast food outlets!