Why Sear-First is Better Than Reverse-Sear for Steak

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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. 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. I know I was one of those novices--and hence why reverse sear improved my steaks significantly.

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? You're so close to finishing temp when you sear that it's balancing on that knife edge of making sure you can get the sear and doneness right.

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. If you get the color perfect first while the middle of the steak is still pretty cold, you can gently bring it up to the finishing temp to perfect doneness. Best of both worlds.

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, and sear the other side. Remove to a baking sheet, insert a leave-in remote thermometer in the center, and put it into the oven. I used to recommend searing one side, flipping, and then putting the hot cast iron pan in the oven. I prefer a baking sheet because it makes it impossible to over-sear since you've already done both sides. 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. Don't rest it on a hot pan or it can risk overcooking.

Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is the next level.
 
Reverse sear can help soften and render some tougher tissue. So the cut of meat can matter.

But my approach is even simpler - get steaks cut to 1.25 inches thick. It's the perfect thickness for home cooking/grilling because you can just blast any reasonably high temp and it's vitrually impossible to overcook the middle.
 
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. 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. I know I was one of those novices--and hence why reverse sear improved my steaks significantly.

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? You're so close to finishing temp when you sear that it's balancing on that knife edge of making sure you can get the sear and doneness right.

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. If you get the color perfect first while the middle of the steak is still pretty cold, you can gently bring it up to the finishing temp to perfect doneness. Best of both worlds.

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, and sear the other side. Remove to a baking sheet, insert a leave-in remote thermometer in the center, and put it into the oven. I used to recommend searing one side, flipping, and then putting the hot cast iron pan in the oven. I prefer a baking sheet because it makes it impossible to over-sear since you've already done both sides. 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. Don't rest it on a hot pan or it can risk overcooking.

Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is the next level.
OK, you had me at "steak."

For the past few years I've been a fan boy/true believer in sous vide steak done to 125°F (rare, blood red), followed with a very quick, VERY hot sear at ~750°F for about 30-45 seconds per side.

I've got a 4 burner Weber grill with a dedicated 5th burner element for searing that gets ripping hot in short order. I've also seared in an old, reliable well seasoned family hand-me-down cast iron skillet that also does the job when placed on the external 12,000 BTU side burner.

Both methods, when used with sous vide, produce some of the most tenderful, tastey, perfectly finished steaks imaginable, and I was born and raised in Kansas City. Trust me when I say I know good steak.

Recently I've been hearing about reverse searing in prep for sous vide, but it seemed a little "weird", even more involved (and unnecessary) compared to 'normal' sous vide. Now you've piqued my interest, and I'll have to try it.
 
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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. 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. I know I was one of those novices--and hence why reverse sear improved my steaks significantly.

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? You're so close to finishing temp when you sear that it's balancing on that knife edge of making sure you can get the sear and doneness right.

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. If you get the color perfect first while the middle of the steak is still pretty cold, you can gently bring it up to the finishing temp to perfect doneness. Best of both worlds.

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, and sear the other side. Remove to a baking sheet, insert a leave-in remote thermometer in the center, and put it into the oven. I used to recommend searing one side, flipping, and then putting the hot cast iron pan in the oven. I prefer a baking sheet because it makes it impossible to over-sear since you've already done both sides. 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. Don't rest it on a hot pan or it can risk overcooking.

Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is the next level.

I got stressed just by reading that! I'll take my easy-going reverse sear with very reliable results, thank you. Works with thick steaks, chops, roasts, chicken parts, what-have-you. And when it comes to home-cooked or camp-cooked meats, I am no novice.

"Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is the next level."

"But there's a reason no serious chefs or steakhouses use the reverse sear,"


For the record, we've covered this elsewhere. BIAB is all-grain and a miniature pro-style system doesn't make inherently better beer.

:mug: to well executed steak, no matter how you get there.
 
I said what I said 😂

PXL_20220905_030103008.jpg
 
OK, you had me at "steak."

For the past few years I've been a fan boy/true believer in sous vide steak done to 125°F (rare, blood red), followed with a very quick, VERY hot sear at ~750°F for about 30-45 seconds per side.

I've got a 4 burner Weber grill with a dedicated 5th burner element for searing that gets ripping hot in short order. I've also seared in an old, reliable well seasoned family hand-me-down cast iron skillet that also does the job when placed on the external 12,000 BTU side burner.

Both methods, when used with sous vide, produce some of the most tenderful, tastey, perfectly finished steaks imaginable, and I was born and raised in Kansas City. Trust me when I say I know good steak.

