Querying the importance of resting meat

[_Neal_]

Just thought I'd bring this to the attention of those of PH food masses who'd not seen it before:

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbust...

Interesting and very convincing stuff from respected guys (including Kenji Lopez-Alt from Serious Eats) - I'm not going to argue with the science or the sense of it.

[Chucklehead]

this comes up every now and again, and every time it does I want to end myself.

Do what you like! Personally, I'll be resting mine.

[_Neal_]

Chucklehead said:

this comes up every now and again, and every time it does I want to end myself.

Seems a bit OTT, but fair enough.

[227bhp]

I never bother, I like my food hot.

[KungFuPanda]

I've started resting my meat for the last couple of years. Loosely cover in foil and leave in a warm place. Meat has been a lot more juicy and tender since I've been resting it properly. Bigger joints are still steaming hot even after around an hour of standing.

[Riley Blue]

KungFuPanda said:

I've started resting my meat for the last couple of years.

I'd say that was a bit too long....

[Ultuous]

Riley Blue said:

KungFuPanda said:

I've started resting my meat for the last couple of years.

I'd say that was a bit too long....

Agreed...



time to get back out there!

[zygalski]

Anyone who's ever seen a family joint carved after less than 30 minutes resting can see all that juice running all over the place. Where does that juice disappear to if you leave the meat longer & there's very little on the chopping board?
I'd say it's most likely been absorbed back into the meat. Perhaps it just magically vanishes....

[227bhp]

zygalski said:

Anyone who's ever seen a family joint carved after less than 30 minutes resting can see all that juice running all over the place. Where does that juice disappear to if you leave the meat longer & there's very little on the chopping board?
I'd say it's most likely been absorbed back into the meat. Perhaps it just magically vanishes....

I don't think i've ever seen the juices leave a piece of meat and then climb back in again?

[calibrax]

227bhp said:

I don't think i've ever seen the juices leave a piece of meat and then climb back in again?

You misunderstood. He's saying if you don't rest the meat and carve right away, then a lot of juice comes out. But if you do rest the meat and carve, then very little juice comes out. Therefore the juice must have been absorbed into the meat fibres during the resting phase.

[zygalski]

calibrax said:

227bhp said:

I don't think i've ever seen the juices leave a piece of meat and then climb back in again?

You misunderstood. He's saying if you don't rest the meat and carve right away, then a lot of juice comes out. But if you do rest the meat and carve, then very little juice comes out. Therefore the juice must have been absorbed into the meat fibres during the resting phase.

Nah. If you rest a joint for 45 minutes then the juice fairy takes it. It can't go back into the meat, can it?

[alock]

calibrax said:

You misunderstood. He's saying if you don't rest the meat and carve right away, then a lot of juice comes out. But if you do rest the meat and carve, then very little juice comes out. Therefore the juice must have been absorbed into the meat fibres during the resting phase.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you don't have enough evidence for that conclusion.

Maybe the liquid evaporated just like it does from any warm surface. The tiles in my shower are wet after a shower. 60 mins later they are dry. I'm 100% sure they haven't absorbed the moisture.

[talksthetorque]

You are Norman Bates AICMFP

Who else uses a carving knife in the shower?

[_Neal_]

alock said:

calibrax said:

You misunderstood. He's saying if you don't rest the meat and carve right away, then a lot of juice comes out. But if you do rest the meat and carve, then very little juice comes out. Therefore the juice must have been absorbed into the meat fibres during the resting phase.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you don't have enough evidence for that conclusion.

Maybe the liquid evaporated just like it does from any warm surface. The tiles in my shower are wet after a shower. 60 mins later they are dry. I'm 100% sure they haven't absorbed the moisture.

On my reading, the juice is "in" the meat, so doesn't evaporate in any meaningful quantity. Although the tests say slightly more liquid comes out if you don't rest it at all, as a % the argument is that it's not noticeable in terms of how "juicy" the meat is when you eat it, and that's even if you don't use the juice either by mopping it up or using it in a gravy. Additionally, tastiness/juiciness depends on lots more factors than how much liquid comes out of the meat - the way I see it, we've all had roasts that didn't need gravy to be delicious, and those that still weren't great despite lots of it! It's about how well you've cooked it in the first place.

My conclusion is that a long rest (or almost any deliberate rests) are unnecessary at best - food goes cold, cooks beyond the doneness you want to serve it at, and any nice crunchy bits can be lost. In practice, any large roast does rest for 5-10 minutes between coming out of the oven and being sliced, as there's other things to do.

