Vac Sealing Question

[Saber 4]

I was watching an episode of Love of the Hunt with Brad Lockwood who is sponsored by Bradley and does some short cooking/smoking sections in his show. In this episode he was marinating and smoking wild turkey breast, after he put the turkey and marinade in the vac bag he folded a paper towel in half and in half again and put it in the bag covering the top from left to right then he sealed it up. He said it would keep the marinade from getting vac'd out of the bag when sealing. It seems to me that it would absorb all the marinade once sealed. Has anyone seen this or done this?

[rveal23]

Interesting, I would suspect the same thing you just said. I would think after it is sealed it would absorb all the liquid if it is tipped towards the napkin.

What happend on the show after he did it?

[pz]

I've read about the technique, but I have never tried it myself.  I imagine that as long as the paper towel did not become saturated, it would effectively prevent the "creep" of the thin layer of liquid that often heads toward the FoodSaver as vacuum is applied.

[rveal23]

I'm going to try this tomorrow as an experiment and let you know the results

[Saber 4]

Interesting, I would suspect the same thing you just said. I would think after it is sealed it would absorb all the liquid if it is tipped towards the napkin.

What happend on the show after he did it?

His clip is so short that he didn't show the after in the bag, just had the marinated breasts on a plate to go in the Bradley

I'm going to try this tomorrow as an experiment and let you know the results

rveal23, you da man! I wait with baited breath for the results of your experiment. you're saving me from having to do the experiment since I don't have anything to marinade right at the moment. :)

[beefmann]

interesting, I wonder what his reasoning is for the paper towel

[Salmonsmoker]

The paper towel is to catch any moisture from getting to the seal bar area. Fluid can prevent a continuous seal. Unless you have a chamber sealer you won't be marinating in a vacuum. You'd just be removing all of the air. Also, you'd have to time the seal to just before the liquid got though the paper towel and into the sealing area. IMHO you'd accomplish the same thing by using a Ziploc bag and squeezing the air out. If you have a food saver type sealer, they have those polycarbonate vacuum containers for storing all sorts of things. They're made for that type of marinating. I use the paper towel technique when I vac pac fresh fish or other meats that have enough moisture to cause seal problems.

[cathouse willy]

The reference guide for my food saver suggests the paper towel method for wet or juicy foods under Important Tips but makes no mention of marinating liquids

[Saber 4]

Thanks for all the feedback

[rveal23]

Ok so I tried this last night when I marinated my chicken. I didn't have much liquid inside except for EVO and some Worcestershire Sauce  and of course all the herbs.  I then put a folded piece of paper near the top below where it was going to seal. Hit the seal button and there it went.

Everything seemed well until it really started to take the last bits of air out. It sucked up liquid and the paper did absorb it, however it kept going and before I knew it that paper towel was completely soaked, and the liquid just went through that. Fail!

But I did notice that it had a much tighter seal than it prob. would have had without it. Also the Chicken did marinate enough in 30min to pick up all the flavors of the herbs. So maybe it does work for something.???