Searing

I use searing often. The last time was for a community dinner where we seared two five-pound pork shoulder roasts before stewing them to make a green chili. It was well accepted.

I loved this lesson, but, it made me very hungry. not at all good for the diet.

In many recipes, usually in older cookbooks, dredging the meat in flour is recommended. I have read discussions that it is not necessary, too much faff, tends to burn. I had the luxury of cooking two pork tenderloins last night and floured one and not the other. I did like the crustiness of the floured tenderloin. Any thoughts of flouring vs. not?

Topic 4 (at 1:32) of the Stewing Lesson talks about this in more detail.

After you sear the pork tenderloin, should you transfer it to the oven in the same dish? Or do you put the meat in another dish to roast?

Whether or not you cook the pork in the same pan or transfer it to an oven proof dish is up to you, either will work. Cheers!

I don't really understand how to tell whether the pan is the correct temperature for searing as opposed to pan frying. It seems like for both you use the water test, look for the oil legs and the hint of smoke, then add the food....

Is the difference then what you do after you've added the food? For pan frying, you turn the heat down a little bit as a general rule, whereas for searing, you don't have to turn the heat down unless it's going to burn if you don't?

I actually don't think you are confused by the sounds of things. You are correct in that it is more about how high the heat is while you are cooking the food.

There are no exact temperatures when cooking as every stove and ingredient reacts differently; however when searing you generally maintain a higher temperature as you are just looking to obtain that nice crust. Whereas when pan frying you are trying to cook the food through; therefore the heat is often turned down and adjusted during cooking. But again, this depends on what you are cooking, how thick the food is and also how you want it cooked (medium-rare, medium etc).

Hope this helps to clear things up a bit Colleen - Cheers!

The lesson mentioned that cast iron works better than stainless steel for searing. Seems like a no-brainer for traditional cast iron but I was wondering if you guys would or wouldn't recommend enameled cast iron for searing? Le Creuset are adamant that a dry enameled pan brought to high heat would damage the enamel. They also claim that the pan can be used for searing at medium temperatures but that just doesn't seem hot enough. Do you guys use this type of pan for anything?

We use enameled cast iron all the time - they are even Le Creuset. I use it over quite high heat but I would not feel comfortable going against the advice given by Le Creuset. That being said, I have had my enameled pots for quite a few years now and they are still in great shape. Cheers!

Thanks Dawn! I feel more comfortable siding with your experience vs. the manufacturer who're probably just trying to cover their arse somewhat. I'll try searing again in this pan -- this time I'll make it "NASA hot" first, to borrow an expression from Alton Brown. If only I can find dry scallops somewhere...

"NASA hot" sound extremely hot Jamie. I wouldn't go too crazy, you are just trying to get a nice sear on things.

Also what do you mean by "If only I can find dry scallops somewhere"? Even frozen scallops that have been properly thawed and dried before searing should get a good sear. Cheers!

Okay, I won't go too nuts (I have a tendency to set off the smoke alarms when trying to sear scallops). By 'dry scallops', I'd meant the opposite of 'wet scallops', which are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate. I've tried a few different places (supermarkets, mind you), fresh and frozen, and every time I try and sear them, no matter how hot the pan (hence the smoke alarm comment), they have a tendency to dump moisture into the pan and lose half their weight and volume by the time I can get some colour on them. I'm left with half-decent looking mini hockey pucks. I just googled around around and found a local (well, local-ish) fishmonger that I might try soon to see if I get a better result with their product.

Do you have any information on the "reverse sear" method for roasts? It has been all the rage in grilling for the past few years.

I have done probably 20 rib roasts. My normal process has always been like the prime rib lesson - high temp sear followed by a 250f roast. I do this because I want an even doneness throughout the prime rib.

I did the "reverse sear" (250f roast to 110f internal, then sear over 600f direct heat grill) for Christmas on a 4.74lb bone in, choice grade rib roast and it was the best I have either had or made. It had the most even degree of medium rare across the whole roast.

