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Major rule about cooking meat turns out to be wrong

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.

What follows is a re-examination of the position he laid out back then—one that's been hugely influential and long stood as Serious Eats' take on the subject—in light of newer evidence and a deeper understanding of what's really happening when meat rests. Even as I set up this carefully controlled test, I struggled to keep the samples at consistent slicing temperatures, and it underscored one of Chris Young's main points: 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. The bottom line is this: It's a good idea to pull meat early from the pan or oven and let it rest, but only long enough to give it the time to slide up via carryover cooking to the target internal temperature, which you need to track closely.

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