pan seared steak (and smoke)

One time on Usenet said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like appearance.
I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the pan searing? thanks
in advance......

I wonder if it's the oil? I sear my steaks in a cast iron skillet
heated on the stovetop (it gets plenty hot), but no oil -- just some
salt and pepper in the pan...

--
Jani in WA (Smee)
~ mom, VidGamer, novice cook, dieter ~

On 12 Jul 2005 13:33:25 -0700, "dakota2112" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

(on each side, and then return to hot oven to finish cooking for 4
minutes, turning once)

Quoted message said:

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes.

It doesn't take anywhere *near* 20 minutes to heat the pan to a
suitable temperature. With gas, it takes maybe 3 minutes; perhaps a
little longer with electric.

Quoted message said:

I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

Even 1 minute searing, and 4 minutes in a 500-degree oven seems as it
it would produce a fairly rare steak (recipe says 1-1/2 inches thick).
I think I cook on stovetop for about 3 minutes per side for med. rare.

Quoted message said:

(And how do people
actually do this indoors without getting a housefull of smoke?!)

Exhaust fan. Or open window. This method *does* seem to produce a fair
amount of smoke.

"dakota2112" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like appearance.
I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

Am I still not getting the skillet hot enough? (And how do people
actually do this indoors without getting a housefull of smoke?!)

You are doing it right. Smoke is unavoidable in my experience. You didn't
move the steak once in the pan, did you?

--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths page at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

"dakota2112" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I've tried various heating methods outdoors to avoid the smoke issue,
and nothing seems to get it nearly hot enough... I've tried a hot
plate, my propane grill, the heating element in my electric smoker, and
even a bed of hot campfire coals, and these methods all required
several minutes of searing to produce only a barely discernable sear.
The best skillet sear I've been able to achieve thus far is using my
electric range top indoors, which obviously is a mistake due to the
smoke... and yet none of these methods have produced as good of a
sear/char as what I can accomplish by just throwing the steak directly
on my propane grill and letting it go hog wild for a few minutes per
side (flames about 2 feet high will make a nice char crust, although
it's probably carcinogenic but it sure tastes good)

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the pan searing? thanks
in advance......

Do you have a gas grill with a side burner? Outside? The prefect solution to
the smoke problem.

BTW it is said that "Pittsburgh" style came from the steel workers throwing a
chunk of meat onto red hot steel.

Dimitri

dakota2112 said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like
appearance. I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in
the skillet, filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a
very minimal seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes
per side.

Am I still not getting the skillet hot enough? (And how do people
actually do this indoors without getting a housefull of smoke?!)

I've tried various heating methods outdoors to avoid the smoke issue,
and nothing seems to get it nearly hot enough... I've tried a hot
plate, my propane grill, the heating element in my electric smoker,
and even a bed of hot campfire coals, and these methods all required
several minutes of searing to produce only a barely discernable sear.
The best skillet sear I've been able to achieve thus far is using my
electric range top indoors, which obviously is a mistake due to the
smoke... and yet none of these methods have produced as good of a
sear/char as what I can accomplish by just throwing the steak directly
on my propane grill and letting it go hog wild for a few minutes per
side (flames about 2 feet high will make a nice char crust, although
it's probably carcinogenic but it sure tastes good)

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the pan searing? thanks
in advance......

Hmmm, I pan seared a tenderloin filet in my cast iron skillet last night. I
wrapped bacon around it first, got the pan smoking hot. It seared up very
nicely. I like mine medium-rare (more on the rare side) but I still had to
do it about 5 minutes on each side. Of course, this filet was close to 3
inches thick.

Jill

dakota2112 said:

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the pan searing? thanks
in advance......

Start with a thicker steak. That way you'll keep it on the "fire"
long enough for a crust to form.

at Tue, 12 Jul 2005 20:33:25 GMT in <1121200405.441737.135050
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, [email hidden] (dakota2112) wrote :

Quoted message said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like appearance.
I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

Don't oil the steak. It should go in the skillet without anything else on
it - in the first place because anything else will simply burn, and in the
second place because that just puts another layer between pan and the
steak's surface. At the temperatures involved, I think oil might actually
be dangerous (possible flare-up)

Smoke, meanwhile, is inevitable. Open every window you can and remove
batteries from smoke detectors.

