There are a number of products available that claim to achieve faster and better penetration of marinade into proteins through the use of vacuums. Whether using a marination canister with an edge sealer, a sous vide bag in a chamber vac, or a specialized vacuum tumbler, the basic process appears to be the same: pull and release a vacuum several times on the protein/marinade over the course of 15 or 20 minutes (or else pull a vacuum once and let sit for several hours) and then enjoy your juicy, flavorful protein. I've got some questions about how this process is supposed to work.
The logic behind this technique is that the vacuuming "opens the pores of food allowing marinades to penetrate more quickly." But proteins aren't especially porous to begin with; there's just not very much air inside a piece of meat or fish (plants are another story). This makes me suspicious of the "opens the pores" theory of how vacuum marination is supposed to work. I'm also suspicious that even under vacuum treatments the marinades will penetrate very deeply into meat. Traditional marinades are mostly surface treatments anyway, not penetrating more than a couple tenths of an inch beneath the meat's surface. The salt in some marinades will penetrate the meat more deeply, but the marinade itself will mostly remain on the outside and surface. Does vacuum marination just draw more salt into the interior of the meat? Or does the marinade actually penetrate more deeply under vacuum than it does at standard atmospheric pressure?
Additionally, the process of subjecting a protein to a vacuum isn't without its costs. As
Dave Arnold has shown, when you pull a strong vacuum on a piece of protein it can damage its texture -- especially on more delicate items like fish and chicken. I would think that drawing a vacuum multiple times (as is done for vacuum marination) would be ruinous on seafood or poultry. Is this damage what allows the marinade to penetrate better? Is there an inherent compromise in vacuum marination between texture and depth of penetration?
Do you use vacuum marination? Are you happy with the results? What's your process?
