Sous Vide + marinade + refrigeration

[neilc]

I'm cooking some pork belly sous vide (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/sous-vide-pork-belly-bun-pork-braise-mayonnaise-quick-pickled-cucumbers-recipe.html), and the recipe calls for putting a marinade in the vacuum bag with the pork. I'd also like to make the meat a few days in advance of when I serve it. Is it important to remove the meat from the marinade after SV? The recipe says you can leave the meat in the vacuum bag for ~two weeks before serving, but I'm concerned that this would basically add a few extra days of marination and make the meat too salty.

 

Thanks for any advice!

[haresfur]

My theory is that if you are cooking the meat in the marinade the temperature will speed up the diffusion into the meat and a few days at refrigerator temperature won't make much difference.

[nickrey]

I'm with haresfur. The cooking will diffuse the salt in the marinade through the meat. If they have done the recipe correctly, the salt should equate to an equilibrium brine. If the recipe is in teaspoons, I'd be cautious as the variance in saltiness with volume measurements and variable salt grains makes it an inexact measure and you really need exact measures. If in doubt, check the percentage salt in equilibrium brines and work out your salt weight in terms of the meat weight. Be aware that many marinade elements could also contain salt. You'll need to factor this into your percentage calculations.