The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

If searing does in fact “lock in juices,” we would expect that
the steak that was first seared and then roasted would retain
more juices than the steak that was roasted and then seared.
Unfortunately for old wives’ tales, the exact opposite was
the case. I carefully weighed each roast at each step of the
process to gauge the amount of moisture and fat lost during
cooking. These are the results: