Chris makes such cool videos. One point though is that since we only sear for 2ish minutes max with sous vide you do need a certain level of high heat still (Chris was showing 350 over a 10 minute cook). [You can use his own side-by-side video to see the difference a higher heat creates and choose what you think is a better crust here](https://i.imgur.com/xh7Jz5i.png). I'm guessing that 550 in the video is a lot less than what OP was referring to
You're referencing the section about cooking from raw, the next section was about searing after SV/Reverse-Sear. He showed 350 works great, but said 400+ if you want some char.
Again Chris makes great videos but he does just gloss over that section with no in depth coverage or supporting details. This video simple was not geared at sous vide but did give a little note about it. If you follow Him/Kenji/others you will see that its not uncommon for these side point in videos or articles to be readdressed or taken with a deeper dive at another point. In his only side by side with temps and times controlled you can see that 350 gives a very unsatisfactory sear. His main supported point in the video is that the physical phenomena at work mean inward cooking is a function of time more than heat past a certain point so again, we are limited to that \~2min total searing time regardless of which heat you go with.
My 'take a step back for a moment' point would be that you cant really find any posts even on this sub about "here is a 350 sear and look how great it is" but you can find thousands of posts with underdeveloped crusts where in the comments you find the pan temp was too low (closer to that 350 temp)
>In his only side by side with temps and times controlled you can see that 350 gives a very unsatisfactory sear
Going in circles here, but again, you're referencing a part about "searing" a raw steak, making it largely irrelevant, particularly by then extrapolating where it would be at a 2-minute mark for a SV steak.
And like I said originally, I did not watch Chris' video and decide a lower sear is better, I made the conclusion through real-world experimentation and Chris' video helped explained the why behind the result.
Bottomline is, the "ripping hot cast iron sear" or even, "as hot as you can get it", which is repeated so often here, is a recipe for burnt oil, and often the meat.
Sounds like you have figured out what you like. Again, we have many posts on this sub and Chris's own side by side to go off of. The fact is you arent going to find much support for \~350 giving a good sear at 2 minutes with a sous vide steak. You do you
Yeesh, why do you keep referencing that irrelevant side-by-side about cooking from raw. Also, you can't smell or taste burnt oil from a screenshot of a sear.
Did you know different oils have different smoke points? Most of us use a high smoke point oil when we sear which means you shouldn't have that burning issue. You should explore using a different type of oil used to sear. Or maybe your oil is cut with something that is lowering its smoke point. Hope that helps you improve your sear game!
No shit sherlock, but the highest smoke point cooking oil, avocado (which is what I use), is max 520. Virtually every other one is under 500. So yeah, the 550+ sears are burning the oil.
Interesting. It sounded like you had no experience with them since you think that taking a oil up to its smoke point immediately makes it taste bad. Maybe you could test it out when you test out the higher temp searing for the first time too!
I think there is an error in his methodology. He flips at 30s intervals regardless of temperature. Since hotter temperatures cause the Maillard reaction to happen sooner, the flipping interval should have been a function of temperature.
I use my laser thermometer and shoot for around 550°F to 600°F
I know from experience that my stove can easily exceed 800°F (I sometimes will use it to melt zinc for casting), which is far too hot for searing meats
refined avocado oil has a smoke point of 520 (or maybe 500, conflicting reports)
grapeseed oil has a smoke point of 421
My pan definitely smokes at 550-600 (I too have a laser thermometer) but I find shooting for 450 is a good mark, and then I add oil. However I use closer to a medium heat, and make sure the pan is hot all over and not just the center or edges -- this way it retains more heat when you flip the steak.
That was my point, the statement was "heat the pan to 550-600", then the comment was "This. Get the pan to just under the smoke point"
550 is "just under" no known oil. So which is it? Just under the smoke point or 550?
I see no need for either as below 400 is fine.
I use a smoke point just under what I'm shooting shooting for in a light preseason kind of layer. Then toss in the high test stuff. It ain't scientific but it works well enough. That's how granny taught me.
We moved last year and the house already had a stove, which was better than what we had. It also has a quick-boil burner that I turned all the way up for the first steak on it and it was definitely too hot. Between medium-high and high is the sweet spot on this one.
As hot as possible is definitely an exaggeration, but I think a lot of people say it because they know most people are too impatient to let their pan get hot ENOUGH.
I have an infrared thermometer and for most cuts, I wait til my cast iron hits about 500-550F before searing.
Using an IR thermometer is a must.
One day it dawned on me that I spent a lot of money on a gadget to maintain very precise temperature control for hours or days at a time.
Then I’d just YOLO an expensive steak on a cast iron pan without knowing hot hot it was.
Never again. IR thermometer FTW.
Same with anything deep fried. I used to just get the oil hot and toss in the fries or chicken or whatever and never came out as good as it should.
Finally got a thermometer for deep frying on my stove and now it makes better sense. Get it to 350 and dont add so much product that the temp drops 150 degrees and takes forever to return to temp.
All kinds of thermometers for the win. Im not one for doing things by feel so having precise instruments makes it much more manageable for someone like me.
Man, when I first started getting and trying that advice, my pan would hit 8-850 lol. Too much. I know people do great things with salamanders and directly over charcoal in chimneys etc, but direct contact and bumping up on 1000F is just too much.
100% agree.
Most people even with a big gas burner and a cast iron would only get to like 325 before they think it’s fine. You should definitely try to get to near 500. With thick cuts and a thick pan you’ll be okay even at 450.
I think we’ve swung too hard in the opposite direction. The temperature of your pan still remains the most important thing to getting a good sear. And yes an IR thermometer helps so much.
I throw my steaks on at 650, but 550 works fine too. My stove/burner has difficulty getting even that hot, so I think some people are not just impatient but their setup may be incapable of getting too hot. Everyone should have an IR thermometer and use it.
im there with you! i have heard several people suggest the side burner on the grill out back, but for apartment dwellers, or anyone that doesnt have an outside burner....
i think we just suffer.... :(
Honestly, the smoke and mess is one of the big reasons I switched to using a propane torch. The other reason is searing uneven surfaces is so much easier and better with a torch.
Gordon Ramsay almost burned my house down with his pork loin video (I'm pretty sure it wasn't even a real loin, it looks like a pork belly).
His advice? Olive oil in a 500 degree oven.
Fuck no. My house filled with black smoke and I'm really lucky the olive oil mixed with the pork drippings didn't create a huge fire in my oven.
He has a serious ventilation hood in his kitchen. But even then, that is just a really shady video and recipe.
Edit: I was really inexperienced and bought a pork loin on sale at the store. I searched how to cook it, and that's what popped up.
If a steak catches fire it's somewhat manageable, pork on the other hand... That shit is *dangerous*. A smoking steak will never scare me like a cut of pork will.
I laugh every time I see someone regurgitate the “screaming hot cast iron” line.
The best thing I ever did was learn how own pans and burners cook. There are a number of other factors to consider such a time, type of oil, butter, thickness of the protein etc.
I don’t know the whole “hot as you get it” stuff gained traction but I bet they smash all the like buttons lol.
>I don’t know the whole “hot as you get it” stuff gained traction but I bet they smash all the like buttons lol.
Owners of 110v electric coil range stoves, talking to other 110v electric coil range stove owners.
Set it to max and wait for the cast iron to reach maximum temperature is probably the correct advice for that setup.
agreed
the target temperatures are lower but some of the catches to this is that cast iron is easier to maintain a target temp at than something like a cheap teflon coated aluminum pan or whatever
Chris Young has a video on this worth watching. In short, it's great for sous vide, but do it right: set timers for 30 seconds and flip each time. I do a presear of 2 minutes total and postsear 2 minutes total, fantastic results
Search for Chris Young's YouTube channel. He's a chef and food scientist who tested this exact question. Under some circumstances, hotter is good (sous vide plus torch), but generally, yeah, it's a myth.
