Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

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 strongly.

The title is click-bait. The major rule is correct, not wrong. But, now we know a little bit more about why this rule works.

> As the meat rests (and therefore cools) that vapor pressure decreases, and so does the juice loss. It's not about reabsorption or thickening as the juices cool, which is another common explanation that's been offered over the years. It's simply about pressure. Control for final internal temperature, and—rested or not—the juice loss is the same.

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.

I cook (and eat) a lot of steak. Probably 3-4 per week, 1.5" thick ribeyes. For me, resting has always been about temperature normalization.

I like to sear my steaks in a cast iron skillet. I use an induction cooktop and tend to start at medium-high and ramp up to as hot as the stove will get. I think the ramp-up is important to render some of the fat without just letting it all evaporate.

I turn the steaks over frequently (30s intervals), which keeps the inside from cooking too much while the outside gets nice and crispy. I take them off the heat probably 2-3 minutes (but keep flipping! The pan is still really damn hot) before they go into the oven (at 400F).

I take the steaks out when they hit 120 and pull them out of the pan ASAP.

During the “rest” that follows I add pepper and butter to the tops of the steaks. The outsides of these steaks become way, way hotter than the insides. But the size of the layer that is so hot is very thin due to the frequent turning. So they don’t need to rest long, and the temp doesn’t rise too much once they’re out of the oven.

"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.

There is a huge difference between eating a steak that has rested allowing the vapor pressure decrease vs one that hasn't rested even though the internal temperatures in the middle are the same.

edit: I found a video of the experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYA8H8KaLNg

The "major rule" in question is whether you should rest the meat after cooking or not.

Sous Vide taught me resting meet was a farce. There's zero rest time when cooking that way, and it causes the meat, especially steak, to come out perfect every single time. There's a reason why it's pretty much banned in most cooking competitions.

A trick I've been doing since I got the Combusion thermometer is, if I'm trying for a 205 temp target: I run it until the surface temp reaches 205, then turn down the heat to get the ambient temp to around 205 for the rest of the cook until the interior gets up to 205. I've tried it a couple times and had really great results.

As someone who watched this unfold months ago on YouTube I'm slightly annoyed I had to read the whole article to find nothing new.

Just a random tip: When I rest meat I put it on a mesh and keep it in the oven set to 50 degrees Celsius. That have given me pretty good results I feel and then you can finish off whatever else you want to do after cooking the meat (like vegetables or sauce from the same pan).

I've noticed a major difference with resting when I'm doing tri-tip roasts, not with juiciness but with tenderness. Letting it rest for 10-30 minutes after hitting around 130F internal temperature results in a much more tender results, which has gotta be due to carryover cooking continuing to break down collagen, etc.

Steak technique is to men what astrology is to teenage girls.

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. :-)

> Inside the meat, heat was flowing from the hotter exterior towards the center, cooking it further, a phenomenon colloquially called "carryover cooking.

Yes, this is the exact reason I always rest mine.

When you cook a steak on a cast iron, if you wait to pull it until the internal temp is reached, you'll end up either burning it or drying it out depending on temp.

The best way is to cook it as absolutely hot as possible to get a good sear, then just let it sit. As long as it's fatty enough(or you use enough oil, depending), the center will continue to heat long after you remove it.

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 this has a huge impact on whether resting meat does or does not work well.

That has long been my main reason for doing it and my guide for how long to rest. Until the carryover has nearly or just stopped and the internal temp is about to or has just begun dropping. For thin skirt steak or grilled shrimp this could be about as long as it takes to walk inside, for a pork shoulder or standing rib roast it might be nearly an hour.

Also long been understood that there's no benefit to resting sous vide meat, since there's no carryover to manage.

I had never heard of this "major rule" (resting meat) before, and I have cooked plenty of meat.

They should be weighing the final cuts rather than trying to quantify the amount of fluid on the plate. Otherwise they are simply failing to account for the amount of water that is evaporating away. And given how much my food steams while cooling, its not a trivial amount.

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.

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?

Title should have been changed, we try to avoid clickbait here

Clickbait title much?

Great article! Though it's sure to ruffle some feathers, it's no tabs vs spaces debate.

Juices? You mean blood?

> In Young’s tests, he controls for that crucial variable: the final core temperature at the moment of slicing. Rather than pulling all his meat samples at the same temperature and then slicing them at different times, he uses his Predictive Thermometer to ensure that each piece is sliced at the same final internal temperature, whether it was rested or not. This approach isolates the effect of resting itself. The result? Juice loss is the same either way, no matter if the meat rested or not.

Doesn’t this approach necessarily mean that some of the meat will be cooked longer than other meat?

tldr: Resting meat after cooking is traditionally believed to retain juices and enhance flavor. However, new evidence suggests this isn't true. Resting doesn't affect juice retention; instead, it helps manage carryover cooking, allowing the meat to reach its target temperature without overcooking.

This is not news to anyone who actually cooks and knows how. (prepared for the downvotes for sounding snobbish but idk how else to say it)

Well it's great that they are writing down reasons for resting that aren't total nonsense. The old folk wisdom about resting for the juice never survived any amount of critical thinking. But, it's unfortunate that they've still fallen short of learning anything about heat transfer, because they still aren't mentioning anything about the conditions under which the meat rests. The air temperature, the material the meat is resting upon, and the initial temperature, size, and other properties of that material are going to make a large difference in the outcome.

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

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 warmed plates from the oven if it wasn’t in use for your cook.

Completely asinine to me that people are letting food sit to get cold before eating it.

This is just a long ad for the predictive thermometer that every two-bit YouTube cook is pedalling at the moment.

my take away after wasting minutes of my life reading this is that you remove meat slightly sooner, rest for 5-6 minutes. that way juice is retained and internal temperature is on target when sliced.

> 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 want to rest to bring the temperature down before slicing. The rule about resting isn't wrong in practice, it just had an incorrect explanation as to why it works.

> But my 1.5-inch-thick chops completely defied this: Even when I pulled one a full 15°F before hitting its target temperature of 140°F, it had reached 140°F and threatened to surpass it in under three minutes. Follow the conventional resting advice, and in many cases, you're going to blow right past your target temp.

This article is conflating different things. Obviously, don't overcook your protein. The best way to guarantee this is with sous vide. But in any case, the conclusion isn't to avoid resting. It's to pull the meat earlier to avoid overcooking, and then rest for the reason explained at the start of this comment.