Another age old question - To Rest or Not

[TallTrees]

Ah yes, you've just spent hours and hours perfectly smoking that amazing cut of meat, and you're now salivating while looking at it there on the serving tray, weak with anticipation. You pull out your carving knife and folk, ready to go to town, and then you realize to your chagrin, that you haven't properly rested your smoked goodness! Oh my, what shall you do!?

I've always been told, and have practiced resting my meat after cooking it. Steaks, brisket, ribs, pork butts, you name it. However, our very own Meathead states that there is no benefit to doing so, suggesting that one can dive right in. However, two of my favorite Pitmasters Aaron Franklin and Steven Raichlen both insist that there's a need for meat to rest, so that it cast relax and release the pent up juices it contains.

Who's right? Does it make a difference? What do you do, and why?

[Max Good]

Meathead is right. Besides, steaks usually get plenty of rest between the moment they are removed from the grill until the first bite is taken.

[TallTrees]

Yeah, that's about how much time my steaks get too. Long enough for me to plate it, find knife & fork, and cut it. lol

[BBQCentralShow]

If you find that since is a way of proving things to the positive or negative, then there is no need to rest. If you feel letting it rest makes for a better end product for you and your guests...let it rest.

In regards to brisket...I have found that letting the brisket cool to a "luke warm" hand temperature makes for a more juicy slice...but its not because of redistribution of juices...if the meat is hot, it will dry the slice quicker than letting it get cooler before slicing. Just my $0.02.

[DWCowles]

I don't let the steaks rest and I only let the ribs rest for about 15 mins so they can cool enough to cut. As far as briskets and pork butts I let those rest for at least 2 hrs.

[Medusa]

Agree... --Ed

[FireMan]

Raichlen has'nt caught on yet, & Franklin is doin brisket. I'll bet Franklin does'nt rest his ribs. Question to be asked, after reading Meathead, what do you think?

Ditto with DW, let ribs rest to cut & handle.

[TallTrees]

Whatdya mean Raichlen hasn't caught on yet? To what? Franklin rest his ribs about 20~30 minutes before slicing, to let them reabsorb the juices, he says. I like Meathead's book. Great information, which continually raises new questions for me.

[Spinaker]

I am in the same boat as DW. I always rest my briskets and butts. But Steaks? When I cook steaks, its because Im hungry right now!! No time for rest.

[FireMan]

Yo!

[CaptainMike]

I smoked a bone in leg of lamb for Debate Dinner with friends yesterday. There were a couple of never-lamb folks in the group and I wanted to see if I could convert them. The trouble was that the roast was only at about 100 degrees at the agreed upon dinner time. I hit it hard on direct heat for about 15 minutes then placed in a pan and foiled it. I didn't want to cambro it for fear of overcooking it. The point is that I think by hitting hard with high heat and foiling/resting for 15 minutes it turned out perfectly rare to medium rare and was definitely better than the debate. We also have a couple of converts to roasted lamb.

[Lost in China]

It's not that they didn't like lamb. It's that they didn't like *poorly done* lamb. I used to be the same way with Indian food. Turns out, I liked it all along, what I didn't like was the crap food I had been served before.

[Max Good]

There's a difference between resting and holding. If you cambro a brisket for a couple hours, that's holding, if you wait five minutes before serving a steak, that's resting.

[Medusa]

Good points. Thx! --Ed

[TallTrees]

Yup.