Injecting Marinade into Meats for Smoking

[fiftydollars]

I’ve been looking into injecting marinade. I saw a “Cajun Injector” FOR $25 at the local BBQs Galore and I am wondering what everyone thinks about this sort of thing? I would mainly be injecting meats that I would later cook in my smoker…

Is injecting marinade a good idea? If so, which one should I buy? I saw the stainless steel Cajun injector and I would think it would be the way to go…

One more question: What marinade is your favorite for injecting?

[bleachboy]

I'm totally not into it. Marinade most meats the traditional way ahead of time. If it's poultry or shrimp, I'd brine it instead. I can't say that I have a specific reasoning behind my opinion apart from that traditional marinading in a plastic bag or whatnot works great for me. My wife does have one of those "cajun injector" things but she uses it for elaborate pastry preparations, never meats.

[nessa]

I don't care for what it does to the meat structurally. Basically it opens a pocket where you inject the marinade. You also create yet another hole for juices to escape. Its also a real b**** to inject, since you have to force apart the meat to allow the volume of liquid in. Its that whole two bodies of the same mass cannot occupu the same space at the same time. Or something like that. I never was good at physics. Its a good concept, in theory, but in practice.... eh.

[fifi]

About the only time I have done this routinely is for deep frying turkeys. I usually use my favorite cajun seasoning mix of the day (Emeril's or Prudhomme's) in butter. This gets the turkey seasoned without getting a lot of spices into the oil to muck it up. This can matter if you are frying a bunch of them. BTW, you need to use an oil or butter based seasoning. Pockets of water based seasonings might get you a spectacular turkey-launch! (incoming )

I have done it with big chickens just for the hell of it. In that case, I whizzed up some fresh herbs with drawn butter in the blender. Then I only worked from the inside, positioning the canula in between muscle groups and working from the inside of the bird so I wasn't poking holes in the skin and didn't make ugly traces in the muscles. When you do this you only place a little at each site. It takes some practice to get it right, and you will want to know a bit about how a chicken is assembled, so pay attention next time you cut one up.

A couple of times, I did it with a fresh picnic ham, shank portion. You can keep the seasoning in between the muscle groups pretty easily. I did one with an herb mixture like the chickens and it came out pretty darn good. Those were slow roasted, not smoked.

I still brine. Injecting doesn't replace brining.

Don't waste your time with a cheap plastic syringe. Go for the heavy stainless deal with the canula with holes in the side. I got mine at the restaurant supply for $25-30.

[bleachboy]

About the only time I have done this routinely is for deep frying turkeys.

My experience has still been that brining is the way to go. I brine the turkey overnight. I do it outside in a large plastic bin (I only deep-fry turkeys at Thanksgiving, and it's always been cold enough to safely leave a turkey outside overnight.) The long brining time combined with the deep frying definitely yields the most tender, moist, juicy, flavorful, adjective-defying turkey you'll ever taste. I'm a huge fan, both of brining and deep frying.

The only drawback is I usually have to exaust the entire kitchen's salt and sugar/honey supply to make the brining liquid.

[ronnie_suburban]

The only drawback is I usually have to exaust the entire kitchen's salt and sugar/honey supply to make the brining liquid.

Brine recipe, please

=R=

[ScooterQ]

Brining may be easier and perhaps more suited to the home cook, but on the competition BBQ circuit, injecting is the state of the art, particularly for whole hog, pork shoulder, and brisket. My guess is that every winner of Memphis in May in the past 10 years injected. It's considered a more intense and more certain technique for getting flavor and moisture into the meat.

[fifi]

I brine the turkey overnight. I do it outside in a large plastic bin (I only deep-fry turkeys at Thanksgiving, and it's always been cold enough to safely leave a turkey outside overnight.)

Yeah... We do the turkeys at Thanksgiving, too. But there are usually 10 to 12 of those suckers and the weather rarely is below 55F here on the gulf coast. The most I have been able to brine is two in an igloo cooler (for smoking, not frying), set up with the remote thermometer and alarm. Getting up in the middle of the night to switch out the ice packs is a PITA.

