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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).
> the Meathead folks Meathead is a singular dude who runs amazingribs.com. Wrote a good book too [1]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Meathead-Science-Great-Barbecue-Grill...
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 th…
Interesting take, true-ish I think? But Meathead had this right, as I recall from first principles (his writing partner at the time was a physicist), I think without the measurement apparatus.
https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cook...
The "major rule" in question is whether you should rest the meat after cooking or not.
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Do you cook steak? I do, multiple times a week (my kids love it). If you cut it right away, you end up with a pool of meat juice. If you wait a few minutes, you don't. I call bullshit. Resting the meat keeps the juice inside. This is objectively the case, whether or not some blind taste test agrees. (I'm not even sure why a blind test is relevant here...)
No, cutting into the meat when it's at a particular temperature determines how much juice spills out, not how long you've rested it. Yes, resting it changes the cutting temperature (acknowledged by the article), but that's not really the point being made or the effect being investigated.
Cooking to, say, a medium-rare and cutting in right away will spill a lot of juice, whereby cooking to below medium-rare and letting it get to the medium-rare temp will leak hardly anything. It's dead simple to reproduce and obvious in practice.
I am aware of what SeriousEats is, but this particular article is sensationalist and was written for clicks.
So I just let it sit on a cutting board for five minutes before I slice it or I put it in an ice bath like a molecular gastronomist weirdo and slice it 4 minutes earlier?
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> You don't slice individual portions of meat before serving. There are many, many instances where you do.
Not in the context of what this article is talking about. Not for pork chops. Not for ribeyes.
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Yes? It lowers the degree of difficulty tremendously. And most people, even bbq judges, probably can’t taste the difference between a sous vide with smoke finish and a full smoker preparation. But bbq competitions are about making the best ribs the same way car racing is about going around an oval the fastest. Equipment rules matter more than bare outcomes.
I get what you're saying but I don't just mean that it's unsporting or defeats the purpose of the conversation, but rather that it suggests the outcomes are judged on a rubric that doesn't capture what makes extremely good BBQ good, but rather basic textural and visual things. Like, Green Street in Chicago is, IIRC, combi-cooked before it's smoked; it's also just OK.
Green street is just ok for lots of reasons. I don’t think the sous vide is one of them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes? It lowers the degree of difficulty tremendously. And most people, even bbq judges, probably can’t taste the difference between a sous vide with smoke finish and a full smoker preparation. But bbq competitions are about making the best ribs the same way car racing is about going around an oval the fastest. Equipment rules matter more than bare outcomes.
I get what you're saying but I don't just mean that it's unsporting or defeats the purpose of the conversation, but rather that it suggests the outcomes are judged on a rubric that doesn't capture what makes extremely good BBQ good, but rather basic textural and visual things. Like, Green Street in Chicago is, IIRC, combi-cooked before it's smoked; it's also just OK.
That's why silly things like plating often matter more in a restaurant than actual taste.
Great article! Though it's sure to ruffle some feathers, it's no tabs vs spaces debate.