The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

So, if none of these three methods is perfect on its
own, why settle for just one? For steaks and chops,
by combining pan-searing and torching into one
hybrid technique, you can avoid all the
disadvantages of either one alone.
I started by first searing one side of a steak in
smoking-hot oil and butter (the browned butter
solids help kickstart browning reactions). As soon as
the browning started, I flipped the steak over and
immediately started cooking that top surface with
the full blast of a propane torch. The layer of oil and
butter clinging to its surface helped to distribute the
heat of the flame evenly, leading to excellent, all-
over browning and charring and creating an
unbeatable steak house broiler–quality crust in