The standard recommendation in many cookbooks is to let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes after cooking. Yeah right? When you are scurrying to get food on the table, who has that kind of time? Yes, it is true that letting meat rest improves the juiciness and rounds out the temperature/doneness of the meat, but in the heat of the moment that step quite often gets lost.
Would your average dinner party guest pick up the difference between meat that has rested versus meat that has not? Probably not. Your average guest is usually grateful to be served and has less than a discerning palate. I love my buddy Joe Chaudoin. He is always appreciative of any and everything I serve. We once had a roast chicken served family style and someone asked him to pass a piece of dark meat. He got this puzzled look on his face and said chicken is chicken. Joe has a twin brother Ray that is as big, and as big an eater as Joe. They grew up competing for that last piece of chicken. Who cared whether it was white or dark meat. They certainly wouldn’t have noticed if it has rested.
My nephew Jimmy is a very good cook and a firm believer in letting meat rest. He has reminded me several times that I need to let a piece of steak rest. (He probably doesn’t know I have had a book published). Jimmy needs to know that every time I rush something to a table of hungry guests, I think of him. He is right that letting meat rest makes it better.
My favorite Jimmy story goes back to a Thanksgiving when I char roasted a ham. Jimmy kept telling me that my ham on the grill was burning and I kept telling him it was supposed to. Boy was he shocked when he tasted my ham with subtle char notes. I can still see in my mind the picture Jim and his bother Mike fighting over the last pieces of burnt ends after dinner.
Through this pandemic, we need to cut each other some slack. We need to let it rest. The fact that everything and everyone is split along political lines doesn’t make life any easier. The truth is that nothing I say (or write) is going to change anyone’s mind. Everyone has already decided who they are going to vote for. Everyone has their own definition of what is safe and appropriate behavior. We need to let it rest!
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