Why sear beef

The connections between the molecules in muscle tissue have gaps big enough for water to pass through. In fact, when searing a steak, you know that water passes through the tissue because you can hear it.

Cooks are taught to listen for a loud sizzle when the steak hits the pan, indicating that the pan is hot enough. This sound is water on the surface of the steak rapidly boiling into steam. As the surface of the meat cooks, proteins in the meat tighten up and squeeze out more water, which continues the sizzling.

If there were an impermeable water barrier on the outside of the steak, the sound would stop. Writer J. None of this is to say you shouldn't sear meat, however. Searing serves the very important purpose of building flavor and texture. A hot pan can create a golden, caramelized crust through a process called the Maillard reaction. Cooking above degrees imparts that savory flavor and aroma that will leave you salivating. To-Dos allows Tasting Table members to store and remember all of the food and drink recommendations we send out each week.

You've now added the To-Dos below to your personal list. Happy eating! Thanks for Signing up. After all, isn't the whole point of a slow cooker to make preparing a meal as easy as possible? Searing meat before throwing it in the slow cooker certainly goes against the set-it-and-forget-it approach, and the "to brown, or not to brown?

Thankfully, there is no right or wrong answer here via Slow Cooker Central. If you want to sear or brown meat before placing it in your slow cooker , that's fine, though you don't have to. In this recipe video, and below, I explore the basic methods for searing, expose a couple myths, and discuss the biggest reasons for searing.

Hope you find it useful. The big reason for searing meat, is when you want to get a surface area that is golden brown and caramelized without overcooking the interior. The easiest example to talk about is Steak. In other words, the outside is very thoroughly cooked, while the inside is just barely cooked. The problem is the longer you cook the outside, the longer you cook the inside…and instead of the contrasting doneness, you just get a thoroughly overcooked steak.

Searing, through the application of very high heat, and the right techniques, gets that outside layer cooked in so short a time, the inside can stay more rare, tender, and juicy. Fear not!