Allow meat to come to "room temp" ?

NibbleMeThis

In a thread earlier today, Fidel challenged the logic behind the "conventional wisdom" of waiting for the meat to come to temp before putting it on the Egg. He said:

You should test them sometime and see just how much the internal temp rises when letting your steaks sit out for 20-30 minutes. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I really don't think the internal temp or the meat rises much to where there is any benefit to this step.

I've been a believer of the school of thought that you should allow the meat come up in temp. I thought I'd take him up on this and since the original thread was about pork chops, I got two 1.5" thick chops at the store. I put remote probes in each and measured the temps every 5 minutes for 30 minutes. The ambient temp was 71f.

I was suprised to see that the temps of both only increased by 3 degrees in 30 minutes, a ~6% increase. I had a nice pretty graph and table but the line was so flat, why bother?

So does that shoot a hole in the "room temp" theory. I'd have to say I won't hold up a cook because I'm letting meat come to temp.

Now if someone will buy me a hot tub, I'll try that one out next :silly:

AZRP

That is exactly what Cooks Illustrated found when they let a London broil sit out for an hour, the internal temp was still 40. -RP

AzScott

I've always heard to let it come up to room temp but have never planned that far ahead. I'm to the point that if I have a frozen steak I'll throw it on with a dome temp of 185 to 215 with smoke till it thaws, take it off, open the vents till it hits 350, throw the steak back on until I hit a nice rare at 125, and then cover it with foil to rest. The best steaks I've had on the egg have been done this way. Bear in mind I'm not the biggest fan of a charred sear.

DynaGreaseball

What happened to the theory that cold meat will absorb more smoke?

The Naked Whiz

That is urban legend. Meat does not absorb smoke. Smoke flavor is primarily developed from the deposition of smoke particles on the surface of the meat. As long as there is smoke present in the cooking chamber, the smoke flavor will be increased. (Reference Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking.")

The smoke ring, however, does only form until the meat reaches about 140 degrees. Obviously there has been a false connection drawn by some that the smoke ring and smoke flavor are somehow related.

DynaGreaseball

So, do you let the temp of meat rize before you throw it on the egg, or do you leave it in the fridge?

The Naked Whiz

I'm not sure this shoots a hole in the theory since I don't know what the supposed benefits of the theory are. :-)

However, I would point out that the internal temperature of the meat is only one data point. There is obviously a temperature gradient between the "internal" temperature and the surface temperature. Just for example, say that the entire piece of meat is 37 degrees when you take it out of the fridge. Then leave it out for 30 minutes. You might find that the internal temp has only risen 6 degrees to 43 degrees, but the surface may have risen to 20 degrees to 57. (I'm making this up.) So before you had a flat gradient (37 inside and 37 surface), now you have a relatively steep gradient (43 in and 57 surface). That is going to affect how the heat gets to the center of the meat. FWIW. I vote with the lazy crowd who can't remember to prepare anything in advance.... :-)

The Naked Whiz

I usually do whatever I do. Sometimes I take it out, sometimes I don't.

DynaGreaseball

Me too, actually. Just trying to get the best opinions. And I did. Thanks

Fidel

I agree with you completely whiz, which leads to the next point. As stike is fond of saying, when you cook a steak to - we'll use medium here - you really only have a thin area of true medium in the center that progresses more to well done as you reach the exterior surface.

If you like that gradient finish, then warming the surface of the meat makes sense.

If you prefer more medium meat, then keeping the entire steak uniformly cool should lessen that gradient finish effect.

NibbleMeThis

I tried that but didn't trust the data because my only way of measuring surface temp was touching it with an instant read. I need (i.e. want) one of those infrared surface temp thermometers but the wife won't let me :silly:

Those temps did increase 1-2 degrees more than the internal temp, but again, I am not sure how accurate the readings were for the surface.

Like you said, do what works for you.

stike

maybe now that YOU said it, they'll believe it.

you need a page of BBQ myths.....

(like you need MORE work to do, right?)
cheers!

The Naked Whiz

Tell you what. You bring some nice thick prime wagyu tenderloins over and we'll experiment, lol!

Fidel

Certainly you'll need an independent third party observer to validate the results, won't you?

DynaGreaseball

I think this is the most esoteric thread I've ever seen in here. Can't wait 'til Woos Day. JK. I appreciate all the opinions and advice.

The Naked Whiz

Indeed. Swibirun, bring lots of meat!

Davekatz

The Naked Whiz wrote:

So before you had a flat gradient (37 inside and 37 surface), now you have a relatively steep gradient (43 in and 57 surface). That is going to affect how the heat gets to the center of the meat.

Bingo!

I typically leave my steaks out for an hour, and it's been my experience that the longer I leave them out, the less gray ring and the more pink center I get. But my reasoning had been that the closer to internal temp was to ideal then the more "ideal" I would get.

But if the reality is that the inside temp isn't budging much, then I can sure see how a greater difference/gradient between the outside and the inside temps would give you a greater swatch of perfectly done meat.

I have to admit be being guilty of calling for the meat to be at room temp, which isn't ever going to safely happen. See today's blog post for some of my ignorance:
Sizzlin’ Steaks.

Looking forward to the opportunity to test more of these tasty theories, as long as I get to eat my mistakes.

Stanley

Shall I assume that the hot tub method is unnecessary in your world?

dls2122

Maybe the problem here is the term "room temp". I have a friend that cooks steaks at a resturant and his explanation is this - I have no idea if this is a myth, old wives tale, something that's in our mind or whatever. Taking a tender piece of meat like steak and going from a cold platform (refrig) to a hot platform (grill, cast iron, whatever) causes tissue fibers to tighten up causing the meat to toughen up. Tougher cuts of meat that cook low and slow have a chance for these tissues to relax, but not so for a steak. Allowing it to rest for a half hour or so allows the meat to relax and when it hits the hot platform it doesn't "shock" the meat allowing a more tender final product. Maybe that degree or 2 or 6 is all that is actually needed to accomplish this. Again, perhaps the problem is the term "room temp" and not the actual procedure.

But then again, that's just my opinion - I could be wrong.

Thanks,
Don

Fidel

The hot tub method is a completely different animal than setting meat on the counter.

Water is a much better conductor than air, and 100*+ ambient temperature is going to have more of an effect than 72-75*.

stike

you need to ask WHY you are doing it...

the hot tub, and trex'ing (and reverse Trex).... heck, even leaving it out on the counter are all TRYING to achieve the same thing.

a two part cook. one raises the meat most of the way to "done". then searing is done as a totally independent part, with little of the sear having anything to do with cooking the meat INSIDE other than raising the temp the rest of the way (maybe 30 degrees).

the problem with leaving meat on the counter is that it does not raise the temp of the meat at all, at least in comparison to how you might THINK it is raising it. if you could leave it out and have it very warm before searing, that' be like hot-tubbing or the other methods. but it can;t be done. not without leaving the meat out for hours and hours anyway, and that's not safe.

Fidel

That is the key in the TRex method - sear the meat, then allow it to rest for a 20 minute of so period, which allows the fibers to relax from that initial shock.

fishlessman

the salt sticks better once the surface starts to warm up. then its on to the sear and the 20 minute rest ala trex (they probably warm up more during that 20 min rest before going back on). burgers i actually toss in the freezer for 20 min or so to setup, they seem to hold tegether better when partially frozen and tossed on a grill.

The Naked Whiz

I've never hot tubbed, so I don't know. Note that I'm not advocating anything here. I was just pointing out that when you leave meat out, the small change in internal temperature isn't the whole story.