Marinating With The Foodsaver

I have often seen people marinating meat in Foodsaver bags. When asked they almost always say that the marinade penetrates the meat better versus a zip-loc or other non-vacuumed container. This didn't make much sense to me because the vacuum causes the surrounding air pressure to make the meat fibers more dense, thus harder to penetrate. At least that's what I thought.

I do use the Foodsaver marinating canister often and can absolutely notice the difference. But the canister fixes the volume and when the vacuum is applied, the meat fibers loosen and allow greater penetration of the meat. So it operates on the exact opposite principle as the bag.

So today I conducted a little experiment to settle the matter once and for all. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge.

1) Peel three turnips. I selected the lowly turnip for this experiment because I think I saw a similar demonstration related to pressure cookers.



2) Mix some food coloring and water to create a dye. I used blue but would have used red if I had any.



3) Place 1 turnip in the Foodsaver marinting cannister and covered with the blue dye before vacuuming. This method should produce the most penetration.



4) Place 1 turnip in a Foodsaver bag and covered with blue dye before vacuuming. This method should produce the least penetration (at least that's what I used to think).



5) Place 1 turnip in a Zip-Loc sandwich bag or other container and cover with blue dye.



6) Let the turnips marinade for an hour. Then remove each turnip and cut in half to check penetration level of blue dye. It's difficult to get a clear understanding from the pictures but there were definite differences among the three.



7) The turnip from the vacuum canister showed the greatest penetration of blue dye. It penetrated the turnip to a depth of 7mm.



8. The turnip from the vacuum bag had blue dye to a depth of 1mm.



9) The turnip from the Zip-Loc barely penetrated the turnip at all. I measured a depth of about 1/2mm.



Conclusions
Using the vacuum canister is by far the most efficient method of penetration (7mm). The vacuum bag (1mm) was actually slightly better than the Zip-Loc (1/2mm). I can't explain why, but maybe the air pressure around the vacuum bag pushes the dye into the turnip a little more than it increases the density of it. Although I am surprised a little by the results, I still wonder if the benfit of the vacuum bag is exceeded by the cost and inconvenience of it. There is no doubt that the cannister is the way to go.

swamprb said:

I wish they made a larger size.

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Me too. However, I don't see why their larger normal cannisters wouldn't work. I've not tried it yet but I think they would do the same thing.

KC_Bobby said:

Mr. Science at it's finest.

So if two girls leave the Flats about 2:30 am, what time do they arrive in De Soto?

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Amazingly, they arrive just as I'm getting wood...for the cooker.

Although the weather at that contest tested all facets of human endurance, it will forever put a smile on face when I think of it.

chinesebob said:

Is that the before marinade or after marinade picture?

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Definitely after the cooks were marinated.

chinesebob said:

Not that i'm doubting, did you use equal amounts of blue dye in each container after it was established from the marinating container?

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All of the blue dye used was mixed as one batch to avoid any concentration differences. I actually mixed the batch in a large stainless steel bowl. I put some of it in the Mason jar for picture purposes. I used enough blue dye marinade to cover the turnip in each container.