While I now KNOW this technique works, I'd love to learn more about it, such as; why it works, when to use it vs. standard searing, what cuts work best, how would you adjust resting times since the roast will rest between the roast period and sear period.

I like the idea of reverse searing a Prime Rib or Choice. I can imagine due to all the marbling achieving a sear a the end would be very doable. However, I'm not sure that would receive the same results for leaner meats when searing would hold in the juices.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I have always been of the impression searing was a process to seal in the juices. I better go take the lesson.

This method of caramelizing the roast AFTER it has slowly cooked internally at low temperatures works well for large roasts. It has the advantage of controlling the amount of tasty crust without taking it too far, which can happen if you sear first and continue the cooking process.

The technique is used often with roast first cooked by steaming, then patting dry, giving the roast a rub and searing in a super hot oven to create the tasty crust. One of my best roasts ever was a pork roast, first steamed, then dried, coated and seared under a broiler.

I always shied away from dishes that required searing due to the fact they usually called for dredging in flour. Now that I know the crust can be achieved by dried meat, higher heat & not an overabundance of oil, I cannot wait to sear a piece of meat.

I've been doing some additional reading and have come across an interesting concept. Apparently, there is a "Chicago Style" rare, medium-rare, etc., where a steak is cooked to its temperature, then charred at completion. I assume charred and seared is not the same thing? Perhaps this question is covered in the steak section, but I haven't arrived to that course, yet. What sort of differences would be a part of the "charring process" and would this still be accomplished by using the pan fry techniques? Also, what sort of taste / appearance is benefitted through charring that wouldn't be accomplished by just a simple sear?

Charred and seared are not the same thing. Charred is usually done over an extremely hot grill. Charring gives a darker and more pronounced flavor in contrast to the meat. Searing develops a more golden crust that is subtler but still delicious. They are just two different ways of cooking steaks. As for how to char steaks, this is something that may be covered down the road as it is a unique style of cooking. Cheers!

I learned a lot of things in this lesson. I sometimes am using the wrong temperature. Hopefully this lesson will help correct my cooking.

what is the smoke point of olive oil and grape seed oils? at what approximate temperature does the pan have to get at to properly sear? am i wrong to assume that searing is done at a higher temperature than pan frying? Thanks!

There is a drill-down attached to the last topic of this lesson regarding the smoke point of oils. Don't worry about the actual temperature of the pan. What is most important is that you properly preheat and perform the water test.

While searing is somewhat similar to pan frying, it is generally done over higher heat and is used to quickly brown the surface of foods without cooking them internally. The best way to get comfortable with searing and the high heat is to practice until you get that beautiful, caramelized crust. Cheers!

The reason I am asking about temps is because I have tin lined copper saute pans 1.5 to 2mm thick. If they get over 460 the tin melts I am told.

I just received an enameled cast iron dutch oven for my birthday and I JUST LOVE IT! I love cooking with cast iron anyway...but with the enamel, I don't worry about using tomatoes or tomato sauce since it doesn't come into direct contact with the cast iron causing an adverse reaction with the acid of the tomatoes. The pot sears extremely well and retains heat splendidly. Super for braising and easy clean up, as well!

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with searing meat under a broiler? It seems it would be easier with large pieces, and less messy than doing it on the stovetop.
I'm about to tackle a brisket recipe, and it suggests broiler searing as an alternative to stovetop searing.

The broiler can be used to sear foods. You will just need to be very careful as it can be a bit tricker, e.g., the type of broiler, how evenly the broiler cooks things, the size of the meat, how far the rack is from the broiler/heat source.

Depending on your broiler, they are sort of like an upside down grill; however, most can only be set to either "on" or "off", so the heat is usually quite intense. Therefore, you must keep a constant eye on whatever you are cooking and/or searing. Things can easily go from "not quite done" to "holy cr@p, it's totally burned" in a matter of seconds.

Due to the larger size of the brisket you may want to try searing it in a very hot oven instead (as shown in the Rouxbe lesson on "Cooking Prime Rib").

You may want to give it a try and see what results you get. Once you do it you can adjusting things as necessary for the next time. Cheers!