Meat go-round

Store Equipment & Design, April, 2001 by Kenneth Robeson

Tumbler marinators will add versatility to your food preparation program and your product menu, while saving time and shrink.

When a piece of equipment allows foodservice operators to offer innovative new recipes, cut labor, improve food safely, save time and actually improve the quality of the meat they use, it attains the status of an idea whose time has come.

Enter the vacuum tumbler, or tumbler marinator. Used for decades by meat processors to add moisture and tenderness, the device works simply: Food product, water and flavorings are placed into a drum. Air is suctioned out, and the drum rotated for a predetermined period of time. The liquid and flavorings are actually absorbed into the food. Food trends favor the use--in many cases, the expanding use--of tumbler marinators. "Marinating overall has been picking up," notes John Evans, product line manager for food machines for manufacturer Hobart Corp. in Troy, Ohio. Steakhouse operators are vacuum marinating because "they're finding that they are able to reduce the marinating time, increase the moisture content and control the contamination issues," he says." Hobart's two-year-old, 30-pound tabletop machine sells for about $2,200. Other units are designed to hold 100, 300, even 1,000 pounds, with the top price at about $4,000.

Evans recently spoke with executives at the Golden Corral, Ryan's and Logan's chains, all of whom are looking at the process. "Food costs become very expensive when they get it marinated outside," Evans says. By bringing marinating in-house, operators are "able to get a more affordable cut of meat at the same quality once it's been marinated," Evans says.

LOOKING AT TUMBLING

The machines tend to be used more in full-service establishments, says Roger Costello, director of sales and marketing for equipment manufacturer Hollymatic Corp., based in Countryside, Ill., "because they're looking for such higher quality of product, and new kinds of products to produce. Houston's, for instance, uses it on boneless, skinless chicken breast, and also on ribs."

Hollymatic sells a lot of the units to casino and hotel operations in Nevada. "They use the 500-pounder model because they want to prepare a lot of meals," remarks Costello. The company's tabletop model sells for $2,335. "What you're doing is adding a percentage of liquid, vacuuming the air out, and then you are tumbling the product," he explains. "As the product is tumbled, the myacin protein is extracted. Then the liquid in there goes to fill the spaces left by the extraction of the myacin protein. The liquid becomes part of the muscle structure itself." The myacin protein forms what Costello describes as a "steam jacket" over the product. "In the tumbling process you've broken down the tissue structure to a degree," he says. "You're going to end up with a product that is tender because of what tumbling does to the tissue structure. You're going to end up with a juicier product because you've put a liquid in there. And in the case of marinating, you've put a flavor profile in there."

SPECIALIZED AND UNIQUE

The tumbler marinator is "something that's really very specialized, and is unique in what it does," according to Christopher Koetke, CEC, chef instructor at The School of Culinary Arts at Kendall College in Evanston, Ill. Kendall has had one of the units for about a year and "we absolutely love it," he says. The device "allows you to marinate things very quickly and very completely.

"Before, if you were to marinate something you would perhaps drop it in some sort of brine or coat it with some sort of marinade on the outside, then basically let time do its thing. It slowly would work its way into the product, or perhaps you would inject it in some larger items." The problem with that method, he maintains, is that it uses lots of time and space. "There is also a lot of waste that goes on because not all of it is going to wind up inside of the meat," he says. "The advantage of a tumbler is that I can toss the marinade in with the meat, it takes a short period of time by comparison, and there's nothing left over. It's all in there when it's done." Continues Koetke, "We're talking about a moister product. We're talking about more flavor deep into the meat. But the other thing is that it tenderizes pieces of meat, and that happens in two ways. As it tumbles it's physically handled inside the machine, if you will, and that weakens the muscle fibers."

Also, Koetke says, the addition, the addition of liquid "basically disrupts the cell structure a little bit and makes it more tender, which is really ideal if you're using some tougher chunks of meat."

Costello recommends cleaning tumbler marinators after every use. "The little one we have, the tabletop, you can throw into your dishwasher," he says. "They're very easy to clean. It's not a hassle." Maintenance is, according to Koetke, "a no-brainer. Just wash it. The canister comes off and you wash it and sanitize it. That's it--there's nothing special to it."