In recipes I've often seen the advice to let roasted beef (or pork,
lamb, etc.) rest a few minutes after it comes out of the oven before
cutting or carving, the reason being that this gives time for the
juices (mostly water) in the meat to re-equilibrate, thus reducing
their loss when the meat is finally cut. I have seen similar advice
for poultry too, but never for "roasted" (i.e. baked) fish. How
come? It seems to me that the moisture-retention rationale would
apply to fish flesh as much as it does to beef flesh...

Irv

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:46:10 +0000 (UTC), Irving Kimura
wrote:

In recipes I've often seen the advice to let roasted beef (or pork,
lamb, etc.) rest a few minutes after it comes out of the oven before
cutting or carving, the reason being that this gives time for the
juices (mostly water) in the meat to re-equilibrate, thus reducing
their loss when the meat is finally cut. I have seen similar advice
for poultry too, but never for "roasted" (i.e. baked) fish. How
come? It seems to me that the moisture-retention rationale would
apply to fish flesh as much as it does to beef flesh...

Irv

Someone who actually knows what he or she is talking about will chime
in here, but I'll take a guess in the meantime.

I'm thinking that baked fish flakes when it's cooked, so the moisture
is going to drain away rather than move to another place in the meat,
and so would not be available to migrate at the end of the cooking.

FWIW I rarely bake whole fish, but I do like to wrap fillets, either
in parchment paper or spring roll skins (my favorite, because you get
to eat the wrapper). Either way keeps the moisture and added flavors
right where I want them.

David

Irving Kimura writes:

n recipes I've often seen the advice to let roasted beef (or pork,
lamb, etc.) rest a few minutes after it comes out of the oven before
cutting or carving, the reason being that this gives time for the
juices (mostly water) in the meat to re-equilibrate, thus reducing
their loss when the meat is finally cut. I have seen similar advice
for poultry too, but never for "roasted" (i.e. baked) fish. How
come? It seems to me that the moisture-retention rationale would
apply to fish flesh as much as it does to beef flesh...

What makes you think fish flesh reacts differently? It does not. Fish needs
to rest a bit too. Certainly a salmon steak should rest as long as a
porterhouse steak. But size matters... were it a thicker example, say a baked
whole stuffed grouper it should be permitted to rest the same as a stuffed tom
turkey. Another point to consider; generally the flavor of fish is more
delicate than say beef, therefore fish should definitely not be eaten piping
hot, in fact no food can be fully appreciated eaten piping hot. Then again
it's quite common that certain folks wolf down steaming hot pizza fresh from
the oven... then all one savors is suffering a burnt palate for the next three
days... anyone does that more than once, those are the folks with their taste
in their ass.


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