Searing

Searing or pan searing is a cooking method used in grilling, baking, braising, roasting, and sautéing. It cooks the outside of food, like meat such as beef, poultry, pork, or seafood, at a high temperature to make a browned crust. This is similar to browning and blackening, where all sides are cooked before putting the food in the oven to finish.

To get a brown or black crust, the meat’s surface needs to be hotter than 150 °C (300 °F). The meat should be dry because water boils at about 100 °C (212 °F) and stops the crust from forming.

Some think searing “locks in” moisture, but it actually lets out more water than not searing. Searing is still useful for a few reasons. The browning makes tasty flavors through the Maillard reaction. A brown crust also makes the food look better. The difference in taste and texture between the crust and the inside makes the meal more interesting.

When grilling, food is often seared over very high heat and then moved to a cooler part of the grill to finish cooking. In braising, the seared surface adds flavor and color to the cooking liquid.

Reverse searing

In reverse searing, we cook the food in a different order. First, we cook a thick steak, like a big piece of meat, slowly in the oven until the middle is just right. After that, we cook the outside quickly on a hot pan to get a nice brown crust. This way, the whole steak stays evenly cooked inside and has a crispy surface. This method works best for thicker steaks, about as wide as your hand or bigger.

Sealing in the juices

Many people think that searing meat "seals in the juices," but this is not true. This idea started a long time ago, around 1850. A scientist named Liebig wrote about it in his book. He thought substances in meat were very important for nutrition, but we now know this is not correct.

Experiments showed that searing makes meat lose more moisture. This happens because the high heat breaks down more cells in the meat, letting out more liquid. For this reason, some cooks sear meat at the end of cooking to get the tasty flavor from the Maillard reaction while keeping the meat moister.