Recently I've been hearing about reverse searing in prep for sous vide, but it seemed a little "weird", even more involved (and unnecessary) compared to 'normal' sous vide. Now you've piqued my interest, and I'll have to try it.

Not the biggest fan of sous vide, except for filet where it's perfect. Would probably be nice on strip as well, but I don't eat a lot of strip. To me it doesn't do quite as good of a job of rendering the fat as a high-heat cooking method. And since I'm a ribeye boy, there's a lot of fat in my steaks.

That said, if you like sous vide, I'm comfortable with the sous vide + sear method. It's IMHO harder to overcook a steak with sous vide + sear than a traditional reverse sear.

I got stressed just by reading that! I'll take my easy-going reverse sear with very reliable results, thank you. Works with thick steaks, chops, roasts, chicken parts, what-have-you. And when it comes to home-cooked or camp-cooked meats, I am no novice.

"Reverse sear is a great method to learn for cooking steak... But this is the next level."

"But there's a reason no serious chefs or steakhouses use the reverse sear,"


For the record, we've covered this elsewhere. BIAB is all-grain and a miniature pro-style system doesn't make inherently better beer.

:mug: to well executed steak, no matter how you get there.

I should point out that this is also a VERY easy-going method. IMHO even easier than reverse sear. Blast the hell out of it until you get the right color/crust, throw in a thermometer, and put it in a much lower temp indirect heat environment. Pull it 5 degrees under your finish temp, let it rest, and you're good to go. I think it's actually easier than reverse sear, although obviously for us novices (not restaurant chefs) it relies on the technology of a good leave-in thermometer probe. If you had to constantly poke it with an instant-read it would be less easy.

I use this for rack of lamb and tri tip as well. Sear for color/crust first, move to indirect, drop in a temp probe, pull at the right temp. Easier IMHO than trying to wait until it's just under temp and then sear it and risk under-/over-cooking it.
 
If I had to guess I would say I've cooked tens of thousands of steaks back when I was younger, plus thousands of burgers, and tons of chicken and seafood as a broiler cook. I won't say the perfect way to cook a steak, as I was never a chef, but getting the doneness correct on a grill is entirely possible without scorching the outside. It's just a matter of knowing your grill well and understanding the meat you are cooking. A grill is going to have zones which have different temperatures, a gas grill has a fixed flame pattern and it's not uniform. (In a restaurant, you don't fiddle with the knobs on the grill all night, the grill is ON.) I could have five burgers on the same ticket all different doneness and have them come out at the same time, started at the same time as well. I could have over a dozen steaks or burgers on the grill and know how they were supposed to be cooked by where they were at. As far as understanding the meat, lots of different factors but consider steaks in general. One steakhouse I worked cut their meat in-house. The weight of a particular steak for a specific price was pretty standard steak to steak but the thickness could vary. As soon as I heard the ticket, I would grab a steak out of the drawer based on the doneness. Usually this was based on how thick it was cut but also there was a certain texture sometimes that would cause the steak to swell on the grill. I knew on those they would be hard to get to medium. Then there would be chicken, ribs, filet mignon, strip steaks, tuna, salmon, etc. I could check doneness by knowing the grill, visual cues, and a poke of a finger if I wasn't 100% certain.

We didn't pan sear much, steaks were seared on the grill unless blackened or my favorite to cook, black and blue (Pittsburgh) a quick sear on both sides then send it out mooing! Those were done on cast iron.

And always keep your grill scraped, makes for nice diamond marks.
 
@Deadalus Yeah, when you're paid to cook steaks and you cook dozens or more each night, it's a different thing. I hope to someday get to the point where I can handle these things w/o a thermometer and by sight/touch/experience. I'm not there.

Re: cast iron sear, I think that's more to do with the fact that a lot of people don't have grills that put out enough BTUs to really handle steaks properly. If you can't generate enough heat to get a good sear on a grill, a really hot cast iron can "store" a ton of heat and transmit it to the surface of a steak much more effectively than a weak grill...
 
@Deadalus Yeah, when you're paid to cook steaks and you cook dozens or more each night, it's a different thing. I hope to someday get to the point where I can handle these things w/o a thermometer and by sight/touch/experience. I'm not there.

