Page 29 - August 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

Resting meat has other detrimental impacts:
Cold steak. Steakhouses heat up their plates for a reason. We like our meat hot. It makes us salivate!
Soft surface. After cooking,
water migrates from the
center to surface, turning a
crisp crust wet and soggy,
especially on the side that touches the plate or cutting board.
Overcooked meat. Depending on the meat’s thickness, the center can rise 5 to 10°F or more from carryover cooking, taking a your perfectly cooked prime rib roast to particle board before you know it.
Waxy fat. In a hot steak the fats are soft, some- times even runny, giving meat a rich unctuous mouthfeel and a lot of flavor. As it cools, the fat hardens and gets waxy.
Tenting with foil makes it worse. Foil is a lousy insulator, plus it traps steam, which soft- ens the crust and turns crackly poultry skin to rubber in minutes.
Resting vs. Holding
Yes, I know that pork butts and beef briskets cooked to 190 to 205°F are often held for an hour or so in an insulated box like a faux cambro after smoking, but that is not done for juice re- tention. I call it "holding" meat not "resting", and we do it to allow very gentle slow carryover cooking to continue to tenderize tough meats. This is very very different from meats like steak cooked to 125 to 140°F (rare to medium).
So what have we learned about juiciness? It's not all about the liquid content of the meat. Considering all the variables, here's how to get the juiciest results possible:
• Buy well-marbled meat with lots of connective tissue – fat makes us salivate and connective tis- sue gelatinizes, enhancing our perception of juiciness
• Salt it – salt helps meat hang onto juices
• Avoid overcooking and watch the temp – high temps dehydrate meat
• Eat it right away – resting does not make meat any juicier!
Meathead is the Barbecue Hall of Famer who founded AmazingRibs.com, by far the world's most popular outdoor cooking website. He is the au- thor of "Meathead, The Sci- ence of Great Barbecue and Grilling," a New York Times Best Seller that was also named one of the "100 Best Cookbooks of All Time" by Southern Living magazine.
For 2,000+ free pages of great barbecue and grilling info, visit AmazingRibs.com and take a free trial in the Pitmaster Club.
AUGUST 2021
BarbecueNews.com - 29