Why Does Meat Have to Rest After I Cook It?

It can be very hard not to cut into a piece of steak right after it gets off the grill. After all, what is more tempting than a thick, juicy steak that’s steaming hot and smells incredible when it’s done cooking?

However, if you want to get the best results from cooking steak and many other kinds of meat, you should be certain to let it rest a bit before you begin eating. Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about the benefits of letting meat rest after cooking it in Williamsport, PA.

Give it a rest

If you’ve ever made the mistake of cutting into a steak immediately after you pull it off a grill, you’ve probably seen how the juices squirt out of it on to the plate. By letting the steak rest before you cook it, you can keep these juices inside the steak to make it much more delicious during dinnertime.

The cooking process involves the proteins in the beef firming up. When the outside of the steak cooks, it seals the juices inside the steak, and they retract toward the center as the meat cooks further. Allowing the beef to rest once you pull it off the grill enables the juices to come back from the center and absorb into the rest of the meat, so when you cut into the meat, you’ll lose less juice. Otherwise, when you cut into the steak, all the juices will still be concentrated in the center, which is why you’d lose more by cutting in quickly.

The result? A much juicier, more tender and more delicious steak that you’ll find lends itself to a much better dining experience.

The big question, then, is how long you should allow the meat to sit before you cut into it. This really depends on the piece of meat. A larger, thicker piece of meat should rest longer than a thinner piece of meat. Five to seven minutes is generally good for most steaks, and roasts will usually need to rest anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on their size.

The best way to do this is to put the meat on a cutting board, and then create an aluminum foil tent over it. This traps the heat inside the tent and keeps the meat warm. The meat will continue to cook a little bit more while it rests, because it hasn’t cooled down yet. You don’t want to wrap it too tightly, because that could result in some of the moisture getting lost.

Because the steak will continue to cook while tented, you should remove it from the grill slightly before it reaches the level of doneness you want. That way it’ll finish perfectly.

Interested in learning more about some of the methods you can employ to cook the perfect steak from the comfort of your home? We encourage you to contact Tony’s Delicatessen & Fresh Meats for more information about steaks and letting meat rest after cooking it in Williamsport, PA.

Categorised in: Butcher

This post was written by Writer