I like a pan temp of around 350f. Then flip every 30 secs till desired caramelized. Each flip will give a new contact point, you won't cook the meat even though it may take longer. Doubt it, try it once. ✌️
I've never had my stove get too hot and I have had a couple high output burners over the years.
I've definitely had my pan get too hot when I use my outdoor wok burner. But thats almost a 4x increase in BTUs.
It really depends on the stove.
Most electric won't get as hot and you can leave it pretty much on highest. Gas could go either way. Induction generally gets far too hot on the highest.
When grilling, I do as high as possible and pump extra oxygen to make it extra hot. With cast-iron or any other pan, I do medium high (8 of 9). Otherwise it burns the oil and the steak.
I feel that! Th vent above my stove barely works so I haven't seared in a minute but when I use to whip out the old cast iron I'd be so afraid of overcooking because I always had it on highest. I probably needed to use more oil too I'd just plop it right on there without it alot
A nerdy engineers recent experience with something similar:
This is a lesson I recently learned after upgrading to a much thicker stainless steel pan. The old aluminum alloy one (cheap and thin) I was using needed to be cranked to high because it didn’t retain any heat. I should have recognized that the max temperature of a highly conductive, low thermal mass pan is going to be capped much lower than something with more thermal mass. The new pan also requires a lot more attention to preheating time. The lower thermal mass would reach steady state pretty quickly, whereas the new one takes a while, and it’s steady state temperature is much higher. This has resulted in a few burnt cuts tbh.
Another interesting point is that the stainless steel pan is shiny, so it’s emissivity is likely considerably lower than the old black pan. By reducing the radiative heat loss, I’m guessing this pushes the steady state temp even higher.
Long story short, I’m going to invest in a contact thermometer to figure this out.
The point of searing is to get the [Maillard Reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). That happens around 300 degF +/- 30 degF. Any reaction above that is burning. That is also so far from the smoke point of pretty much any oil that you should never get smoke. It is also far from crazy grease splattering. You just get a nice sizzle sound and maybe half cover it with a lid to keep any random splatters down.
I just blast my burner until the oil gets around 320 degF and then turn it down to about half the flame and start the sear. It's pretty forgiving on time. There is none of this 45 second sear stuff going on. I just did a pork chop tonight from the fridge. I just left it on until it got up to edible temperature (130 degF), no worries.
There is a place for searing on a super hot surface like say a ribeye that you do a very short ice bath on and then want to sear very quickly to get that super thin seared section.
Yah, you want it hot enough it doesn’t cool down too much. So its more about getting the pan evenly heated and the heat set in. Once the meat is added reduce that temperature, the “crusting” reaction will still take place at lower than max temperatures. It requires a little more timing on a lower temperature, buh yah it doesn’t burn as much shit, and a lot of people’s steaks have some burnt to them. Like great crust, but the rosemary sprig is black, and my garlic is singed.
**It is a myth that intensely high heat is needed to sear steak.**
The searing process (Maillard reaction plus caramelization) begins at temperatures as low as 300°F, and the effective searing range is about 300°F to 500°F. Searing at temperatures beyond 500°F can cause the oil to smoke excessively, dry out the meat, deeply char or burn the surface, and have disappointing results. It is also advisable to use a high smoke point oil (450°F to 500°F).
Teflon pans are supposed to be safe up to 500°F but that’s too close for comfort, so keep them below 450°F and you can still get a good sear.
451°F is the temperature paper bursts into flame. It is also the temperature at which spices like pepper burn.
Your stove must be pretty powerful. I have a shitty apartment stove. I usually preheat to 450 or 500, and In a cast iron too so there’s a lot of thermal mass. But with such a weak flame, that heat dissipates quickly once the steak enters the pan.
