For many years barbecue aficionados have had a problem. After the meat had finished cooking, every method of keeping the barbecue warm throughout the day until it could be served resulted in dry meat. Steam tables turned it to mush, heat lamps zapped the moisture from it, and leaving it in a pit cooked the meat even further and dried it out. But as reported on NPR.org, the 21st century has brought a solution to the problem with new high-tech warming units, and pitmasters have found something surprising: these warming units actually improve the meat.
Jeff Savell, a professor of meat science at Texas A&M, has said that this rested barbecue is the best ever produced. He adds that all barbecue benefits from holding, because resting the meat allows the moisture to regroup around the proteins. The larger the cut of meat, the longer the holding period should be.