the meat vaporizes during the cooking. The
result is more rapid cooking (less cooling by
evaporation) and moister meat.
The Searing Question
The best-known explanation of a cooking
method is probably this catchy phrase:
“Sear the meat to seal in the juices.” The
eminent German chemist Justus von Liebig
came up with this idea around 1850. It was
disproved a few decades later. Yet this
myth lives on, even among professional
cooks.
Before Liebig, most cooks in Europe
cooked roasts through at some distance
from the fire, or protected by a layer of
greased paper, and then browned them
quickly at the end. Juice retention was not
a concern. But Liebig thought that the
water-soluble components of meat were
nutritionally important, so it was worth
minimizing their loss. In his book