A good test of whether the pan is hot enough is to drop a few drops of
water on the pan's surface. If they literally bounce off the surface like
tiny rubber balls, it's hot enough. I find that even the point where the
drops evaporate instantly with a quick hiss isn't nearly hot enough. I
assume, btw, that your skillet was cast-iron? The bigger the skillet, the
better.

Be aware also that "seared" isn't the same as "burnt". If you're looking
for a thick layer of actual carbon char on the surface, then you really
need to expose it directly to open flame. A good sear should create a dark,
ruddy colour - very distinctive and revealing the muscle fiber direction
and grain clearly. Also, carbon char adds nothing to the flavour except a
burnt taste. So again, unless you're looking specifically for the flavour
of carbon, there's no need to burn the surface of the steak.

--
Alex Rast
[email hidden]
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

dakota2112 said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place the
skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like appearance.
I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

Am I still not getting the skillet hot enough? (And how do people
actually do this indoors without getting a housefull of smoke?!)

I've tried various heating methods outdoors to avoid the smoke issue,
and nothing seems to get it nearly hot enough... I've tried a hot
plate, my propane grill, the heating element in my electric smoker, and
even a bed of hot campfire coals, and these methods all required
several minutes of searing to produce only a barely discernable sear.
The best skillet sear I've been able to achieve thus far is using my
electric range top indoors, which obviously is a mistake due to the
smoke... and yet none of these methods have produced as good of a
sear/char as what I can accomplish by just throwing the steak directly
on my propane grill and letting it go hog wild for a few minutes per
side (flames about 2 feet high will make a nice char crust, although
it's probably carcinogenic but it sure tastes good)

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong with the pan searing? thanks
in advance......

It would help a heck of a lot more if you simply described the steak
and not bother with all of that fercocktah useless crapola you wrote.

What kinda steak you talking, ham, salmon, swordfish, halibut, mako,
beef, tube? Which cut and how thick? No one can really help you
beyond offering wild speculation if all the information you indicate is
about your fercocktah pan (yoose gonna eat the steak or the pan)? You
gotta say exactly what GOESINTO the pan.

Alex Rast said:

Don't oil the steak. It should go in the skillet without anything else on
it - in the first place because anything else will simply burn, and in the
second place because that just puts another layer between pan and the
steak's surface. At the temperatures involved, I think oil might actually
be dangerous (possible flare-up)

Smoke, meanwhile, is inevitable. Open every window you can and remove
batteries from smoke detectors.

A good test of whether the pan is hot enough is to drop a few drops of
water on the pan's surface. If they literally bounce off the surface like
tiny rubber balls, it's hot enough. I find that even the point where the
drops evaporate instantly with a quick hiss isn't nearly hot enough. I
assume, btw, that your skillet was cast-iron? The bigger the skillet, the
better.

Be aware also that "seared" isn't the same as "burnt". If you're looking
for a thick layer of actual carbon char on the surface, then you really
need to expose it directly to open flame. A good sear should create a dark,
ruddy colour - very distinctive and revealing the muscle fiber direction
and grain clearly. Also, carbon char adds nothing to the flavour except a
burnt taste. So again, unless you're looking specifically for the flavour
of carbon, there's no need to burn the surface of the steak.

Feel free to oil the steak or the pan, and go ahead and season up that
steak before slapping it in the skillet.

ugh... I blame it on FoodTV.

~John

Sheldon said:

It would help a heck of a lot more if you simply described the steak
and not bother with all of that fercocktah useless crapola you wrote.

What kinda steak you talking, ham, salmon, swordfish, halibut, mako,
beef, tube? Which cut and how thick? No one can really help you
beyond offering wild speculation if all the information you indicate is
about your fercocktah pan (yoose gonna eat the steak or the pan)? You
gotta say exactly what GOESINTO the pan.