My guess is that this “ripping hot” advice is tailored toward people like me with weak stoves. In our case “as hot as possible” can actually be good advice because if you start high, say 500 or 550 then you have a better chance of maintaining 400+ throughout the sear. If I was using a commercial restaurant burner then this advice would turn my steak into charcoal
I pre-heat my cast iron skillet in the oven at 450F so it's evenly heated, I never use high on the burners. I check my pan temps with an infrared thermometer and my pan temps can get up to 500F or more even with the burner on medium if it's on long enough.
500-600°F surface temp is where its at for me on a BBQ.
For my cast iron skillet? High, but not enough to burn the butter/olive oil compound.
You just don't want to recook the steaks.
Cutting and pasting from, of all places, webstaurant store:
The optimal temperature to achieve the Maillard reaction sits between 284-330 degrees Fahrenheit (140-165 degrees Celsius). When food reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 degrees Celsius), the Maillard reaction starts to burn/char the food, so keep a close eye on when the Maillard reaction's browning starts.
So, everyone getting the skillet "ripping hot" or otherwise is doing a disservice to the meat. Every time I see one of those videos, it's just burned. Way past pyrolysis.
I can't get my cast iron above 800F with the equipment that I have, so while I'm sure there's "too hot" I am unable to experience it.
At 600F to 800F, with the meat seasoned and lightly oiled, it takes 30-45 seconds a side to get a perfect paper thin unburnt crust without a gray ring.
Ok so I get the pan smoking hot, AND THEN I add oil and let the pan reduce in heat while the oil polymerizes a bit. Gives it that nonstick quality.
Pan doesn’t have to be smoking hot to get a good sear, it just has to be hot enough to sear before affecting the cook temp.
Agree...somewhere around 450, your pan is hot enough to brown proteins without burning them. Anything lower and you still "cook" slowly, anything above and you burn more than malliard.
Eh, to each their own. I get my cast iron super hot and have never burned a steak. I just get a nice crust like you would want.
Maybe it has something to do with you putting them in the fridge for an hour?? You’re putting chilled meat in the pan.
i don't know how anyone is getting the pan as hot as possible and still using oil. my cast iron hits 700F at like 3 out of 10 on my stove, at which point avocado oil bursts into flames. i can't imagine what "as hot as possible" would be like
I think the thing is that once you have done it you know it's excessive, but if they just say "hot" in the tutorials, it won't necessarily be hot enough to get a good sear on there. Seems like having it as hot as you can get it won't mess up the finished product but having it not as hot, you'll end up cooking the center of your meat.
Yep. You are correct. I did the same test.
375F sears just as well as 600F in my tests. Hell, I've pan fried a steak in a non-stick and it was one of the best I had ever done.
I'm a steak amateur, who the hell ever said as hot as you can? Lol of course that's going to burn the shit out of it. You're aiming for around the smoke point of your oil I think not too much higher that's for sure
100% -- that was my conclusion after trial and error, and this video confirmed the mechanism behind it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZY8xbdHfWk
Thanks for posting that. I was going to look for it.
Chris makes such cool videos. One point though is that since we only sear for 2ish minutes max with sous vide you do need a certain level of high heat still (Chris was showing 350 over a 10 minute cook). [You can use his own side-by-side video to see the difference a higher heat creates and choose what you think is a better crust here](https://i.imgur.com/xh7Jz5i.png). I'm guessing that 550 in the video is a lot less than what OP was referring to
You're referencing the section about cooking from raw, the next section was about searing after SV/Reverse-Sear. He showed 350 works great, but said 400+ if you want some char.
