Preparing poultry brines is an art. It may look easy, and many people may thing its about dumping a bunch of ingredients into a cold water tank, adding some agitation, waiting 1 minute and then — voila! — we have a marinade ready to inject. But actually, it is a combination of temperature, ingredients, formulation, order of addition, equipment, quality of starting material, process, and personnel. Some of these factors are more easily controlled than others. It can be a maze to navigate.

Thankfully, I have a Henrik in my life that keeps me straight. Many of you know him, so I am sure a last name is not needed. Henrik has been a huge part of my educational industry courses almost since the beginning — 19 years and counting. He recently reminded me of a lesson in injection marination success which I didn’t list above: time in meat.

Even with all the factors mentioned above being perfect, we can still mess up marination without paying attention to the critical factor of time in meat. It is a simple concept but one that is often overlooked. Basically, the more time the injection needles spend inside the meat, the less post injection purge. By incorporating more time in the meat, the same or better pick up and retention can be achieved with less pump pressure. We know that the least amount of pressure should be used when injection marinating, and this concept allows us to do just that. Less pump pressure means less damage to the meat while achieving marination targets. Less damage means the proteins can do what they are supposed to do — hang on to the natural water and the injected marinated, meaning less purge and better retention. For consumers, this means juicier products and less purge in the package (improved food safety and quality).

How do we get more time in meat? The main component to consider is stroke height. The less stroke height, the more time the needles are in the meat. For example, if we can decrease the stroke height from 8” to 4”, we can double the time the injection needles are in the meat. Double the time, reduced pressure, and reduced meat damage. It is a win-win for processors and consumers. Of course, this is just an example, as the product and equipment need to be taken into consideration.

I know Henrik will be retiring and enjoying his life soon (not too soon, I hope!), but his lessons will continue as I will be preaching them. Please remember to consider time in meat when injection marinating chicken or turkey! I hope everyone has a Henrik in their life.

Time in meat

Join for free* to continue reading.