Unless otherwise specified, we can safely assume the steak in question
is beef and respond in kind. Only a total moron would say "steak" and
not be talking about anything other than beef - without any hint to
the contrary.

sf said:

Unless otherwise specified, we can safely assume the steak in question
is beef and respond in kind. Only a total moron would say "steak" and
not be talking about anything other than beef - without any hint to
the contrary.

"You took my comment entirely out of context, and you know very well how
that can be made to convey to any statement a whole new meaning... after
all I'm the master of that talent"

Guess who wrote that...

~john

at Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:17:00 GMT in
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] (Sheldon) wrote :

Quoted message said:

Alex Rast said:

(dakota2112) wrote :

Quoted message said:

Ok, so I've been reading for quite a while about how good a steak is
when it's seared in a hot cast iron skillet. On "Good Eats", Alton
Brown says to preheat the skillet in a 500 degree oven, then place
the skillet on the range top and sear the steak for 30 seconds.

I tried this last night. But because of a pie being in the oven, I
wasn't able to preheat that way, so I turned the electric rangetop
burner to HIGH and let the skillet preheat for about 20 minutes. It
got hot to where I couldn't hold my hand above the skillet for more
than a few seconds, and the skillet took on a gray ash-like
appearance.
I dropped my room-temperature, safflower-oiled steak in the skillet,
filled my house with smoke, and ended up with only a very minimal
seared crust - and I seared it for at least 1-2 minutes per side.

Don't oil the steak. It should go in the skillet without anything else
on it - in the first place because anything else will simply burn, and
in the second place because that just puts another layer between pan
and the steak's surface. At the temperatures involved, I think oil
might actually be dangerous (possible flare-up)

Smoke, meanwhile, is inevitable. Open every window you can and remove
batteries from smoke detectors.

A good test of whether the pan is hot enough is to drop a few drops of
water on the pan's surface. If they literally bounce off the surface
like tiny rubber balls, it's hot enough. I find that even the point
where the drops evaporate instantly with a quick hiss isn't nearly hot
enough. I assume, btw, that your skillet was cast-iron? The bigger the
skillet, the better.

Be aware also that "seared" isn't the same as "burnt". If you're
looking for a thick layer of actual carbon char on the surface, then
you really need to expose it directly to open flame. A good sear
should create a dark, ruddy colour - very distinctive and revealing
the muscle fiber direction and grain clearly. Also, carbon char adds
nothing to the flavour except a burnt taste. So again, unless you're
looking specifically for the flavour of carbon, there's no need to
burn the surface of the steak.

You're so fulla [censored] you leave brown streaks on your pillow by your
earholes...

What, precisely, do you take issue with? Can you specify what parts of
these recommendations you would consider to be inaccurate? I don't believe
that claiming someone else is wrong without detailing where and offering
what you believe to be the proper corrections is very helpful to the
original poser of a question. Indeed, it can add confusion because now any
future readers may doubt or discount the response to the question thus
criticised without having any further information either as to the factual
source of that doubt or to what the correct facts would be if the response
was in fact in error.

--
Alex Rast
[email hidden]
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

"levelwave" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Alex Rast said:

Don't oil the steak. It should go in the skillet without anything else on
it - in the first place because anything else will simply burn, and in
the second place because that just puts another layer between pan and the
steak's surface. At the temperatures involved, I think oil might actually
be dangerous (possible flare-up)

Smoke, meanwhile, is inevitable. Open every window you can and remove
batteries from smoke detectors.

A good test of whether the pan is hot enough is to drop a few drops of
water on the pan's surface. If they literally bounce off the surface like
tiny rubber balls, it's hot enough. I find that even the point where the
drops evaporate instantly with a quick hiss isn't nearly hot enough. I
assume, btw, that your skillet was cast-iron? The bigger the skillet, the
better.

