June 2020
Updated April 2024
With regards to meat, searing is the act of singeing or scorching the surface of the meat at a high temperature. This can produce a myriad of additional flavours see Maillard Reaction but do you really need to burn the meat to get these extra wonderful flavours?
The thought of burning or charring food sends shudders through me, I grew up when times were hard and wasting food was a no no, even burning toast was frowned upon ! Burnt food has no nutritional value but some people seem have been persuaded to think that it is OK to to eat burnt food, each to their own 🙂
IMO, there is a fine line between adding flavours and burning. You can take the “browning” to the extreme to get to wonderful flavours but black is burnt and you can taste the difference, try it!
Lets look at say a nice bit of beef rump or sirloin steak (Aberdeen Angus 30 day or even better 36 day dry cured). This piece of meat has been “lovingly” matured for 30 days, it has a nice bit of marbling and a bit of fat on the outside (fat gives it taste). Oiled and seasoned with sea salt & black pepper, It’s going to melt in your mouth and taste fantastic; if you cook it right 🙂
Why would you want to burn it or cook it in flames! it needs oiling and seasoning and then cooking to perfection. IMO nice brown outside and “blushing” inside but pink inside with no blood running is OK.
I use a cast iron frying pan in the kitchen and a cast iron griddle plate on the BBQ.
Beef rib boned, oiled and seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Note the flat plate, not ribbed!
Options:-
1. Get the pan / griddle stinking hot and throw the steak in / on and cook for a few minutes (depending on thickness), to brown, turn over and do same, remove from heat and let it rest for a few minutes (Note, it continues to cook while resting, it also allows to meat to “relax”).
2. Get the pan warm / hot and then throw the steak in / on, cook it a little longer than above to brown, turn and repeat, remove from heat and rest.
3. Get the pan warm, throw in the steak, cook for a few minutes and turn without “browning”. Then turn the heat up to “brown” the steak each side. Remove from heat and rest. This is called “Reverse sear” and can be very effective for really thick steaks.
Any of the above methods can produce a melt in the mouth steak and if you keep to brown / dark brown and avoid cooking until black, it will taste fantastic. I’ve never understood the idea of “ribbed griddles” that give lines of black (burnt) meat! IMO, if you have black lines on your steak, maybe the griddle needs cleaning 🙂 Ideally you want to cook the meat evenly and you can’t do that with a “ribbed” cooking surface. Why anyone would want to cook meat (or veg) over an open flame to produce a burnt crust but still have the meat blushing on the inside is an enigma.
I tend to prefer option 2 above, here’s why.
Meat is muscle and muscle tends to contract when placed on a very hot surface! With this in mind :-
Option 1 above would make the meat contract and could possibly toughen the meat.
Option 2, cooks the meat at a lower temperature. It avoids the “shock” of the high heat and should produce a more tender steak.
Option 3 should produce a steak cooked to perfection, nice brown on the outside and pink in the inside (medium rare).
I tend to use option 2 in the kitchen and option 3 when using the BBQ (with a smooth cast iron plate)
- Note Don’t forget to rest the meat after cooking. Some suggest resting it for as long as you have cooked but remember it will continue to cook when removed from the heat. The cooking while resting will be more apparent with option 1 & 3. Resting allows the meat to relax.
Preparing the meat / steaks. If you have bought good quality meat with a nice bit of marbling and a good bit of fat on the outer edge, a good way to help break down the connective tissue and fat is to “Salt” (Dry Brine). at least 2 hours before cooking but overnight gets best results.
Most people recommend letting your meat reach room temperature before cooking. I’m not sure which room this refers to but guess it would be about 20 deg C (68 deg F). Basically take the meat out of the fridge maybe an hour or so before cooking. You can actually cook meat / steaks from frozen, it just takes longer and usually at lower temp.
Cheaper cuts of meat (beef)
Maybe you want to cook something like a beef hotpot / casserole. The temptation would be to “brown” the meat before putting it in the casserole dish and cooking it slowly for a few hours in the oven. You might find it better to not brown the cheaper cuts of meat, just add it to the hotpot and make sure is covered by the “stock / gravy” then let it cook slowly (at a low temperature) to make it tender.
Browning meat adds so many extra flavours so another option would be to buy meat that isn’t diced. You can then can brown the larger bits of meat (each side) and then slice or dice the meat (while it is still blushing on the inside) and then add it to the casserole dish, where it will continue to cook in the “gravy”.
If you buy “diced meat” it is often a “cheaper cut” or maybe “offcuts” that won’t be very tender. Slow cooking it can make it tender but it might be better to not brown it, Instead Rely on the contents of the hotpot / casserole and the slow cooking to tenderise the meat. You could try Marinading or Tenderising before cooking. Preparation is key!
Thin cut beef steaks. These are sold by supermarkets and they vary in “quality”, it’s pot luck ! Some will be as tough as old boots and some will be as tender as rib eye steak. You will need to check the marbling and layer of fat to see if its likely going to be tender but try the following:-
1. Tenderise the meat by giving it a good “pounding” with either a meat mallet or even a heavy pan or rolling pin, this should tenderise the toughest of meats.
2. Tenderise the meat using the “Enzyme method”
The (thin cut) steaks can be “flash fried”. A little oil, salt and pepper and then cooked a minute or so each side to “brown”. Then slice the steaks into strips of about 1cm wide, while the inside is blushing. Leave to rest or pop into to a pan of gravy to finish cooking.
You should end up with lightly browned “beef strips” that are fairly tender.
Pork steaks, Lamb steaks and chicken breast.
You can apply the above cooking methods but chicken breast cooks very quickly and you don’t want it to dry out. With chicken hotpot / casserole, I tend to cook the breast fillets for a few minutes each side to (lightly) brown and then slice them up while they are still blushing on the inside. Then pop them into the casserole dish and make sure they are covered with “gravy”. You will only need to finish off in the oven for about 25 mins, the hot gravy basically finishes the cooking. With regards to chicken (poultry), thighs and drums (on the bone) will always be the most tasty and probably applies to most meats.
*Note about Marinades
*Note about “Tenderising meat“.
You can combine the Marinading with a Tenderising “agent” or “method”.
To sear or not to sear! Browning meat does add some wonderful flavours but it can make the meat tough. If you’re a burnt meat eater; hopefully you will now try the brown / dark brown approach and accept that you don’t have to burn meat to get all those extra flavours. Burning meat does not tenderise a lump of tough meat. Burnt meat has no nutritional value.
That lump of meat that you are going to cook was once a living creature, treat it with respect! Hopefully it was reared with respect and was grass fed in a meadow and had the best “Welfare treatment” in it’s short life.
Anyone can burn meat or cook it with black (burnt) lines but don’t be fooled, you want to taste the meat not the “Char”! Why anyone would want to have the taste of “burnt wood smoke” peculating their meat is something else that beggars belief but hey ho.
You don’t have to sear (brown) meat to make it tasty and tender, just buy good quality meat that has been well treated before it was butchered but searing / browning will always add a lot of flavours. If you are cooking a “hot pot” type meal or cheaper cuts of meats, you could try a combined method where you would maybe sear one side of the meat (to get those extra flavours) after marinading and / or salting.
If you go to a restaurant and you are served with meat with black bits on it, ask “is it the Chefs night off” and send it back. 🙂
Brown is done, black is b*ggerd (burnt) 🙂