Its very difficult to accurately , in a scientific sense , if not impossible , to measure flavor.
its subjective . its also temperature dependent .
and overnight ' rest ' is simply a ... simple unit of time.
Vivian Howard made an interesting point in her second show. She was making a casserole .
One of the major units in the casserole was ground beef w alf dozen ground apices mixed in.
she noted that after throughly mixing the burger , then cooking , you could taste the individual spice components.
after letting the mixture rest overnight ( refrigerated of course ) then cooking , you tasted
' one ' flavor . its an interesting point .
She's as pretty insightful and honest chef. Id say she tried both , and came to that conclusion .
on the other hand , if you are braising for 3 hours , at a temp well above room temp , your flavors are probably
evenly distributed . equilibrium is reached faster at higher temps.
my feeling is that resting results in , at least , water soluble flavors , possibly also fat soluble ones
moving back into meat , as the fibers relax at cooler temps . they probably also move back into
say a cooked carrot , as the cellulose has degraded . but probably in vegetable terms , not that far.
