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Nonnymus

wrote:

>
> Nonny, you have already discovered the magic in vacuum
> marinading. The period of time that works for you, is the proper
> time to use. I haven't yet obtained a vacuum container, but will
> soon. I think there's a three piece set that I had my eye on. It'll
> be good for my old foodsaver to do some work again. It only gets
> used to vacuum breadcrumbs and spices in mason jars these
> days. I then keep the jars in the freezer, (23 cu/ft)
>
> I haven't vacuum marinated any birds yet. I usually brine mine
> for a day or even two. Hound's brine definitely changes the texture,
> but I like the results I get. From your description, I suspect that
> you would not appreciate my brined birds.
>
> Brick (Youth is wasted on young people)

I have a couple of the 3-piece cannister sets, and the big one holds 2
dozen wings. When packed with wings, it really doesn't take that much
apple juice to fill it. What's cool is seeing the bubbles rise from the
wings when you pull the vacuum. I guess that it's air trapped under the
skin. This might sound nuts, but something else I've done is to
repeatedly pull and discharge the vacuum after pouring in the juice. In
my simple mind, it's the air pressure that "forces" the juice into the
meat. If both are at standard pressure, there's no difference and the
juice has to just diffuse into the meat. By pulling a vacuum, you
expand or (maybe) even rupture some of the cells in the meat. Then,
when you release the vacuum, the air pressure lets the juice take the
place of the evacuated air. Dunno if I'm nuts or not, but it's fun to
play with.

I also have the flat container they actually market for vacuum
marinading. It's good for small amounts of flat food, but frankly, I
get more mileage and save juice by using one of the vacuum containers
most of the time.

I have a good friend who typically marinates with oils, such as Italian
salad dressing. I'm not knocking his food at all, but for some reason I
prefer water based things like apple juice (never cider, as mentioned as
a caution in another post). When he does chicken wings, he also has an
orange juice baste he does up and is darned good on wings. What I've
been toying around with is the idea of using orange juice as a marinade,
but adding just a tad of baking soda to neutralize the acid OR cooking
some orange zest in oil and then using it as the marinade. Dunno if
you've tried it, but something like that might be interesting, too,
When I do this noble experiment, my plan is to use test strips from my
pool to get the pH to in the 7's.

--
---Nonnymus---
In the periodic table, as in politics,
the unstable elements tend to hang out on
the far left, with some to the right as well.