Be aware also that "seared" isn't the same as "burnt". If you're looking
for a thick layer of actual carbon char on the surface, then you really
need to expose it directly to open flame. A good sear should create a
dark, ruddy colour - very distinctive and revealing the muscle fiber
direction and grain clearly. Also, carbon char adds nothing to the
flavour except a burnt taste. So again, unless you're looking
specifically for the flavour of carbon, there's no need to burn the
surface of the steak.

Feel free to oil the steak or the pan, and go ahead and season up that
steak before slapping it in the skillet.

ugh... I blame it on FoodTV.

Oil the steak, yes - after patting dry with paper towels, a thin layer of
oil gives a better result. Never oil the pan. By the time the pan is hot
enough the oil will have burned off.

--
Peter Aitken

Yes I'm talking about beef, I believe in this case it was a porterhouse
about 1.5" thick. My cast iron skillet was hot to where water droplets
danced.

I might try with no oil next time; that is one variable I haven't
removed yet. Thanks for the (helpful) suggestions!

Alex Rast said:

at Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:17:00 GMT in
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] (Sheldon) wrote :

Quoted message said:

You're so fulla [censored] you leave brown streaks on your pillow by your
earholes...

What, precisely, do you take issue with? Can you specify what parts of
these recommendations you would consider to be inaccurate? I don't believe
that claiming someone else is wrong without detailing where and offering
what you believe to be the proper corrections is very helpful to the
original poser of a question. Indeed, it can add confusion because now any
future readers may doubt or discount the response to the question thus
criticised without having any further information either as to the factual
source of that doubt or to what the correct facts would be if the response
was in fact in error.

Alex, you're so polite . . . entirely inappropriate for newsgroups.
If you can't get with it, maybe you shouldn't post at all. :-)

sf said:

Sheldon said:

It would help a heck of a lot more if you simply described the steak
and not bother with all of that fercocktah useless crapola you wrote.

What kinda steak you talking, ham, salmon, swordfish, halibut, mako,
beef, tube? Which cut and how thick? No one can really help you
beyond offering wild speculation if all the information you indicate is
about your fercocktah pan (yoose gonna eat the steak or the pan)? You
gotta say exactly what GOESINTO the pan.

Unless otherwise specified, we can safely assume the steak in question
is beef and respond in kind. Only a total moron would say "steak" and
not be talking about anything other than beef - without any hint to
the contrary.

We... you speak for everyone, how presumptuous...

Shows how much you know, because even if what you say were true, which
it absolutely is not, one still needs to indicate WHICH cut of beef.
I've never yet seen a menu says "steak" without a description... then
I/we can *safely assume* you eat only at fast food booger joints.

Sheldon

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

<snip>:

Quoted message said:

Hmmm, I pan seared a tenderloin filet in my cast iron skillet last night. I
wrapped bacon around it first, got the pan smoking hot. It seared up very
nicely. I like mine medium-rare (more on the rare side) but I still had to
do it about 5 minutes on each side. Of course, this filet was close to 3
inches thick.

Jill

Drool.......

Dimitri

dakota2112 said:

Yes I'm talking about beef, I believe in this case it was a porterhouse
about 1.5" thick. My cast iron skillet was hot to where water droplets
danced.

I might try with no oil next time; that is one variable I haven't
removed yet. Thanks for the (helpful) suggestions!

PS: If you're looking for the crust that will form when it comes into
contact with oil, try oiling the meat instead of the pan next time.

Dimitri said:

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

<snip>:

Quoted message said:

Hmmm, I pan seared a tenderloin filet in my cast iron skillet last
night. I wrapped bacon around it first, got the pan smoking hot.
It seared up very nicely. I like mine medium-rare (more on the rare
side) but I still had to do it about 5 minutes on each side. Of
course, this filet was close to 3 inches thick.

Jill

Drool.......

Dimitri

Was delicious! And the bacon was enough to "oil" the pan (which of course
is already well seasoned enough to be non-stick anyway)... the bacon came
out nice and crispy around the beef tenderloin, too. YUM 🙂

Jill