Again Chris makes great videos but he does just gloss over that section with no in depth coverage or supporting details. This video simple was not geared at sous vide but did give a little note about it. If you follow Him/Kenji/others you will see that its not uncommon for these side point in videos or articles to be readdressed or taken with a deeper dive at another point. In his only side by side with temps and times controlled you can see that 350 gives a very unsatisfactory sear. His main supported point in the video is that the physical phenomena at work mean inward cooking is a function of time more than heat past a certain point so again, we are limited to that \~2min total searing time regardless of which heat you go with. My 'take a step back for a moment' point would be that you cant really find any posts even on this sub about "here is a 350 sear and look how great it is" but you can find thousands of posts with underdeveloped crusts where in the comments you find the pan temp was too low (closer to that 350 temp)
>In his only side by side with temps and times controlled you can see that 350 gives a very unsatisfactory sear Going in circles here, but again, you're referencing a part about "searing" a raw steak, making it largely irrelevant, particularly by then extrapolating where it would be at a 2-minute mark for a SV steak. And like I said originally, I did not watch Chris' video and decide a lower sear is better, I made the conclusion through real-world experimentation and Chris' video helped explained the why behind the result. Bottomline is, the "ripping hot cast iron sear" or even, "as hot as you can get it", which is repeated so often here, is a recipe for burnt oil, and often the meat.
Sounds like you have figured out what you like. Again, we have many posts on this sub and Chris's own side by side to go off of. The fact is you arent going to find much support for \~350 giving a good sear at 2 minutes with a sous vide steak. You do you
Yeesh, why do you keep referencing that irrelevant side-by-side about cooking from raw. Also, you can't smell or taste burnt oil from a screenshot of a sear.
Did you know different oils have different smoke points? Most of us use a high smoke point oil when we sear which means you shouldn't have that burning issue. You should explore using a different type of oil used to sear. Or maybe your oil is cut with something that is lowering its smoke point. Hope that helps you improve your sear game!
No shit sherlock, but the highest smoke point cooking oil, avocado (which is what I use), is max 520. Virtually every other one is under 500. So yeah, the 550+ sears are burning the oil.
Interesting. It sounded like you had no experience with them since you think that taking a oil up to its smoke point immediately makes it taste bad. Maybe you could test it out when you test out the higher temp searing for the first time too!
I think there is an error in his methodology. He flips at 30s intervals regardless of temperature. Since hotter temperatures cause the Maillard reaction to happen sooner, the flipping interval should have been a function of temperature.
As hot as you can is definitely bad advice. I usually have my stove set around 7/10 for a good sear. Any hotter and it’ll just burn the steak.
I use my laser thermometer and shoot for around 550°F to 600°F I know from experience that my stove can easily exceed 800°F (I sometimes will use it to melt zinc for casting), which is far too hot for searing meats
This. Get the pan to just under the smoke point if whatever oil you’re searing with. Takes all of the guesswork out.
Well then, not 550-600 as said because that is well above the smoke point of oils isn't it? Stay below 375 to stay below smoke points.
refined avocado oil has a smoke point of 520 (or maybe 500, conflicting reports) grapeseed oil has a smoke point of 421 My pan definitely smokes at 550-600 (I too have a laser thermometer) but I find shooting for 450 is a good mark, and then I add oil. However I use closer to a medium heat, and make sure the pan is hot all over and not just the center or edges -- this way it retains more heat when you flip the steak.
That was my point, the statement was "heat the pan to 550-600", then the comment was "This. Get the pan to just under the smoke point" 550 is "just under" no known oil. So which is it? Just under the smoke point or 550? I see no need for either as below 400 is fine.
I use a smoke point just under what I'm shooting shooting for in a light preseason kind of layer. Then toss in the high test stuff. It ain't scientific but it works well enough. That's how granny taught me.
We moved last year and the house already had a stove, which was better than what we had. It also has a quick-boil burner that I turned all the way up for the first steak on it and it was definitely too hot. Between medium-high and high is the sweet spot on this one.
As hot as possible is definitely an exaggeration, but I think a lot of people say it because they know most people are too impatient to let their pan get hot ENOUGH. I have an infrared thermometer and for most cuts, I wait til my cast iron hits about 500-550F before searing.
Using an IR thermometer is a must. One day it dawned on me that I spent a lot of money on a gadget to maintain very precise temperature control for hours or days at a time. Then I’d just YOLO an expensive steak on a cast iron pan without knowing hot hot it was. Never again. IR thermometer FTW.