How do you keep the racoons out of the turkey tank?

[chefdg]

How do you keep the racoons out of the turkey tank?    

Set a trap!!!

[Dana]

I injected a turkey last Christmas and hubby put it on the smoker. The 'marinade' was one that came in the kit with the injecter. We didn't like it at all - the marinade gave the meat a funny texture, and didn't really get all thru the meat like brining does. Save your money and brine.

[fiftydollars]

OK.

I think I must come clean...

I tried injection marinating before... once... and the needle broke on my first try.

Luckily... the kit I purchased had two needles so I tried again... and the second needle clogged on the first try... then it broke.

At this point I decided that injecting was a huge pain in the ass and I would never try it again... but...

as it seemed kind of logical that it would work I decided to ask my friends at egullet about it.

I have never smoked an injected butt before so I can't really say if this works or not... but it looks like it's not worth it.

Does this sound about right?

[bbq4meanytime]

I tried injecting but the injector clogged, and clogged and clogged and the liquid shot out the back end of the injector, butter was all over the counter and my hands and the end result didn't nearly justify my anguish.

I brine now.

[fifi]

Your experience is exactly why I don't recommend the typical cheap injector approach. And you have to know where to put it.

These do NOT work.

These do.

And you don't just poke and inject. You need to place the flavoring between the muscle groups outside the fascia. This is not necessarily an easy technique.

Brining is not the same thing at all as it alters the protein structure. All injecting does is add flavor where a marinade will not go.

[HKDave]

The best meat I've ever tasted anywhere was some injected and smoked turkey breast and brisket, done by a professional BBQ chef from Texas. He was using Tony Chancere's marinade for injection and smoking in a SmokinTex. And he was using those cheap plastic syringes. I couldn't get him to cough up too many secrets but he said the injection technique is to insert the syringe all the way, then inject a line of marinade as you slowly withdraw it, and stop injecting before you get to the surface so the meat can seal up again. Repeat all over the meat. Don't try to inject a pocket of marinade in one place. He also said to make sure the marinade is 100% liquified - even a tiny piece of garlic will gum up the needle.

From the taste of the results, I'll tell you this technique must be worth it. The meat was amazing.

He gave me a few injectors (which I forgot I had in my bag when I went through airport security the next day - but that's another story) but I never was able to try this out because I can't get prepared injectable marinades in HK, and I haven't seen any good recipes for same. Anyone have injectable marinade recipes?

[nessa]

I tried injecting but the injector clogged, and clogged and clogged and the liquid shot out the back end of the injector, butter was all over the counter and my hands and the end result didn't nearly justify my anguish.

I brine now.

Ouch. Been there, done that. Hell with the needle.

[bleachboy]

Brine recipe, please

Basically my formula is 1/4 cup of salt (I keep boxes of Morton's kosher on hand, but literally when brining a huge turkey I exhaust my salt supply) per quart of water.

I then add whatever sugar I have. This usually amounts to about 6-10 cups of white sugar/brown sugar/molasses/honey. The sugar helps offset the saltiness that can result, especially near the surface, on the turkey. I have done this for a several years now, and each time the turkey has turned out to be absolutely delectable.

So basically, slap the turkey in a large plastic container (I mean like a bin, like you would keep your winter sweaters in), then dump in all the salt and sugar you have in the house. Hold it outside overnight, then deep fry it for Thanksgiving.

Caveat: I'm a total chicken when it comes to the deep frying part. Other more "manly" relatives do the frying. I just bring the turkey, which has been properly prepared. A few years ago, one of the non-family guys that always comes to our family's Thanksgiving dinner wanted to start injecting the turkey. Luckily, I talked him out of it, and believe me, the trouble -- once a year, anyway -- is worthwhile.

[bleachboy]

How do you keep the racoons out of the turkey tank?

Lol! We do have racoons and possums and feral cats here. I ALWAYS weigh down the top really well. Usually with a big bag of top soil or whatever else we have laying around that I figure a critter won't be able to lift. ;)

[Jason Perlow]

I like doing force marinades for cheaper cuts of steaks and chops, even for stuff like chicken breasts -- but for grilling. It helps tenderize and flavor the meat.

