Vac sealing marinated pork

[Finster]

Made a Costco run today.
picked up a package of pork tenderloin which I cut down into meal size portions, marinated, and vac sealed for the freezer.
I personally feel like vac sealing with the marinade seems to make the meat more flavorful than marinating after thawing.
1. Does anyone else do this?
2. How do you think doing a dry rub and then freezing would work out?

[rickgregory]

I've not done it but I see chefs vacseal marinades in. Not sure if they really penetrate more or not, but at the very least it ensures no air

I'd be worried about ice crystals forming from the moisture - you've not seen any issue with that?

Dry rub - if it has salt, so you're using the rub to dry brine, apply the rub, seal, then leave it overnight or whatever is needed to get the salt to penetrate. If you freeze right off, the salt wont have time to work its magic. I've not noticed the flavor being more pronounced

[FireMan]

Nope the marinade doesn’t soak in, just salt. If the marinade has soy sauce, yup, cuz the salt.

[Finster]

I've not had issues with ice Crystal's.
I use mostly oil and vinegar, with very little water, when I make the marinade. Good point on the rub. I hadn't considered letting it sit over night.

[Michael_in_TX]

This is an interesting question....does salt penetrate meat at below freezing temperatures? My thinking it is it doesn't, or if it does, it does very slowly.

Sure is convenient, though....take the vacseal out of the freezer, let it thaw and it begins to marinate.

[Steve R.]

1. I haven't done this. 2. I've done this a lot with good results. If it's a big hunk of meat, like a butt, I cook it straight from frozen without thawing.

[Dadof3Illinois]

I’ve been doing the same thing. Pork butts get rub applied then vac sealed and frozen. I cook straight from frozen and haven’t noticed any difference in the end product and it really doesn’t take much longer at all and it seems to get a little more smoke.

[Huskee]

I know you didn't mention this, but don't vac seal with the plan to pull the marinade in better under vacuum, it does the reverse, it pulls air out, and thus rings the meat out. Personally to avoid a mess with my sealer I'd marinate later.

[mnavarre]

Yes, but... a regular home vacuum sealer, I agree, it doesn't draw enough vacuum. A chamber sealer where you can adjust the vacuum pressure, maybe. A vacuum tumbler on a piece of meat with a loose grain structure (tri-tip, flank, etc.) does let the marinade get in between the meat fibers. That being said, I don't think even a tumbler is going to do all that much for a tight grained meat like a pork tenderloin.

[Mark V]

I usually buy in bulk and chamber vac seal some things, with marinade. I freeze then, thinking it will marinade when I thaw.