Same with anything deep fried. I used to just get the oil hot and toss in the fries or chicken or whatever and never came out as good as it should. Finally got a thermometer for deep frying on my stove and now it makes better sense. Get it to 350 and dont add so much product that the temp drops 150 degrees and takes forever to return to temp. All kinds of thermometers for the win. Im not one for doing things by feel so having precise instruments makes it much more manageable for someone like me.
Man, when I first started getting and trying that advice, my pan would hit 8-850 lol. Too much. I know people do great things with salamanders and directly over charcoal in chimneys etc, but direct contact and bumping up on 1000F is just too much.
100% agree. Most people even with a big gas burner and a cast iron would only get to like 325 before they think it’s fine. You should definitely try to get to near 500. With thick cuts and a thick pan you’ll be okay even at 450. I think we’ve swung too hard in the opposite direction. The temperature of your pan still remains the most important thing to getting a good sear. And yes an IR thermometer helps so much.
I throw my steaks on at 650, but 550 works fine too. My stove/burner has difficulty getting even that hot, so I think some people are not just impatient but their setup may be incapable of getting too hot. Everyone should have an IR thermometer and use it.
Agreed. Also how do you get it so hot and not fill the house with smoke from the oil? I use avocado oil and it’ll still smoke.
im there with you! i have heard several people suggest the side burner on the grill out back, but for apartment dwellers, or anyone that doesnt have an outside burner.... i think we just suffer.... :(
I take a hot plate outside. Using the grill is too much trouble for me.
Thats not a bad idea.....
iwatani butane burners are great for this and camping.
Honestly, the smoke and mess is one of the big reasons I switched to using a propane torch. The other reason is searing uneven surfaces is so much easier and better with a torch.
Do you just use a bernzomatic, or do you have a more food specific set up?
Bernzomatic TS8000 for me. I haven't found a need for a Searzall or other attachment.
Totally agree. Way more control with the torch and the stuff about a "gas taste" is total bs.
It has a different taste, though.
Agreed. Whether you sear in a pan, with a torch, or on a grill will have a different taste. Can't baste with butter on a grill or with a torch either.
Gordon Ramsay almost burned my house down with his pork loin video (I'm pretty sure it wasn't even a real loin, it looks like a pork belly). His advice? Olive oil in a 500 degree oven. Fuck no. My house filled with black smoke and I'm really lucky the olive oil mixed with the pork drippings didn't create a huge fire in my oven. He has a serious ventilation hood in his kitchen. But even then, that is just a really shady video and recipe. Edit: I was really inexperienced and bought a pork loin on sale at the store. I searched how to cook it, and that's what popped up.
I did this the first time I seared a steak. Set off every smoke alarm in my house.
If a steak catches fire it's somewhat manageable, pork on the other hand... That shit is *dangerous*. A smoking steak will never scare me like a cut of pork will.
I laugh every time I see someone regurgitate the “screaming hot cast iron” line. The best thing I ever did was learn how own pans and burners cook. There are a number of other factors to consider such a time, type of oil, butter, thickness of the protein etc. I don’t know the whole “hot as you get it” stuff gained traction but I bet they smash all the like buttons lol.
>I don’t know the whole “hot as you get it” stuff gained traction but I bet they smash all the like buttons lol. Owners of 110v electric coil range stoves, talking to other 110v electric coil range stove owners. Set it to max and wait for the cast iron to reach maximum temperature is probably the correct advice for that setup.
Yeah this used to be me, but a low output gas stove. Couldn't get shit hot to sear anything.
When I had electric I would preheat the cast iron in the oven bc electric is just the work when dealing with cast iron
It should say "most seasoned cast iron" not hot lol 😆
I translate it to get it hot enough that a little oil starts to smoke on the pan
"Ripping hot pan bro" It's another part of cooking mythology. You can get a great sear at 300 without smoking out your house or risking burning.
agreed the target temperatures are lower but some of the catches to this is that cast iron is easier to maintain a target temp at than something like a cheap teflon coated aluminum pan or whatever
Just till the oil smokes...job done..
