I snagged a FoodSaver 3800 on sale as an impulse buy (bit of a goofy impulse). It came with a vacuum marinator tank which was an interesting gadget that I've been trying out. It works on a fairly simple concept: put meat and marinade in a sealed plastic container and draw it down to vacuum to air outgasses from the meat. When the vacuum is released, marinade pushes into the meat which rapidly increases penetration rate. I figured it could make for some interesting experiments with marinades which weren't so meat permeable.

I find myself wondering if there is a microbial problem with this kind of marinading. I figure using pressure tricks to mechanically infuse marinade into a cut of meat is also going to push bacteria from the surface into the core of the meat. Is this marinading method covered in culinary schools? I'm pretty sure that if this doodad can push marinade into meat, it'll also push bacteria.

I like a lot of cuts not fully cooked through. Surface bacteria isn't usually a problem where it gets blasted by heat, but if it's pushed into a cut of meat with a vacuum trick is not cooking fully through asking for trouble?