Carryover Cooking

Carryover cooking is the continued cooking of food after it has been removed from its heat source. Because temperature is usually measured at a food's center while its outer layers stay hotter, heat keeps migrating inward once the food is off the heat, raising the internal temperature by roughly three to fourteen degrees Celsius depending on the food's size and density. Applied to meat the effect is often called resting, which also lets internal juices redistribute over five to twenty minutes, though recent research suggests resting improves temperature control more reliably than it improves flavor or juiciness.