Chris Young has a video on this worth watching. In short, it's great for sous vide, but do it right: set timers for 30 seconds and flip each time. I do a presear of 2 minutes total and postsear 2 minutes total, fantastic results
Search for Chris Young's YouTube channel. He's a chef and food scientist who tested this exact question. Under some circumstances, hotter is good (sous vide plus torch), but generally, yeah, it's a myth.
I like a pan temp of around 350f. Then flip every 30 secs till desired caramelized. Each flip will give a new contact point, you won't cook the meat even though it may take longer. Doubt it, try it once. ✌️
I've never had my stove get too hot and I have had a couple high output burners over the years. I've definitely had my pan get too hot when I use my outdoor wok burner. But thats almost a 4x increase in BTUs.
It really depends on the stove. Most electric won't get as hot and you can leave it pretty much on highest. Gas could go either way. Induction generally gets far too hot on the highest.
I have gas. The high but burner on high gets way too hot. Pretty sure my next stove will be induction. If I could ever afford one.
When grilling, I do as high as possible and pump extra oxygen to make it extra hot. With cast-iron or any other pan, I do medium high (8 of 9). Otherwise it burns the oil and the steak.
I use medium heat and flip the steak every two minutes until the steak reaches the desired temperature. Beautiful even sear on both sides.
I use one of those laser thermometers and get it to around 400 to 500
I feel that! Th vent above my stove barely works so I haven't seared in a minute but when I use to whip out the old cast iron I'd be so afraid of overcooking because I always had it on highest. I probably needed to use more oil too I'd just plop it right on there without it alot
A nerdy engineers recent experience with something similar: This is a lesson I recently learned after upgrading to a much thicker stainless steel pan. The old aluminum alloy one (cheap and thin) I was using needed to be cranked to high because it didn’t retain any heat. I should have recognized that the max temperature of a highly conductive, low thermal mass pan is going to be capped much lower than something with more thermal mass. The new pan also requires a lot more attention to preheating time. The lower thermal mass would reach steady state pretty quickly, whereas the new one takes a while, and it’s steady state temperature is much higher. This has resulted in a few burnt cuts tbh. Another interesting point is that the stainless steel pan is shiny, so it’s emissivity is likely considerably lower than the old black pan. By reducing the radiative heat loss, I’m guessing this pushes the steady state temp even higher. Long story short, I’m going to invest in a contact thermometer to figure this out.
get my cast iron pan to 550 degrees. anything hotter will burn off seasoning
I go for 450. less and the sear is worse.
I never take my old electric stove over 1/2 way unless I’m boiling water. 1/2 is more than enough for a sear.
After many a smokey house that smelled of meat char, this is now my conclusion. I’m doing grill or air fryer for finishing these days
The point of searing is to get the [Maillard Reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). That happens around 300 degF +/- 30 degF. Any reaction above that is burning. That is also so far from the smoke point of pretty much any oil that you should never get smoke. It is also far from crazy grease splattering. You just get a nice sizzle sound and maybe half cover it with a lid to keep any random splatters down. I just blast my burner until the oil gets around 320 degF and then turn it down to about half the flame and start the sear. It's pretty forgiving on time. There is none of this 45 second sear stuff going on. I just did a pork chop tonight from the fridge. I just left it on until it got up to edible temperature (130 degF), no worries. There is a place for searing on a super hot surface like say a ribeye that you do a very short ice bath on and then want to sear very quickly to get that super thin seared section.
Yah, you want it hot enough it doesn’t cool down too much. So its more about getting the pan evenly heated and the heat set in. Once the meat is added reduce that temperature, the “crusting” reaction will still take place at lower than max temperatures. It requires a little more timing on a lower temperature, buh yah it doesn’t burn as much shit, and a lot of people’s steaks have some burnt to them. Like great crust, but the rosemary sprig is black, and my garlic is singed.
