Rest Your Meat!

Those of you who know me know that I live, and sometimes get yelled at, by the motto: “Rest is Best”. It’s a belief that has developed over years of living in constant awareness/fear of over training. A real threat when the majority of your rowing career feels like every cell in your ragged, aging body is saying you could really use a day to RELAX, or at least a morning to sleep in. At the same time the coaching staff is convinced that what you really need is to practice twice on Saturday and then wake up extra early on Sunday to do 2,000m racing pieces because next week is going to be a "real mess." By "real mess" they mean we’ll have to row everyday at 9:00am instead of 7:00am. So we have to get the work in this weekend. It’s hard to believe, I know, but when everything you do is based on what you suspect Zee Germans are doing, rest gets lost in the mix.

I’m sure there are people reading this right now (Wyatt Allen) who are saying, “Come on Bryan, suck it up you whinny little boy, you take time off all the time." I know, you’re right, but if athletes didn’t complain about being tired and coaches didn’t complain about not training enough what would we talk about? Technique? That sounds way too complicated. To be honest, I don’t feel over trained right now. We are getting ready to race the NSR III so I feel pretty rested. I just had an incident at dinner last night that reminded me of this so I thought I would use a lesson from the culinary world to illustrate my point: rest is as important as the work.

One of the saddest things in the whole culinary universe is to watch some poor soul take the time and care to properly grill a steak, or roast a nice organic chicken or a beautiful rack of lamb and then take it directly from the heat to the cutting board and hack into it to see if it’s done. Seeing the meat turn a pathetic pale grey as all the juices and flavor pour out all over the counter is enough to make me cry, or stuff them in the oven to think about what they have done. If only that person had a little bit of patience, they could be enjoying a perfectly tender piece of meat. Last night I was "that guy." I grilled a flank steak to make a sandwich (recipe to follow) and when it was done I let it rest. However, I got a bit impatient. I had a headache and needed to eat. The steak had been resting for 3-4 minutes and I thought I could get away with it so I began slicing. I thought it was going to be ok at first, but then I noticed it looked a little overdone and I began to worry. As I pressed the knife for the next slice I noticed the juices slowly seeping out of the pores and cracks of the meat. I cut it too soon. I was immediately filled with sadness and rage and didn’t know if I should break down in tears or throw the plate across the room. I did neither. I sucked it up and forced myself to suffer through the beef jerky sandwich I was about to assemble.

Why does letting the meat rest make a difference? Think about that hunk of flesh you are about to eat. At one point it was a muscle in some animal running around in some field. What do muscles do? They contract, which is exactly what happens when you put your steak or roast to the flame. The muscle cells contract forcing the liquid out of the cell and into the spaces in between. Letting it rest and relax allows the juices to be reabsorbed into the cells and redistribute throughout the meat. Also, resting will even out temperature and doneness. As it sits it will continue cooking. The center of, say, a rib roast will rise anywhere from 10-15 degrees as it rests.

A general rule of thumb is to let a roast or bird rest for at least 15 minutes, but sometimes I let it rest longer. I’ve let rib roasts sit in a warm (not hot) spot loosely covered with foil for as long at 30 minutes and they were still warm in the middle. I let steaks rest for as long as I’ve cooked them, unless they are very thin and cook quickly then I give them a bit longer. I’ve also found that birds give me the biggest problem. I always err on the long side, especially with turkey.

Think of the rest period as the taper. You’ve put in all this preparation, time and focus, now all you need is a little bit of faith that you’ve done the right things. Blowing out 1500 meter pieces aren’t going to help you now. Sit back, pour a glass of wine, have a beer or finish cooking the rest of your dinner, whatever, just leave the steak alone. It will be there and it will perform.