Marinading question
 

First some preliminary discussion. It is well known that high quality beef steaks are aged to make them more flavorful and tender. This process involves leaving the steaks in an environment where the temperature is NOT freezing. Likewise, it is commonly discussed among hunters that game meat can benefit from "hanging." Again, this is a kind of aging process that takes place at a temperature that substantially elevated above freezing. Granted, you don't want the temperature to be too elevated, you need to discourage rapid bacterial growth.

Now to my marinading question. It would seem to me that marinading can desirably be performed in temperatures higher than those in the refrigerator. For example, right now I'm marinading some elk backstrap steaks for cooking tonight. I left them in the refrigerator over night in the marinade, and sort of sloshed them around in the marinade this morning. While doing so I though how cold they felt. I have left them out of the counter where they will slowly warm to room temperature over the next 10 hours or so. To some extent marinades act as a preservative, and this ought to give comfort and free one from the worry that this practice would be unhealthy.

So what do you think? When you marinade game meat, such as backstrap steaks, in a liquid marinade (my marinade is about 3/4 cup dry pinot noir red wine, 6 crushed juniper berries, some small amount of freshly crushed black peppercorns, some thyme, a third bay leaf crumbled), is it OK or even possibly preferrable to conduct the marinading at room temperature?

Bacteria can reproce itself somewhere around every 15 minutes so itis advisable not to let meat sit out more than a couple of hours before cooking. For controling the growth we have an acronym FAT TOM: food, acid, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture is what bacteria needs for growth. If we control some of these factors we will slow the bacterial growth.

Oh yeah, I am curently a culinary student and have a food safety certification from the National Restaurant Assoc.

I am pretty sure that the meat will be at room temp in an hour or less, not "the next ten hours or so".

We have found it best to marinade meat in a vacuum pack bag or a food saver bag that has all the air sucked out. Under vaccum the meat pores open allowing the meat to take on marinades better. We have a vaccum pack machine and if you place a piece of chicken or beef in a dish with liquid marinade and cycle the machine 4 or 5 times the meat will actually suck up the liquid.

bacteria growth
 

bacteria starts growing in temperatures above 40 degrees. The danger zone for bacteria growth is 40 to 135 degrees. After 4 hours of meat being in these temps. the bacteria growth is at its dangerous.

I let meat reach room temp before grilling and it will sometimes be left on the counter for a few hours. I don't like the meat to be cold when it goes on the grill. I've let a steak defrost on the counter during the day while I was somewhere else, and never ran into any problems.

I think the rules covering bacteria growth in red meat can be bent from time to time. Personally I'd much rather risk it than mess up a good cut of meat. But that's just me.

Under vaccum the meat pores open allowing the meat to take on marinades better.