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Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

seriouseats.com

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Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#11

Post by giraffe_lady »

tptacek wrote: post #6
giraffe_lady wrote: post #4

Yeah makes sense, fits with how I was taught working in serious kitchens too. People will have different justifications for it or models for how it works but professional cooks generally take resting pretty seriously especially for bigger pieces of meat. I don't really like the article title though, the rule seems pretty much correct? > Carryover cooking is greatly underestimated in both its speed and degree, and thi…

Note that a major point in this article is a pretty serious team of cooks (the Meathead folks are competition BBQ people) arguing against resting (but cooking in such a way that resting doesn't matter).

Yeah I just clicked through and realized I've read that article several times over the years. It's old and quite well known in certain parts of the food world. Now that I know that, is there anything new in this serious eats one? Is it just a verification of the meathead OG?

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#12

Post by jdlshore »

happytoexplain wrote: post #10

Highly clickbait title. The conclusion is that you rest meat because it keeps it juicy and lets it finish carry-over cooking. This is already the common wisdom. The only new part is a different explanation for why resting makes it more juicy.

No, the article concluded that resting meat does not influence juiciness. In the blind test the author ran, the tasters could not identify a difference in juiciness between rested and unrested meat.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#13

Post by jerf »

This is sort of a neat microcosm of the story of the interaction of science and engineering over time.

The original meat resting rules were essentially engineering, when it is forced to run significantly in advance of science, in this case due to lack of sufficiently accurate measurement tools (instant-read themometers that can be left in the meat). They were discovered ad-hoc. They worked. But the theories behind them turned out to be incorrect.

Thermometers improved, the ability to control the cooking environment improved, and experiments could be run that contradicted the old theories about why it worked, and led to an improved methodology that could be used with more equipment.

This in turns leads to engineering better meals, even if only from the point of view of doing somewhat less work to the same result.

And the wheel will keep turning.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#14

Post by ackfoobar »

happytoexplain wrote: post #10

Highly clickbait title. The conclusion is that you rest meat because it keeps it juicy and lets it finish carry-over cooking. This is already the common wisdom. The only new part is a different explanation for why resting makes it more juicy.

In Chris Young's video, the suggestion is to stop carry over cooking by slicing the meat when the internal temperature reaches the target temperature.

A corollary to that is that if the meat is closer to target temperature when it leaves the pan, you should rest the meat for less time. I don't think this is part of the conventional wisdom.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#16

Post by crazygringo »

ackfoobar wrote: post #14
happytoexplain wrote: post #10

Highly clickbait title. The conclusion is that you rest meat because it keeps it juicy and lets it finish carry-over cooking. This is already the common wisdom. The only new part is a different explanation for why resting makes it more juicy.

In Chris Young's video, the suggestion is to stop carry over cooking by slicing the meat when the internal temperature reaches the target temperature. A corollary to that is that if the meat is closer to target temperature when it leaves the pan, you should rest the meat for less time. I don't think this is part of the conventional wisdom.

Which is a bizarre suggestion.

You don't slice individual portions of meat before serving. If I order a pork chop or a ribeye at a restaurant, I'd be horrified if it came pre-sliced.

And for something like an entire roast, you want to slice shortly before serving so it doesn't get too cold.

Just account for carry-over cooking and cook it less initially, or sous vide.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#17

Post by andrewflnr »

crazygringo wrote: post #8

> Young offers a different and credible explanation for the juice loss observed by many. It's not caused by whether or not meat is rested, but by the internal temperature of the meat at the moment it's sliced. According to Young, it comes down to vapor pressure: The hotter the meat, the more energy the internal moisture has, leading to higher vapor pressure that pushes liquid outward when the meat is cut. So... you w…

You're restating points the author makes as if they were contradictions. They're very explicit at the end in particular.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#18

Post by cyberax »

ackfoobar wrote: post #7

TLDR: Resting is about carry over cooking (which raises the internal temperature more than you expect) than juice retention.

If you're skilled enough (and if you use a meat thermometer) you can use carry-over cooking to your advantage by removing meat slightly earlier.

Re: Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

#19

Post by crazygringo »

andrewflnr wrote: post #17
crazygringo wrote: post #8

> Young offers a different and credible explanation for the juice loss observed by many. It's not caused by whether or not meat is rested, but by the internal temperature of the meat at the moment it's sliced. According to Young, it comes down to vapor pressure: The hotter the meat, the more energy the internal moisture has, leading to higher vapor pressure that pushes liquid outward when the meat is cut. So... you w…

You're restating points the author makes as if they were contradictions. They're very explicit at the end in particular.

They are contradictions. Let me be clearer, citing the end:

> The bottom line is this: It's a good idea to pull meat early from the pan or oven and let it rest, but only long enough to give it the time to slide up via carryover cooking to the target internal temperature, which you need to track closely.

Wrong. You need to let it slide up and then slide back down. The target internal temperature is for doneness. It's too high for slicing, very often.

> What resting is not: a fixed amount of time for the meat to sit, which risks it overcooking and losing its crust. Once again, it's all about temperature, not time.

This is a strawman. You've always rested meat until the temperature came down. The reason it takes time is because time is what brings the temperature down. The fix is not to not rest, it is to not overcook in the first place.

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