I find throwing the meat into vacuum sealer bags or containers, throwing in the marinade and pumping all the air out with a Foodsaver, so the meat sucks up the marinade, and letting it sit in a vaccum state for 15 minutes to an hour in the fridge can be really beneficial -- it does the work in a fraction of the time in what it would normally take several hours or overnight.

I've never used the Cajun Injector for turkeys or chicken.

[fifi]

The best meat I've ever tasted anywhere was some injected and smoked turkey breast and brisket, done by a professional BBQ chef from Texas. He was using Tony Chancere's marinade for injection and smoking in a SmokinTex. And he was using those cheap plastic syringes. I couldn't get him to cough up too many secrets but he said the injection technique is to insert the syringe all the way, then inject a line of marinade as you slowly withdraw it, and stop injecting before you get to the surface so the meat can seal up again. Repeat all over the meat. Don't try to inject a pocket of marinade in one place. He also said to make sure the marinade is 100% liquified - even a tiny piece of garlic will gum up the needle.

From the taste of the results, I'll tell you this technique must be worth it. The meat was amazing.

He gave me a few injectors (which I forgot I had in my bag when I went through airport security the next day - but that's another story) but I never was able to try this out because I can't get prepared injectable marinades in HK, and I haven't seen any good recipes for same. Anyone have injectable marinade recipes?

You are correct. There is a way to do it in brisket as the guy described. The trick is that you don't try to put a lot of the stuff in one place. With a well flavored marinade you don't need to. The other secret to doing this to brisket is to carefully follow the grain of the meat. By that I mean that you insert the needle parallel to the muscle grain. This is a lot easier in the flat rather than the tip. The second injector shown in the link above makes this much easier. If you look closely, one of the "needles" (canula) has holes on the side. That really helps with distribution.

I don't really have any recipes. I start with drawn butter or oil and whiz whatever seasonings in a blender if you are using herbs and garlic, maybe onion. You really need to puree it and maybe strain it if the blender doesn't do a perfect job. That second injector is a lot more forgiving as well. And the plunger is calibrated.

Some combinations I have used:

Herbs and garlic in butter

A typical Cajun seasoning mix in butter or oil

A citrus "vinagrette" with a little mustard for emulsification and sometimes garlic(Don't put this in a fryer.)

I don't add salt if I have brined the victim. I also keep the seasoning to oil or butter ratio pretty high since I am putting very little at each injection site.

[Dave the Cook]

Anyone have injectable marinade recipes?

Try starting with this, and adjust to suit your taste:

1 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup fruit juice (no pulp; I suggest starting with apple)

3/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup

2 T Worcestershire sauce

2 T neutral oil, like safflower (canola)

1 T sweet paprika

1 T granulated garlic

1/2 T granulated onion

1/2 T black pepper, finely ground

1/2 T dried whole-leaf oregano, finely crumbled almost to a powder

1/2 T dried whole-leaf thyme, finely crumbled almost to a powder

1 t cayenne

Combine the oil and spices (but not the herbs) in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients. Allow to cool before injecting, and combine well, each time, before filling syringe.

If you're brining, and your recipe includes sugar of any type, you might want to leave it out the first time you try this, especially on poultry.

[Toliver]

Not to derail this thread, but here's a good discussion on brining with a variety of opinions and recipes:

Clickity

[Dave the Cook]

Not to derail this thread, but here's a good discussion on brining with a variety of opinions and recipes:

Clickity

erm.

Here, too.

[ronnie_suburban]

thanks bleachboy. I feel liberated. Next time I brine, the only thing I'll leave in the cabinet will be the measuring cup

=R=

[Toliver]

Not to derail this thread, but here's a good discussion on brining with a variety of opinions and recipes:

Clickity

erm.

Here, too.

Uhm...I coulda swore someone else had already mention the awesome eGCI class on brining.

My apologies...