Question about that "rest meat 10 minutes" rule for thin cuts

A guy at the counter in Boise asked me why his flank steak was dry and he said he was resting it 15 minutes like the internet told him to. For anything under an inch thick, 3 to 5 minutes is plenty, since a 15 minute rest on a thin cut just lets it go cold on the board. Anyone else have customers confused by this?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

charliebarnes11d ago

Man, this drives me nuts too! I read a thing from a chef a while back that said resting is about letting the juices settle back into the meat, but on a thin cut there's just not much juice to settle and it cools down crazy fast. 3 to 5 minutes for flank or skirt sounds right to me. I've seen people do the foil tent thing too and that just steams the crust soggy, which is a whole other problem. The 10 minute rule got spread around for big roasts and thick steaks and folks just ran with it for everything. Thin cuts need barely any rest, and honestly a lot of them are better sliced right away.

3