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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

#131

Post by Hikikomori »

dataviz1000 wrote: post #105

"Searing the meat seals in the juices" -- every chef on every cooking show. Can we do a study on that too? hmmmmm. I want to grill two steaks, the same size, and to the same internal temperature on the same grill. Let one rest for ten minutes in a pie pan and cut the other into 4 pieces letting it also rest for ten minutes in a pie pan. Probably also wrap them in tinfoil. Then weigh the released juices at the end. Th…

Chris young is great. Serious eats from the linked article also has some tests of this.

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

#132

Post by tnorthcutt »

jghn wrote: post #129
dataviz1000 wrote: post #105

"Searing the meat seals in the juices" -- every chef on every cooking show. Can we do a study on that too? hmmmmm. I want to grill two steaks, the same size, and to the same internal temperature on the same grill. Let one rest for ten minutes in a pie pan and cut the other into 4 pieces letting it also rest for ten minutes in a pie pan. Probably also wrap them in tinfoil. Then weigh the released juices at the end. Th…

> "Searing the meat seals in the juices" -- every chef on every cooking show. I could be wrong on this but I think Kenji was the first prominent writer to debunk this. I bring it up given the context of who all we're talking about.

I think Alton Brown covered this on his show Good Eats quite a few years ago as well.

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

#133

Post by Hikikomori »

henry_bone wrote: post #120

The opening line:- "The traditional wisdom says resting meat keeps it juicy. But when we put that idea to the test, we found a different reason to rest—one that has nothing to do with juice." I don't rest meat to keep it juicy. I rest it to finish the cook. It's not quite ready when it comes off the heat. Now I'll read the rest. :-)

I mean you could cook it to your desired temperature and cut it right away them as that stops the cooling process quickly.

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

#134

Post by [deleted] »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #93

Something that has always sounded really stupid to me about resting meat could be summed up by asking, “Are all of you people seriously letting your freshly cooked food get cold for a quarter of an hour before eating it?” I might be able to understand if you unintentionally rested meat because you poorly timed the finish of sides, but as soon as food is cooked, it should be served hot immediately, preferably with war…

[deleted]

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

#135

Post by chasebank »

metabagel wrote: post #103

The article actually doesn't refute the idea of resting meat to retain the juices. In fact, it supports it. It just provides a reason for why this works which is perhaps different than conventional wisdom. Retaining the juices in the meat has to do with the temperature at which the meat is cut. Resting allows the temperature to drop, which creates less pressure, so the juices aren't forced out of the meat nearly as s…

"Resting allows the temperature to drop, which creates less pressure, so the juices aren't forced out of the meat nearly as strongly."

I was always under the impression that if you pull your meat at let's say 128, resting it will bring the internal temperature up, finishing at like 132-134. Is this wrong?

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

#136

Post by cogman10 »

computably wrote: post #124
cogman10 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food judging will always be subjective. Famously wine tasting is mostly just pretentious bunk. That's why silly things like plating often matter more in a restaurant than actual taste.

IIRC, wine tasting isn't bunk, wine pricing is. People can tell the differences between wines, and reasonably reliably if they are trained, but those differences (and the tasters' preferences) have weak/no correlations with $$$.

Not as much as you'd think. In this article [1], one expert failed to identify that a white wine dyed red was the same. They used different descriptors for the same wine.

And none of this should be too surprising. Our brains are complex things that like to hallucinate details. If you tell someone a bottle of wine cost $1000, their brain will happily invent reasons why it's one of the best wines they've tasted.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-ta...

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

#137

Post by Workaccount2 »

psunavy03 wrote: post #123
inasio wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also heard that sous-vide is typically banned in BBQ competitions. A quick google search did find some examples to support it: https://www.texoassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/O...

That's like saying jet engines are banned in IndyCar. Umm . . . yeah? Because they're competing to see who makes the best SMOKED meat, and sous vide would be using the wrong cooking technique.

People would probably do stuff like sous vide and then finish with 5 minutes in the smoker.

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

#138

Post by tcskeptic »

mvdtnz wrote: post #34
tptacek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 resting hysteria in low and slow BBQ has gotten out of control. Many BBQ YouTubers now promote overnight resting, I've even seen some suggesting a two day rest. I'm glad to see some sanity returning.

Completely different style and purpose of resting. The long hot rest is for fat and collagen rendering. Nothing like this kind of rest after high temperature grilling or roasting.

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

#139

Post by ketzo »

chasebank wrote: post #135
metabagel wrote: post #103

The article actually doesn't refute the idea of resting meat to retain the juices. In fact, it supports it. It just provides a reason for why this works which is perhaps different than conventional wisdom. Retaining the juices in the meat has to do with the temperature at which the meat is cut. Resting allows the temperature to drop, which creates less pressure, so the juices aren't forced out of the meat nearly as s…

"Resting allows the temperature to drop, which creates less pressure, so the juices aren't forced out of the meat nearly as strongly." I was always under the impression that if you pull your meat at let's say 128, resting it will bring the internal temperature up, finishing at like 132-134. Is this wrong?

That is indeed exactly what the article says — I’m not certain GP is right on this.

Kenji’s original tests seem to confound this as well: every 2.5min of slicing produces steadily less juice, despite the fact that the steak’s internal temp should be rising for some of that time.

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

#140

Post by UncleMeat »

metabagel wrote: post #103

The article actually doesn't refute the idea of resting meat to retain the juices. In fact, it supports it. It just provides a reason for why this works which is perhaps different than conventional wisdom. Retaining the juices in the meat has to do with the temperature at which the meat is cut. Resting allows the temperature to drop, which creates less pressure, so the juices aren't forced out of the meat nearly as s…

Resting increases internal temperature. Immediately after you take the meat off the heat it'll have a cooler internal temperature than after five minutes of resting. The crust of the meat is much hotter than the core and heat moves from the outside to the inside during resting.
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