Sear vs. Reverse Sear: When to Use Each for the Perfect Steak
Valentine's Day may be polarizing to some, but I've always found it a nice excuse to send some extra love to the special people in your life. Plus, it's right before my favorite unofficial holiday: 50% discounted chocolate day on February 15th! But no matter how you choose to celebrate, you can rest assured every restaurant is going to be booked solid with no available reservations in sight.
A few years ago, I decided to celebrate at home with steak and a great bottle of wine to avoid the craziness and I've never looked back. But living in the Northeast means grilling steak (my preferred method) isn't always pleasant or even possible depending on the snowfall. I had to figure out how to replicate the grill with a cast iron pan and the oven. My first attempts were passable, but I finally started producing reliably juicy steaks with a satisfying crust and just-pink interior once I understood when to sear versus reverse sear the cut.
The Sear Method: Sear the outside of the raw steak in a hot cast iron pan until a strong crust has formed. Continue cooking in the oven at 400°F to allow the inside of the meat to reach the desired temperature (135°F for medium rare).
Use for thinner cuts (less than 1.5 inches thick): flank, skirt, or flat iron
The inside cooks as the outside sears and typically only needs a couple minutes of additional heat in the oven to reach 135°F for a perfect medium rare. Using this method for thicker cuts isn't ideal, searing the outside creates a barrier that contains the steak's juices but is difficult for heat to penetrate. Finishing a thick cut in the oven will end up overcooking the outside while leaving the inside raw. To reach medium rare you'll either need to sear the outside for too long, ending up with a thick char of burnt steak on the outside, or you'll have to leave it in the oven for too long, leaving you with a dry and tough cut.
The Reverse Sear Method: Cook the raw steak in a cast iron or on a baking tray in the oven at 275°F to slowly bring the meat to 15-20 degrees less than the desired temperature. Finish by searing the steak to form a crust around the outside.
Use for thicker cuts (over 1.5 inches thick): ribeye, filet mignon, or sirloin
Slowly bringing the meat up to 115°F allows the cut to cook evenly without overcooking the outside. The sear at the end will trap the meat's juices inside and create a beautiful brown crust while the last blast of heat will bring the whole steak to medium rare. Trying to reverse sear a thin cut will result in a dry steak as the interior will overcook before you achieve the ideal outside crust.
If you're reverse searing, I recommend placing your steak on a baking tray with a wire rack to allow even air flow around all sides of the steak while it’s in the oven, then transferring to a hot cast iron pan for the stovetop sear at the end. Cast iron pans are ideal since they can simulate grill temperatures and safely be heated up to 650°F (much hotter than a standard frying pan). You’ll still end up with a great steak if you nix the baking tray and use a cast iron throughout the whole process. Just be sure to remove the steak while the pan and oil heat up on the stovetop to ensure an even sear.
A quick note - I only use vegetable oil in my cast iron when cooking steak. I've found adding butter has little to no effect on the flavor but does wind up producing huge amounts of smoke. (Butter contains milk solids that separate from the fat in butter and burn when overheated, producing smoke and a bitter charred taste). If you insist on including butter, I highly recommend heating oil in the pan first and adding butter and steak together. This will let the pan reach the high temperature you need for a great crust and the oil will coat the butter to help minimize any burning. Another alternative is using clarified butter (also known as ghee) which has the milk solids removed and has a much higher smoke point.
My cast iron steak recipe will be released soon, so stay tuned!