Meat Should Rest

Posted by Tim on Nov 2, 2010 in Blog, Food Science, Using the Thermapen | 2 comments

Cooked meat should be allowed to “rest” after cooking and before cutting. This permits the juices to be reabsorbed into the fibers of the meat. If you skip resting, you will lose more flavorful juices when the meat is cut. The temperature of the meat will always continue to rise a little during the resting period, so you should remove your meat from the oven or grill prior to reaching your target doneness temperature. Otherwise, it will be overcooked. Knowing the amount of heat rise during resting takes some experience. Generally, the larger the mass of the meat, the more the temperature at the core will rise during resting. This is due to the latent heat that is already traveling through the meat toward the cooler center.

How you rest your meat will affect the temperature rise. If you leave the meat uncovered, or you remove it from its roasting pan, or you place a hot steak on a cold surface, more heat will escape into the room and less heat will reach the center. If too much heat escapes, the meat may grow cold before serving. On the other hand, if you keep your meat in a warm oven or under a heat lamp, there will be a larger heat rise and you may overcook the center unless you have allowed for this.

“Tenting” with aluminum foil will conserve some heat and still allow some air circulation to avoid steaming the meat surface. Use extra care if you want to preserve a crispy exterior on a turkey or roast. A warmed oven (with the heat turned OFF) might be a better resting location for meats with a crust.

Typically, even a small steak or individually cooked piece of chicken will rise at least three or four degrees during resting. A larger roast or turkey can rise as much as ten to fifteen degrees depending upon conditions. Learn how much rise to expect by taking readings before and after resting with your ThermapenTM. Start deducting typical resting “rises” from your final target temperature when you remove your meat from the cooking surface.

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