I have read more and more about reverse searing and it has intrigued me but I have always loved regular searing so I have never really tried it. Well, tonight I tried.
In simple terms, for the searing method you sear the steak in a hot pan and then put it in the oven to come to temperature. With the reverse sear you put the steak in a low oven, bring it to temperature, let it rest, and then sear it. The theory with reverse searing is you get a much more evenly cooked steak with more of the steak being the right temperature as opposed to regular searing where there is a larger band of well done meat surrounding the proper temperature meat.
Disclosure: This post is monetized with affiliate links. If you buy something through them I earn a commission which helps support this site and lets me buy more meat so I can write about it.
This test was done with some bacon wrapped filet mignons from Snake River Farms. I am not usually a fan of filet mignon. It can be very tender but you have to nail the temperature right on. Anything beyond medium rare at most and you get a mealy, dry piece of meat. The flavor is also not as intense as other cuts. This is primarily due to the lack of fat in the meat. But when I unwrapped these steaks I was amazed at the amount of marbling in this filet mignon. Click on the image below to enlarge and see what I am talking about:
These filet mignons are about 7 ozs each and they have a nice thick strip of Kurubota bacon wrapped around them. Usually I don’t like wrapping things in bacon because I think it wastes the bacon. I would almost always rather have the bacon by itself but in this case the bacon really added to the flavor of these steaks. It had a nice smokiness that greatly enhanced the flavor of the meat rather than detracting from it.
I tried to keep everything as equal as possible in this test. I cooked two steaks reverse seared and two regular seared. Both steaks were rested at room temperature the same amount of time and I cooked them both to the same doneness and they were both seasoned with just salt and pepper.
The Reverse Seared Steaks
For the reverse seared steaks I put them in a cast iron pan and put them in the oven at 250. I was shooting for 120 degrees internal temperature so they would be nice and rare so I set my probe thermometer and got them cooking.
It took about 40 minutes for the thermometer to hit 120 and I pulled them out and let them rest for 10 minutes. They really didn’t look appetizing when they came out of the oven and were just a bland grey color.
While they were resting I got the pan heating on the stove. You want the pan as hot as possible to get a good sear and it only took about a minute or two per side to give the steaks a nice color.
Yeah, the external appearance is important but it is the interior that will tell the story. With filet mignon you want a deep, deep pink and almost red. You also want the color to remain consistent across the meat. With much trepidation I cut into the steaks after another minute or two of resting and here is what I saw:
This was exactly what I was looking for. The top has maybe a milimeter or two of well done but the rest is pretty much perfection. I was very happy with how these turned out. So how about the regular seared steaks???
The Regular Seared Steaks
I cooked these by just searing them in a super hot pan until they got some nice crust and color on the exterior and then put them in a hot oven to come to temperature. I cooked these to about 123 to make up for the fact that they wouldn’t be getting any more heat like the reverse seared steaks did. Here is what they looked like:
The exterior looked very similar to the reverse seared steaks. The bacon didn’t seem like it was cooked as much as the reverse seared steaks which is to be expected since they weren’t cooked for quite as long. But what does the middle look like? Is it as perfect as the reverse seared steak?
Overall it was nice and pink in the middle but there was a bit more well done around the edges. The texture looked a bit different too.
As far as moisture loss the reverse seared steaks lost 12.78% of their original weight and the seared steaks lost 10.19% of their weight so the seared steaks retained a bit more moisture but all in all we are only talking about a couple grams of water. Pretty insignificant overall.
Now we get to the fun part. How did they taste?
I have to say these were both some of the best filet mignons I have ever eaten. They were much more flavorful than any other I have had and rank right up near the top of any steak I have ever cooked. Perfectly tender, silky texture, and they actually had a nice beefy flavor to them. The bacon on both of them ended up great as well and was a great compliment to the steak.
These filets from Snake River Farms start at around $28 each which is more expensive than the grocery store (usually $20-25 per pound) but the overall quality of these steaks is much, much higher than the grocery store steaks. I never thought I would really enjoy a filet but these were awesome. Like I mentioned earlier they had much more inter-muscular fat than the grocery store steaks and wrapping them in good bacon really adds to the experience.
I would eat either of these any day of the week but in this test I would probably give them reverse seared steak a slight edge in texture. The flavor and doneness was very similar but the reverse seared steaks were just a bit more tender. They were so tender than when I gave a hunk to my 7 month old daughter to gnaw on it fell apart in her mouth and we had to fish some pieces out before she choked. Yeah, I know. Give me the parent of the year award right now.
Anyway, I was blown away with how these steaks turned out and I can’t wait to order more from Snake River Farms. The overall quality of the meat was beyond what I was expecting and I will also be adding the reverse sear to my cooking repertoire when I am not in a huge hurry. And my daughter agrees.
