REVERSE-SEARED STEAK RECIPE

One of the best methods for steak is the reverse sear: start it low, cook it slow, then quickly sear or grill for a beautiful crust.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

An optional overnight dry-brining step helps dry out the exterior of the steak, resulting in even better browning later. By slowly bringing the steak(s) up to temperature, then searing, you get a perfectly cooked interior and a beautifully brown crust. There's no need for a resting period before serving, thanks to the low-heat method used in the first stage of cooking.

The reverse sear is a remarkable method. If you're looking for a steak that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge, with a crisp crust, there's no better technique.

Why Should You Reverse Sear Your Steak?

More Even Cooking

The temperature gradient that builds up inside a piece of meat—that is, the difference in temperature as you work your way from the edges toward the center—is directly related to the rate at which energy is transferred to that piece of meat. 

The higher the temperature you use to cook, the faster energy is transferred, and the less evenly your meat cooks. Conversely, the more gently a steak is cooked, the more evenly it cooks.

By starting steaks in a low-temperature oven, you wind up with almost no overcooked meat whatsoever. Juicier results are your reward.

Better Browning

When searing a piece of meat, our goal is to create a crisp, darkly browned crust to contrast with the tender, pink meat underneath. To do this, we need to trigger the Maillard reaction, the cascade of chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars are exposed to high heat. 

Think of your screaming-hot cast iron skillet as a bucket, and the heat energy it contains as water filling that bucket. When you place a steak in that pan, you are essentially pouring that energy out of the skillet and into the steak.

In turn, that steak has three smaller energy buckets:

1. Temperature-change bucket: It takes energy to raise the temperature of the surface of that steak.
2. Evaporation bucket: It takes energy to evaporate the surface moisture from the steaks.
3. Maillard-browning bucket: It takes energy to trigger those browning reactions.

All those buckets need to be filled in that order. For example, water won't start evaporating until it has been heated to 212°F (100°C). The Maillard reaction doesn't take place until you hit temperatures of around 300°F (150°C) or higher, and that won't happen until most of the steak's surface moisture has evaporated.

Your goal is to make sure the temperature and evaporation buckets are as small as possible. This way you can rapidly fill them up and move on to the important process of browning.

NOTE: Moisture is the biggest enemy of a good sear. Any process that can reduce the amount of surface moisture on a steak is going to improve how well it browns and crisps—and, by extension, minimize the amount of time it spends in the pan, thus minimizing the amount of overcooked meat underneath. It's a strange irony that to get the moistest possible results, you should start with the driest possible steak but its 100% true.

The reverse sear is aces at removing surface moisture. As the steak slowly comes up to temperature in the oven, its surface dries out, forming a thin, dry pellicle that browns extremely rapidly. 

Want to get your steak to brown even better? Set it on a rack in a rimmed baking sheet, and leave it in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. The cool circulating air of the refrigerator will get it nice and dry. The next day, when you're ready to cook, just pop that whole rack and baking sheet in the oven.

More Tender Meat

This one is not quite as obvious, but it can still make a detectable difference: enzymatic tenderization. Meat naturally contains enzymes called cathepsins, which will break down tough muscle protein. Their activity is responsible for the tenderness of dry-aged meat.

At fridge temperatures, cathepsins operate very, very slowly—dry-aged meat is typically aged for at least four weeks—but, as the meat heats up, their activity increases more and more rapidly, until it drops off sharply at around 122°F (50°C). 

By slowly heating your steak, you are, in effect, rapidly "aging" it, so that it comes out more tender. Steaks cooked via traditional means pass quickly through that window, reaching the 122°F cutoff point too rapidly for this activity to have any real effect.

More Flexibility

When you're cooking steak at a high temperature, you have a very narrow window of time in which the center of that steak is a perfect medium-rare. A minute too short, and your steak is raw; a minute too long, and it's overcooked. With slow cooking, that window of time is greatly expanded, making it much easier to nail the right temperature time after time.

NOTE: A good thermometer is essential. All time ranges are approximate. Use a thermometer!