Does "resting" Sous Vide meat BEFORE icing, really help absorb more juice?

[torolover]

In Modern Cuisine, after pressure cooking tough meat, they suggest to let the meat rest in it's liquid to absorb some of it's lost juice.

 

In traditional cooking, Chefs suggest letting braised meats cool down and rest in it's liquid to absorb some of it's lost juice.

 

Do you need to do this if you sous vide meats for long times?

 

For example, after I Sous Vide pork belly at 171F for 10 hours, should I let it rest at room temperature for 15 min.?  Then when it cools, plunge it into an ice bath?

 

In the Fat Duck cookbook, Blumenthal suggest to let the Sous Vide meat rest for 15 min at room temperature.  Then he suggest to let the meat rest for 15 min. in room temperature WATER.  Then finally he suggests to cool it in an ice water bath.   

 

The Manresa cookbook also suggests this.

 

Any new data to show wether this is necessary or not?

Edited January 19, 2015 by torolover (log)

[btbyrd]

This technique was first suggested by Bruno Goussault, one of the godfathers of low temp cooking. I wouldn't say that it's necessary, but those who have done side-by-side taste tests have found that SV meat that's chilled slowly in stages retains more juice. Dave Arnold discussed it on a recent episode of Cooking Issues; it's the first question in this episode.

[EnriqueB]

That's practice in many high-end restaurants after the advice of Bruno Goussault, as btbyrd says. The question is whether the increased safety risk and consequent shorter conservation time is worthy the slight improvement at home. At the restaurant they can better control the process, minimize conservation time, keep in fridges with temperatures < -3ºC assured, etc. Not so much at home, where I don't consider it is worth it.

[torolover]

Now I'm curious...What if I put a marinade into the sous vide bag right after I take it out of the hot water bath.  Then I let the sous vide meat rest for 15 min at room temperature.  Will the meat absorb the marinade and the marinade will go INTO the meat?  

 

If meat absorbs juices when resting, theoretically it should be absorbing the marinade as well right?

Edited January 19, 2015 by torolover (log)

[paulraphael]

I haven't seen any evidence that meat reabsorbs juices. It's possible that a pressure cooker is a special case. 

 

I'm guessing that with slower chilling, it's about not losing as much additional liquid during the chilling process.

 

When resting conventionally cooked meat, juices aren't reabsorbed (or redistributed, as the lore suggests). All that happens is that proteins in the juice near the outside of the meat cool enough for the viscosity to increase. This helps hold it in place when the meat is cut, rather than spilling all over the place. This has been demonstrated in experiments.

[pbear]

FWIW, Nathan always poo-pooed this claim, so the fact he came around should tell you something.  See also Douglas.