You know, for a long while I've been a "reverse sear" guy when it comes to steak. I learned it from Amazing Ribs, where I've learned a lot of great things about cooking--and it helped me get my steaks from novice to very good. But it's time to graduate to a better method.
I believe the reverse sear is targeted at people who don't know that much about cooking, don't know that much about how to finish a piece of meat, and thus it helps them to avoid overcooking. However, by getting the temp up to near-done levels and then blasting it with high heat to sear, it makes it extraordinarily difficult to make sure that you get a
perfect sear and
perfect doneness. You're always playing a dangerous game that if you sear it as strong as you want, are you going to be above, at, or below your target internal temp?
For a novice, I think too many of them just throw steaks on a hot grill and cook over direct heat, which means the outside is charred black to get to appropriate doneness, or the inside is raw to get to appropriate color outside. For those folks, reverse sear is an improvement.
But there's a reason no serious chefs or steakhouses use the reverse sear, and I think it's because of the problem I mentioned above of having to time it perfectly to get the color and doneness
perfectly right.
So I'm back to the sear-then-finish method.
Two ways to do it:
- Grill: This method either requires two grills, a grill that can easily support two-zone cooking with one portion indirect, or searing on the grill and then moving inside to an oven. To do this, you need one grill ripping hot--hotter than many grills support unless they are a kettle with a bunch of coals piled up, a kamado, or a grill with a dedicated searing station. Many gassers aren't good at this, and pellet grills even worse. At this point you want extreme direct heat. Cook on all sides until you get the right color. Feel free to flip as many times as you need to avoid burning the meat--don't be a "I only flip ONCE" guy or you're likely to burn it if the grill is hot enough. Once the color is right, remove to a MUCH lower temp grill or the oven--in this case the pellet grills are great because they're automatically indirect and you can set them to a low temp like 225. Stick a leave-in meat thermometer in the grill and let the steak slowly come up to temp until you get to your desired temp MINUS 5 degrees which will carry over during resting. So for medium rare (130-135 IT) I'll pull at about 127 degrees and wrap in foil on a cutting board / etc to rest.
- Stove/oven: Preheat the oven to 225 and get a cast iron pan on top of a flame on HIGH heat. Get some oil and butter sizzling in the pan, and set the steak(s) down in the pan. You can optionally add some herbs/garlic to the pan. Depending on the shape and thickness of the steak, you may or may not want to sear the sides; a thinner steak it won't matter. If you sear the sides, do the sides about a minute each before the top or bottom. You don't need to worry about the same level of color as the top or bottom, and if you do, you risk overcooking. But once the sides are lightly seared, put the steak face down in the pan and sear 4-5 minutes, basting the top with the butter/oil mixture as you go. After 4-5 minutes, flip the steak, insert a leave-in remote thermometer in the center, and put it immediately into the oven--the opposite side will sear nicely due to the hot pan. Leave in the oven until your IT reads your desired temp minus 5 degrees, and then remove to foil and a cutting board / etc to rest. Do NOT leave the steak resting in the hot cast iron pan or it will overcook.
Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is better.
