Why Cooking the Perfect Steak is Hard

Searing a steak is one of the most widely referenced cooking techniques in the culinary world. Millions of Americans have a “steak night” ritual wherein they follow an elaborate process that may include, “dry brining,” a famous steak seasoning, avocado oil, algae oil, cooking spray, butter, or myriad other steps and ingredients. The point is that there are two primary goals when cooking a steak. First, you want the steak to be cooked to the correct internal temperature so that you hit rare, medium-rare, medium or whatever level of doneness you desire. For that purpose, Thermapen® NANO is the ideal tool, providing an accurate temperature reading in just 0.4 seconds. The second goal of cooking steaks is to develop a flavorful crust or sear on the steak. 

These two goals are sometimes at cross purposes. Searing requires high heat, making a precise finish temperature more difficult to attain. So how do you get the sear you want without overcooking the steak? There are a number of options. The “reverse sear” method allows you to slowly bring up the temperature of your steak before searing with high heat at the very end. There is much to commend this method, but ultimately, I think it falls flat, due to the time restriction for searing the steak. Sear too long and the center is overcooked. Slightly undercook your steak before searing to compensate, and you are in essentially the same position as a standard sear with less time to achieve a perfect crust. 

The Six Method Test

In pursuit of the perfect sear, we tested six different searing methods. We used copper, stainless, carbon steel, cast iron, and a well-known non-stick pan in addition to a grill. Each pan is a different material, different weight, with different thermal conductivities and specific heat capacities, but every pan was 10” to keep something of an even playing field. From the outset, we have to acknowledge that every method was able to produce a good steak, but there are certainly some differences. 

The process we used was identical for every pan. We used Pro-Surface Thermapen to ensure each pan was heated to 400°F. We then added Beef tallow and brought the temp back to 400°F again before the steaks were added. Burners were adjusted throughout the cook to maintain 400°, and the steaks were removed when the internal temperature was 127°. After all steaks were seared, we examined the crust underneath a microscope to see if a close up visual inspection could reveal more than just the naked eye. A similar process was followed with the grilled steak, but pan temperature could not be monitored, and no beef tallow was added. 

Copper Pan: High Price, High Thermal Conductivity

There were a couple characteristics for the pans that we thought might carry the day. The first was thermal conductivity. The copper pan had the best thermal conductivity of any of the pans we tested. As a matter of fact, copper conducts heat nearly an order of magnitude better than the other pans used in the test. Cast iron and carbon steel conduct heat about ⅛ as well while stainless steel is about 1/25 the thermal conductivity. Additionally, copper is a fairly dense metal, meaning the pan was heavy: 1960.3g. Though we achieved a very good sear with this pan, both the microscopic view and the blind tasting at the end revealed that this pan gave middle-of-the-road results. 

Artisan Carbon Steel with a Heavyweight Sear

Carbon steel was also a promising candidate. At nearly 2400g, this was the second heaviest pan in our testing. The microscopic view showed a very deep sear that ranked among the best from our test. This pan’s ergonomic handle stayed cool and the high sides reduced splattering.  The extremely smooth surface seemed to work quite well, but the blind taste testers consistently ranked it in the middle of the pack. It was a stand-out in neither flavor nor texture. 

Heavy Duty Non-Stick Looks Good on the Surface

Our non-stick pan did deliver a perfect non-stick performance. This allowed for easy flipping, developing a crust on both sides. Under the microscope we were able to see that the sear was superficial. What looked like a browned steak to the naked eye became a grey steak with lots of brown flecks when examined with magnification. In fact, our blind tasters ranked it the lowest for flavor, despite giving it high marks for texture. 

The Grill

Finally, we need to address our top 2 performers. In second place was the steak cooked on the grill. Though the sear was incomplete, only forming on the lines of the grill grate, our testers reported universally high marks for flavor. Sixth place and third place were separated by only 3 points, but the grilled steak in second place was 9 points ahead of the third place finisher. What this means is that these two methods distinguished themselves in a pretty substantial way. The sear on our grilled steak was certainly inferior, but the grilled steak flavor made it universally loved.

…And Still the Undefeated, Undisputed Champion of the (Steak) World!

Lastly, our winner, receiving the highest marks from our testers for both texture and flavor, the cast iron pan. This was clearly the darkest and thickest crust by inspection of the naked eye. Moreover, the view in the microscope revealed that cast iron produced a deeper layer or browning. Most of the sear methods produced browning on only the very outside surface, but cast iron allowed the maillard reaction to develop a substantial distance into the surface of the meat. This was the heaviest pan in our test, weighing in at a whopping 2834g or 6.25lbs! From our testing, it appears that thermal conductivity is less important than mass. The heat contained in the pan was able to redistribute heat rapidly enough, without a substantial drop in temperature so that the maillard reaction happened more fully than any other method. In conclusion, it looks like grandmothers have been right all along. A heavy cast iron pan with a smooth surface (available in many vintage pans or premium pans like the Made In pan used in our testing) produces the best sear and the most complete browning of any of these methods. While many top steak houses use intense infrared heat from a broiler, the uncommon nature of that tool in households precluded its use in this test. Though there are many great steak cooking methods and myriad pans to choose from, the traditional cast iron pan has not yet been dethroned.