Guide to Resting Meat after Cooking

All meat needs to rest after being grilled, and it’s not just so you don’t burn the roof of your mouth. Resting meat allows juices to redistribute, whereas immediately cutting into it will send juices spilling onto your plate and dry out your food. There are a few theories explaining why this happens and many more detailed experiments attempting to prove them, but we thought it best to use two simple pictures to show just how big a difference a few minutes of resting can make.

Unrested sliced steak with lots of liquid on the cutting board

Steak that was not allowed to rest.

Rested steak sliced on cutting board with no excess liquid

Steak that has been allowed to rest for 5 minutes.

As you can see in the photo on the left, cutting into meat as soon as it comes off the grill results in a pool of juices that your potatoes and greens could swim in. The steak on the right, meanwhile, rested for about 5 minutes and retained most of its flavorful juices. Both steaks were the same thickness, so the only difference between them is the amount of rest time.

How Long Should You Rest Your Meat?

The FDA recommends resting all meat for at least 3 minutes to ensure carryover cooking — which describes the increase in food’s internal temperature after it’s removed from heat — brings the food to completion. Bigger cuts, however, will generally need more time to fully redistribute juices and reach an even internal temperature. For example, a huge food item like a whole turkey or chicken should be rested for about half an hour. Some people even follow resting guidelines based on the cut of meat and how much it weighs, like 5 minutes per inch of thickness or 10 minutes per pound.

To prevent carryover cooking from overdoing your meat, simply take it off the grill when it’s about 5 degrees Fahrenheit short of the target temperature. That way, you’ll be able to properly rest the meat without overcooking it. If you’re worried about your meat cooling down too much during the resting period, try folding a sheet of aluminum foil in half and “tenting” it over your food to conserve some of the heat.

Another View

In his book “Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling,” food writer Meathead Goldwyn claims that resting meat isn’t necessary. Co-author and food scientist Greg Blonder performed a series of experiments showing an insignificant loss of juices from meat that was immediately cut into compared with meat that was rested for recommended times. Blonder measured a difference of about a teaspoon of lost juices from steaks, while the difference of lost juices he collected from whole roasts was merely an ounce.

Goldwyn uses this evidence to argue that resting meat offers almost no benefits while putting grillers at risk of serving cold and overcooked food. There are experienced voices on both sides of the debate over resting meat, so we encourage you to try both methods and see which you prefer.