Which style do you use?
I always marinate beef/venison, brine pork and chicken and I do pierce the beef/venison, first. I have been leery of the piercing tenderizers because I wondered if they made the meat mushy.
I am interested in your experience.
I use the old model, which I’ve had for a decade. However, if I were to buy another one I’d probably get the new one because of the improvements in dis-assembly and cleaning.
The Jaccard is not like other tenderizers which pound and punch holes in the meat. It has thin razor blades which slice the connective tissue. You don’t pound it, you simple place it on top of the meat and press down.
It will flatten somewhat, but after you make one or two passes you can press the edges of the meat together with your hands and it will “plump up” back to its original shape and thickness. If you didn’t know what to look for you wouldn’t even notice that it has been “tenderized”.
Used properly it does not make the meat mushy, however, like any mechanical processing you can overdo it. Just experiment to find what works for you. Another thing to be aware of is that the meat will cook about 30-40% faster after being tenderized.
I found out about the Jaccard from a friend who’s a chef in a 4 star restaurant. He said most top level restaurants use Jaccards, sometimes even on their best cuts if the chef is uncertain about the texture, “just to make sure” their customers get a tender steak.