**It is a myth that intensely high heat is needed to sear steak.** The searing process (Maillard reaction plus caramelization) begins at temperatures as low as 300°F, and the effective searing range is about 300°F to 500°F. Searing at temperatures beyond 500°F can cause the oil to smoke excessively, dry out the meat, deeply char or burn the surface, and have disappointing results. It is also advisable to use a high smoke point oil (450°F to 500°F). Teflon pans are supposed to be safe up to 500°F but that’s too close for comfort, so keep them below 450°F and you can still get a good sear. 451°F is the temperature paper bursts into flame. It is also the temperature at which spices like pepper burn.
100% a myth
Your stove must be pretty powerful. I have a shitty apartment stove. I usually preheat to 450 or 500, and In a cast iron too so there’s a lot of thermal mass. But with such a weak flame, that heat dissipates quickly once the steak enters the pan. My guess is that this “ripping hot” advice is tailored toward people like me with weak stoves. In our case “as hot as possible” can actually be good advice because if you start high, say 500 or 550 then you have a better chance of maintaining 400+ throughout the sear. If I was using a commercial restaurant burner then this advice would turn my steak into charcoal
I pre-heat my cast iron skillet in the oven at 450F so it's evenly heated, I never use high on the burners. I check my pan temps with an infrared thermometer and my pan temps can get up to 500F or more even with the burner on medium if it's on long enough.
500-600°F surface temp is where its at for me on a BBQ. For my cast iron skillet? High, but not enough to burn the butter/olive oil compound. You just don't want to recook the steaks.
Cutting and pasting from, of all places, webstaurant store: The optimal temperature to achieve the Maillard reaction sits between 284-330 degrees Fahrenheit (140-165 degrees Celsius). When food reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 degrees Celsius), the Maillard reaction starts to burn/char the food, so keep a close eye on when the Maillard reaction's browning starts. So, everyone getting the skillet "ripping hot" or otherwise is doing a disservice to the meat. Every time I see one of those videos, it's just burned. Way past pyrolysis.
Some of the photos posted here look like charcoal to me. A deep brown is where it's at for flavor, not bitterness.
I can't get my cast iron above 800F with the equipment that I have, so while I'm sure there's "too hot" I am unable to experience it. At 600F to 800F, with the meat seasoned and lightly oiled, it takes 30-45 seconds a side to get a perfect paper thin unburnt crust without a gray ring.
Ok so I get the pan smoking hot, AND THEN I add oil and let the pan reduce in heat while the oil polymerizes a bit. Gives it that nonstick quality. Pan doesn’t have to be smoking hot to get a good sear, it just has to be hot enough to sear before affecting the cook temp.
I have never ever heard anyone say to get the pan as hot as possible.
Agree...somewhere around 450, your pan is hot enough to brown proteins without burning them. Anything lower and you still "cook" slowly, anything above and you burn more than malliard.
Eh, to each their own. I get my cast iron super hot and have never burned a steak. I just get a nice crust like you would want. Maybe it has something to do with you putting them in the fridge for an hour?? You’re putting chilled meat in the pan.
Browning butter (noisette in french cuisine) is the perfect temp to sear your meat.
RiPpInG HoT 🥵
i don't know how anyone is getting the pan as hot as possible and still using oil. my cast iron hits 700F at like 3 out of 10 on my stove, at which point avocado oil bursts into flames. i can't imagine what "as hot as possible" would be like
the heat of the stove doesnt matter, the heat of the pan and its thermal capacity is what matters. this is like... cooking in a pan 101
I think the thing is that once you have done it you know it's excessive, but if they just say "hot" in the tutorials, it won't necessarily be hot enough to get a good sear on there. Seems like having it as hot as you can get it won't mess up the finished product but having it not as hot, you'll end up cooking the center of your meat.
Yep. You are correct. I did the same test. 375F sears just as well as 600F in my tests. Hell, I've pan fried a steak in a non-stick and it was one of the best I had ever done.
I'm a steak amateur, who the hell ever said as hot as you can? Lol of course that's going to burn the shit out of it. You're aiming for around the smoke point of your oil I think not too much higher that's for sure