I made the mistake of resting steaks the other day, and they were overdone, despite being cooked as I wanted when I took them off the hot BBQ. I like the tip about flash-heating steaks on a very high heat just before serving, post a 5-minute rest, to make sure everyone's is hot and tasty. Obviously that demands quite a lot of precision in terms of how you'e cooked them first time round - you'd have to really err on the rare side.

Obviously the only thing to do is experiment - I'll fire up the grill

Edited by _Neal_ on Monday 15th May 15:17

[21TonyK]

Really struggling with that article. Not quite sure what the point of it is. A lot of incorrect information and references to chefs and places that appear to have just been googled (badly!)

[FurtiveFreddy]

It's not difficult to prove one way or the other. Just grill a nice big hunk of meat and sample it every few minutes while it rests. You'll make your mind up pretty quickly whether resting makes a difference or not.

The point about meat overcooking is also very easy to explain. Just use a thermometer and stop cooking it when it's 3-4 degrees below target temperature.

I take a chicken out of the oven when the thickest part of the leg meat reaches 72° and wrap the whole thing in foil. 10-15 minutes later it's got up to 75° and will be perfect.

In that Steak Revolution film, there's a scene where someone in Spain or Argentina probes a piece of meat to check if it's reached 48-49° so that once it's rested it will come up to 52° and be perfectly rare.

The Americans like to think they know all there is to know about cooking beef, but they're not always right about everything.

[_Neal_]

21TonyK said:

Really struggling with that article. Not quite sure what the point of it is. A lot of incorrect information and references to chefs and places that appear to have just been googled (badly!)

I've no interest/axe to grind one way or another, but what information in there is incorrect? I think the point of the article is to indicate that resting isn't always a good thing, having tested various aspects, with at least a modicum of science.

FurtiveFreddy said:

The point about meat overcooking is also very easy to explain. Just use a thermometer and stop cooking it when it's 3-4 degrees below target temperature.

But the article isn't disagreeing with that, is it? If you're using resting to finish the cook, fair enough, but why not just cook it to the internal temp you want, then eat it?

Edited by _Neal_ on Monday 15th May 15:14

[21TonyK]

_Neal_ said:

But the article isn't disagreeing with that, is it? If you're using resting to finish the cook, fair enough, but why not just cook it to the internal temp you want, then eat it?

Edited by _Neal_ on Monday 15th May 15:14

Explain exactly how you are going to do that?

[_Neal_]

21TonyK said:

Explain exactly how you are going to do that?

Use an internal thermometer, cook it to the temp you want, remove from oven/pan, eat.

Or are you making a slightly more technical/nuanced point that the minute a joint is taken out of the oven it carries on cooking? If so, that is of course correct, but I'd say that if you take the joint out, carve it and serve it, the time between it coming out of the oven and hitting your plate/mouth isn't deliberate "resting". If you want to allow for a degree or two of carry over cooking during the serving period, then do, but that's not the same as a recommended and deliberate 10+ minute rest time, like FurtiveFreddy is referring to.

[21TonyK]

_Neal_ said:

Or are you making a slightly more technical/nuanced point that the minute a joint is taken out of the oven it carries on cooking?

Yep, that's my point. Give you an example. I cooked 4 turkey crowns this afternoon. Oven set to 150 degrees with 80% moisture, shoved the oven probe in and set the alarm for 70 degrees.

Hour and a bit later the alarm goes off so I set the oven to its cooling cycle. With cold air being blasted over the turkey its core still rose to 76 degrees in 3-4 minutes and then over another hour dropped down.

Experience tells me that if I cook a 3/4" thick steak to around 52 degrees by the time its on the plate and being eaten its hitting 55-56. This is unless of course I specifically arrange everything so I can take the steak from the pan to plate and eat in seconds.

However, experience also tells me that steak tastes "better" if it is allowed to sit in a warm spot for 10 minutes after cooking. "Better" is subjective but its a view held my millions of chefs (and their customers) around the world.

And if you like Hawksmoor steak its probably because they rest their steaks for 10-15 minutes in a Thermodyne at exactly 56 degrees before serving.

And, also why (despite what the article says) Peter Lugers remove their steaks from the bone and then hold (rest) them in an oven before carving at the table.

The other issue with article is the way it tries to justify its theories by association with chefs who are then associated with people like Heston B and Jamie O. Both who insist resting is essential in meat cookery. As for scientific claims, the grand daddy of them all disagrees.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QVXKZ1-z-eIC&a...

AFAIK the only method of cooking meat that does not benefit from the meat being rested afterwards is sous vide. Again I can attest to this with personal experience having cooked 100's if not 1000's of cote de beouf using this method.