Vol. XV · Dry Heat Plate 7 of 11reverse sear, low oven, thick steak, grey band, dry surface, browning, sear last, sous vide finishHT

The Reverse Sear.

Sear first and the crust steams before it browns; sear last and a surface dried by the oven browns almost at once.

The traditional order for a thick steak is to sear it first and finish it in the oven. The reverse sear turns that round: the meat goes into a low oven (about 100–120 °C) until its centre is a few degrees below the target, then into a very hot pan for a minute or two a side. Two things improve. The gentle oven raises the whole piece slowly and evenly, so the band of overcooked meat is thin (XV.6). And the oven dries the surface, so the final sear browns at once instead of first boiling away surface water (VIII.2), which means the sear can be short and adds little to the grey band.

The same logic underlies sous-vide cooking finished with a sear (XVI.7), and the Chinese method of poaching or steaming meat before a quick fry. It costs time — an hour or more in the oven — but the result is the most even doneness a home cook can get without a water bath. The workshop compares the two orders.

Below: a 40 mm steak cooked two ways to the same doneness (thermal bench): seared first then finished in a 200 °C oven, or roasted at 110 °C to the pull temperature you choose and then seared — the cross-sections of highest temperatures, grey bands and browning.

What you will learn
Workshop
Thermal bench: beef, 40 mm, from 5 °C. Sear first: 2 minutes in a pan at 260 °C turned every minute, then a 200 °C oven to a centre of 44 °C. Reverse: a 110 °C oven to the pull temperature, then 1 minute in the pan turned every 30 seconds. Both rested 5 minutes. Grey band above 62 °C; browning on the course scale.

Gentle first, fierce last

In this model the reverse-seared steak, taken from a 110 °C oven at 48 °C and seared for one minute, ends at 52 °C with a grey band of about 10 mm and browning of 0.78; seared first and finished in a 200 °C oven to about the same doneness (51 °C), it has a band of 13 mm and browning of only 0.05, because its wet surface spent the sear boiling off water. The surface, more than the band, is where the method wins. The reverse sear takes longer — about 64 minutes here — but nearly all of that is unattended oven time.

Method: salt the steak (ideally the day before, uncovered in the fridge); bake it on a rack at 100–120 °C until the centre is 8–10 °C below your target; sear it in a smoking-hot, lightly oiled cast-iron pan for 45–60 seconds a side, turning often, with butter and aromatics if you like; rest briefly and slice. It works best for pieces at least 3–4 cm thick; thin steaks are better simply seared.

At the stove

Cook two thick steaks to the same centre temperature, one seared first and one reverse-seared. Cut them side by side and compare crust and grey band.

The reverse sear was popularised in the 2000s by American food writers testing steak methods with thermometers, notably J. Kenji López-Alt; similar two-stage methods are much older in restaurant kitchens and in Chinese cooking.

Terms

Reverse sear
Cooking gently first and searing at the end.
Pull temperature
Where the gentle stage stops, below the target.
Even doneness
The same temperature reached through most of the piece.
Two-stage cooking
Separate steps for cooking through and for browning.
Cook gently first to just below the target, then sear hard: a thinner grey band and a dry surface that browns at once.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.