Letting fish/meat rest to room temperature VS thawing it

[jessicahowles]

Hi guys, while looking through Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home, I noticed that he advocates resting fish/meat in the kitchen till it reaches room temperature. Is that going to be a hygiene concern? I am usually taught to unthaw a piece of protein overnight in the fridge or if in a rush, put it under cold tap water and then use the fish immediately. Nobody ever mentioned anything about letting the fish rest out in the open till it reaches room temperature.

Edited June 13, 2010 by jessicahowles (log)

[paulraphael]

The idea is that it will cook better if it's closer to room temperature than to refrigerator temperature. Especially if you're doing high heat cooking like sauté. For something like a fish of a few pounds, it should take well under an hour. This time can be also be used to dry it, season it, etc..

I certainly can't speak for Keller, but I think that when most people talk about bringing meat up to room temp, they're really just bringing it closer ... like within 10 or 15 degrees or so. If you can get that fish up into the 60s, it will sauté beautifully. The last 10 or 20 degrees, up to your actual kitchen temperature, will take much longer and won't offer much benefit.

You only have to worry about safety if it's such a large piece of meat that it will take hours to come up to temperature. I've rested big roasts for several hours, knowing I was going to brown the outside in a pan and kill anything that starts growing there. Very big fish pose a tougher challenge, especially if they're cold water species that spoil quickly at any temperature above freezing. I'd be curious to hear how people deal with these.

Edited June 13, 2010 by paulraphael (log)

[faronem]

Although I've not read that book, I'd suspect Keller is talking about bringing refrigerated proteins (not thawing from frozen) to room temperature prior to cooking to help ensure more even heat distribution for high-heat/quick-cooking techniques, like pan searing.

It shouldn't be a problem if you're thawing or "de-refrigerating" as part of the cooking process and the temp continues to increase.

In other words, you're effectively starting to "cook" the meat/fish in a 70F oven--the air in your kitchen--but you wouldn't want hold any part of it at 70F.