Re: cast iron sear, I think that's more to do with the fact that a lot of people don't have grills that put out enough BTUs to really handle steaks properly. If you can't generate enough heat to get a good sear on a grill, a really hot cast iron can "store" a ton of heat and transmit it to the surface of a steak much more effectively than a weak grill...
Of course. I'm pretty confident it was over a hundred a night at the steakhouse I worked at. Full drawers of them, with a restock or two on a busy night. Honestly it is a tricky station to learn in the restaurant. Besides cooking the food correctly, there's volume and speed and many cooks just didn't excel at it. I think back on how many times my mom who only ate her steak well done would send it back when eating out, it was nearly every time. Charred on the outside and pink on the inside or burnt the hell up. Same for me but I don't eat meat anymore. As a kid I absolutely hated grilled steaks and burgers because nobody cooked them correctly at any BBQ I ever went to. Broiler was my favorite station to work, thus my curiosity here, but I couldn't tell you whether your method might produce a better tasting steak. That's why I was wondering about the cast iron. My stepfather used to make a tasty London broil baking it instead of broiling it. The whole sous vide thing is long after my time in the kitchen.

Your diamond marks were good! It would have been fantastic to have an electronic thermometer just for quality control. Some cooks used to cut the bottom to check sometimes when there were disputes between staff. You've got the understanding that you just can't leave the steak in the same spot and flame the hell out of it. The one thing I would say is that when you are putting it in the oven, you won't be watching it nearly as closely and you may not be learning as quickly as might happen on the grill. You can't watch it sweat for instance or hear it sizzle, at least not too easily.
 
I've managed to do both well enough a few times with a cast iron pan. Not sure it will work with other methods. You need 2 flat bottom pans for this and I have an electric smooth top. High heat, low heat - the usual. Simply sear 1 side on the high to ~70% - if you can get it to seal with out crusting - that's the best. Then low heat till its just 1-2 under target temp. The back in the high heat and hopefully it crusts and gets to 100%. Then rest and slice. It works a lot better on tougher cuts and ones that are flat on both sides obviously.
 
Reverse-sear fan here - in part, due to use of a BGE. Given the ceramic grills are going to hold that heat for a while, cooking low at 250-300 for 20-30min, taking steaks off and letting them sit while you crank up the heat to 600+ (maybe 10 min) is maybe better suited to the ceramics. To sear first, I'd probably use the egg for searing, bring the steaks in and slow cook in the oven. Experimentation needed...
 
I fry steaks in a lot of butter, using a turkey fryer and a pan. I've found I pretty much agree with everything the Youtube steak guy Guga says.

I give them a little browning on each side first. The purpose of this is to shrink the surfaces of both sides at pretty much the same time, so the steak stays flatter. Meat shrinks when it hits the pan, and if you don't correct it, you get a steak shaped like a potato chip, and it doesn't get uniform thermal contact with the pan and butter.

Then I fry a crust on one side and a crust on the other, using a thermometer to keep track of the internal temperature. I flip the steak as many times as I want, and I vary the temperature whenever I feel like it. I get a crust which is dark brown with no black bits.

I don't rely on stupid advice from TV chefs, like Gordon Ramsay, who say to feel your thumb to judge steaks. That's a skill you have to practice all the time, and I'm not making 50 steaks a day. I use a Thermapen. Easy and very reliable.

I don't like grilled steak. It has very little flavor unless you dump overwhelming seasonings on it, and you have to work to get enough heat unless you want a grey steak with ridiculous black grill marks. Frying with salt alone provides a deep, delicious brown crust. There is no reason to pay for good meat if you're going to bury the taste or cook it until it's grey inside. If you like seasoning, get yourself some utility-grade beef. Don't pay $25 per pound to taste nothing but Montreal Steak Seasoning.

Ramsay and Alton Brown are steak killers. They take beautiful steaks, chill them by resting, and then slice them up and serve them at room temperature like cold cuts. A steak should be the last thing you put on a plate, and it should be fresh out of the pan so it's hot on the outside. People say you lose juice if you don't chill your steaks. Not true. A teaspoon or two go on the plate, where you can soak it up with your potato. Chilling just makes the fat colder and therefore thicker so it doesn't flow as well.

Ruth's does a pretty good job with steaks, and they bring them out fast on hot plates.

As long as I'm giving people strokes, I'll add this: I like choice rib eyes better than prime. The rib eye is a very fatty cut, and when you go prime, you start to get into the area of mushiness and excessive richness. A few days back, I fixed a prime rib eye for myself and a prime filet for my wife (because women always order filets), and I preferred her steak to mine because the rib eye was just too rich.

I've been to all sorts of steakhouses. Ruth's. Morton's. The Capital Grille. Smith & Wollensky. Never had a restaurant steak as good as my fried beauties. Ruth can keep her salamander. It's okay, but pans rule.

