If you’ve ever cooked bison, beef, lamb, chicken, pork, and even some fish then you should understand the importance of resting your meat. Resting meat is a simple step at the end of a cooking process that can prove tasty results that will leave you wanting more!
What Benefits Does Resting Provide?
Resting provides a number of benefits to the meat including:
Allowing juices to reabsorb into the meat providing a juicer protein
Continuing to cook the inside of the meat without cooking the outside as well
Resting the meat means when you cut into it, it won’t be dry!
The Science Behind Resting
As meat cooks, protein fibers develop and coagulate to become firm. The reason meat becomes firm during the cooking process is that it is releasing moisture from the meat which was previously held within the cell walls of the protein. When we rest the meat, the firm steak now takes the opportunity to reabsorb the juice into the fibers of the meat itself which makes the piece overall juicer! As the warm juices continue to soak into the protein, it also cooks the internal temperature of the meat as well.
How Long to Rest Bison
After the bison is cooked, we recommend allowing the meat to rest wrapped in foil for around 5 - 10 minutes. The golden room for this is 1 minute for every ~4oz of meat or 5 minutes per inch of thickness. The end goal is to have the center of the steak be around 120F (if you like your bison steak medium-rare) as the internal temperature will rise around 2-5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rare: 115-120 degrees Medium Rare: 121-129 degrees Medium: 129-135 degrees
How to Rest Your Meat
The age-old dilemma is if you should cover your bison, or leave it uncovered. While we do want to let the juices permeate the meat, we also want to keep the steak warm for service. If we transfer the meat to an area without a heat trap, the protein will become cold before serving. To remedy this, we suggest “tenting” the meat by covering it in aluminum foil to still allow air circulation of the meat, while still letting the juice absorb into the bison.
Steps:
Remove the meat from the heat source
Transfer the meat to a cutting board, or warm plate
Using aluminum foil, tent the bison loosely to retain heat and allow for airflow
After ~5-10 minutes based on the size of the bison, remove the foil
Serve!
Ready To Rest Your Bison?
Contact us today online, email us at meat@jjbison.com, or call us at (443) 252 - 2099 to order your bison today!