Resting Steak After Cooking Is Essential — Here’s How To Do It And For How Long
We’ve all done it — pulled a sizzling steak off the hot pan or grill, then immediately served it or sliced into the meat. The juices pool all over the chopping board or plate. That steak that looks so perfect isn’t at its best. You’ve probably seen or heard the solution to this problem in every recipe: Rest your steak. But why, and for how long?
The science behind resting your steak is explained perfectly in this piece by Serious Eats. Essentially, it’s all to do with the temperature of the meat and how that determines how it expels its juices. But what you really need to know is that resting the steak gives you a much more succulent and tender piece of meat. All the delicious savoury juices are within the meat, rather than going to waste on the chopping board.
As for how to rest a steak, it’s pretty simple. Pull your meat off the heat and place it on your chopping board. Then just let it sit there. Be patient. In the words of the late, great Anthony Bourdain, it needs to rest for five to seven minutes. “Don’t touch it, don’t poke it, don’t slice it to look inside,” he insisted (via YouTube). But while this is spot-on advice for many home-cooked steaks, the length of time you need to let the steak rest for also depends on the cut of beef and its size.
How long to rest a steak for the best results
A good rule of thumb is to rest a steak for five minutes per inch of thickness. With thinner cuts, that could well be just five minutes. But for thicker cuts, such as a big ribeye, T-bone or porterhouse steak, you’re going to need to be patient just a little longer. Another helpful rule is to let the meat rest for half the amount of time it was cooked for. Twenty minutes cooking? Rest it for 10.
You might have seen people covering their steaks in foil to rest after cooking. So is this necessary? Again, it depends on the cut. Thinner cuts don’t need to be covered, as it will trap the heat and essentially accelerate the cooking process. In other words, your steak will carry on cooking for longer than you’d like – and end up overcooked. However, a large cut can be covered in foil as it will rest for a much longer period.
Possibly the most important thing to remember is to take the piece of meat off the heat before it’s cooked to your ideal temperature. This is because it will carry on cooking as it rests. To avoid an overcooked or dry steak, pull it off the grill or out of the pan a few degrees before it’s cooked to your liking. A meat thermometer is the only way to accurately gauge the temperature. Then rest it for a piece of meat that’s perfectly cooked and much more juicy with every bite.