I don't pay any attention to TV chefs when it comes to prime rib, either. Not since I saw Bobby Flay recommend an oven temperature of 325. It sounded crazy, but I thought a famous chef couldn't be wrong, so I ended up making myself a $35 rubber doorstop instead of a nice roast.

TV chefs are real frauds. Ask me about the dog food I ate at a Marco Pierre White restaurant. No; don't.

People get mad at me and tell me I don't know anything, but that's how sheep are. They believe anyone who has a TV camera pointed at himself. Most people can't cook or judge food. They just parrot what people around them say.
 
Reverse-sear fan here - in part, due to use of a BGE. Given the ceramic grills are going to hold that heat for a while, cooking low at 250-300 for 20-30min, taking steaks off and letting them sit while you crank up the heat to 600+ (maybe 10 min) is maybe better suited to the ceramics. To sear first, I'd probably use the egg for searing, bring the steaks in and slow cook in the oven. Experimentation needed...

Yeah, understand where you're coming from as a fellow kamado owner. As you say, I sear first on the kamado and then finish either in my Traeger at 225 or in an oven at 225. There's no way to drop the temp in the kamado once it's hot.

But yeah, definitely recommend giving it a try. I'd love to hear how it works for you and whether you think it's easier or superior...
 
Grew up in Kansas City. Steak was pretty much at least a weekly ritual. K.C. has more one-off non-chain steak restaurants than just about anyplace in the world (believe me, I’ve tried most of them!).

Just prior to Covid, SWMBO’d and I set out on a coast-to-coast adventure trip lasting nearly 70 days that included stops at just about every steakhouse we’ve ever heard of, from elegant (Peter Lugar’s in Brooklyn) to ‘rustic’ (Doe’s Eat Place in Paduka, KY) to ‘kitsy’ (Big Texan in Amarillo), and all manner of stops in L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, and even a trip down memory lane in K.C.

At the conclusion of this meat coma quest, we concluded that the best steaks were served at our home table, purchased from a local country butcher, cooked on our own equipment. No question in our minds.

Coincidentally we celebrated the first 70F day of Spring yesterday with 2 ½” thick filets, cooked to a perfect rare finish. I prefer to do a ‘reverse’ reverse sear, where I sous vide the steaks for 3 hours @ 104F. The steaks are then removed from the bags, patted dry with paper towels, seasoned with only sea salt, a dash of freshly ground pepper and sprinkled ever so lightly with a specialty steak seasoning from Savory Kitchens. The steaks then get a brief but very intense searing on either the Blackstone or my preferred method of 700F Weber grill (both methods work well, but we both prefer the x’d hashmarks of the grill).
 
Grew up in Kansas City. Steak was pretty much at least a weekly ritual. K.C. has more one-off non-chain steak restaurants than just about anyplace in the world (believe me, I’ve tried most of them!).

Just prior to Covid, SWMBO’d and I set out on a coast-to-coast adventure trip lasting nearly 70 days that included stops at just about every steakhouse we’ve ever heard of, from elegant (Peter Lugar’s in Brooklyn) to ‘rustic’ (Doe’s Eat Place in Paduka, KY) to ‘kitsy’ (Big Texan in Amarillo), and all manner of stops in L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, and even a trip down memory lane in K.C.

At the conclusion of this meat coma quest, we concluded that the best steaks were served at our home table, purchased from a local country butcher, cooked on our own equipment. No question in our minds.

Coincidentally we celebrated the first 70F day of Spring yesterday with 2 ½” thick filets, cooked to a perfect rare finish. I prefer to do a ‘reverse’ reverse sear, where I sous vide the steaks for 3 hours @ 104F. The steaks are then removed from the bags, patted dry with paper towels, seasoned with only sea salt, a dash of freshly ground pepper and sprinkled ever so lightly with a specialty steak seasoning from Savory Kitchens. The steaks then get a brief but very intense searing on either the Blackstone or my preferred method of 700F Weber grill (both methods work well, but we both prefer the x’d hashmarks of the grill).
I wish I’d taken pictures of last night’s meal. The steaks were nearly fork tender without being gummy or mushy. The grain of the meat was beautifully revealed, juicy and tender, nicely browned at the surface and light red to slightly pink throughout the center. Complementing the main dish was a delightful Pinot from one of our favorite wineries in Paso Robles (Wild Horse).

What a way to celebrate the middle of the week, and the advent of Spring. Life is Good!
 
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