Mistakes Everyone Makes When Searing Meat

The differences between a well-cooked piece of meat and a poorly-cooked piece of meat are stark — and one of the key things that makes a well-cooked piece of meat stand out from a lesser option? The sear. Often overlooked by new cooks, or sometimes skipped over for the sake of time or to save on dirty dishes, the searing process is oh-so-important, whether you're cooking up a fine steak or searing some beef bits for a stew.

Perfecting a sear all comes down to a scientific process called the Maillard Reaction, a chemical reaction that transforms just about any item that you might be cooking to make it more biologically appealing; our prehistoric lizard brain looks at a piece of seared meat and recognizes that it's not only cooked well and safe to eat, but it's also filled with needed nutrients (via Serious Eats).

However, as is the case with any chemical reaction, it's all too possible to get the Maillard Reaction, and thus your sear, wrong. For your best chance at getting it right, here are 14 mistakes to avoid when searing your meat.

If you're going to sear a piece of meat, you're likely not going to do it in your slow cooker. Instead, you're going to reach for your favorite skillet or pan. But hold up — not just any skillet or pan will do the job well.

Safe bets, according to Foodal, include stainless steel-clad cookware (which allows for high temperatures, even heat distribution, and easy deglazing); cast iron cookware (which retains high heat quickly and evenly); or carbon steel cookware (which offers much the same benefits as cast iron, only it's not as heavy). What you absolutely don't want to reach for, though, is your non-stick pan. Non-stick pans are not designed for use in high heat situations and trying to use a non-stick pan for searing can leave you with not only an un-seared piece of meat, but also a ruined pan, and possibly some noxious fumes in your kitchen. Putting a non-stick pan over too high a heat can cause some of its non-stick chemicals to leach out, potentially harming your health.

But before you pat that steak dry, you need to do something else first — season it. The seasoning process for any seared piece of meat should always include salt, and for good reason. Salt, as That Other Cooking Blog explains, draws out excess moisture from your cut of meat (helping you avoid the water-in-the-pan catastrophe discussed above); modifies the texture and proteins in your meat, making for a more tender cut; and, of course, salt helps bring out the flavors of any food, both before and after the cooking process.

That Other Cooking Blog recommends adding salt and any other seasonings you desire to your cut of meat about half an hour before you plan on cooking. You want to let the salt sit on the cut of meat for at least 20 minutes, but up to overnight. The salt will draw out some of that excess moisture over time. When you're ready to cook, go ahead with your drying process before you add the meat to your pan.

While you don't want to start the searing process at too low a temperature, you also don't want to start at too high a temperature, either. If you heat your pan to too high a temperature before adding in your meat, you could end up with not only a cloud of smoke, as your oil begins to cook off, but also meat that's charred on the outside and raw on the inside, as one Chowhound user explained. Comments to their post revealed it's not an uncommon mistake to make, though. Commenters advise that, if you're using a cast iron pan for your searing, you likely only need to turn your stove up to medium and then allow it to preheat for five to 10 minutes.

If you don't have an infrared thermometer handy, but you still want to check your pan's temperature, commenters recommend the hand test — put your hand over the pan and, if you can't hold it there for more than five seconds, it's ready to go.

Choosing the right oil for the job is a key part of cooking, so don't just grab whatever oil is sitting in your pantry cabinet. For searing, since you're cooking at such a high temperature, you'll want to go with an oil that has a high smoke point, or a high temperature at which the oil starts to smoke. When oil starts to smoke, it changes the flavor, thus changing the flavor of your meat (and not in a good way); additionally, some oils emit unhealthy compounds when they begin to smoke.

What's the best oil for searing? Go with an oil with a smoke point of 400 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Canola, extra virgin olive, and vegetable oil are some of the most common oils with high smoke points, but peanut, sunflower, and soy oil are also fine options, as are grapeseed oil and avocado oil. And if your pan does start to smoke and you're using one of these oils, don't worry — sometimes a little smoking is fine, so long as it's not prolonged.

Too much meat, too little pan space? Don't give way to the temptation to crowd the pan, thinking that you'll be able to finish up your cooking a few minutes faster if you do. It's worth it to wait and cook your items one at a time or in batches.

Why? As we've already learned, adding cold meat to a pan lowers the pan's overall temperature — and, as we've also learned, the right temperature is oh-so-crucial to achieving a perfect sear. The more meat you add to the pan, the more the temperature lowers, so your best bet, if you're aiming for perfect, is to keep the pan relatively uncrowded. Otherwise, you end up with food that's not browned at all, and dry. Cooking Clarified recommends leaving an inch or two between the items you're trying to sear, if you're cooking something larger, like chicken thighs or steak; if you're cooking something smaller, like a cubed meat, you can create a single layer that covers the bottom of the pan.

Once you have the perfect sear on your piece of meat, you're ready to serve ... right? Maybe, if you like your meat on the rarer side. However, if you prefer a medium or medium-well piece of meat, you'll need to further cook your cut another way. So how do you do so without overcooking your meat?

The key is to continue cooking your cut at a low temperature, after the searing process is complete (via The Kitchn). You can do this on the stovetop, by adding a little moisture (stock or wine works well) to your pan, covering the food, and letting it cook until done on the inside, or you can do this in the oven, by broiling your item for several minutes on each side. Which method you choose will depend on the type of meat you're cooking, as well as the degree of doneness you're after. The former method is ideal for items like chicken, where you need an item to be completely, 100% cooked; the latter works well for medium steaks.

If you are using the traditional sear method, you definitely do want to allow your meat to rest before serving. The resting period allows time for all your meat's locked-in juices to redistribute and settle. Cutting into that piece of meat early reduces the amount of overall moisture throughout the entire cut.

However, it's worth noting that the resting period does allow more time for your food to cook, so if you're worried about overcooking, you might want to pull your meat out of the pan a little earlier than normal, and then let it continue cooking a few more degrees while it waits. According to the Steak School by Stanbroke, a steak should rest for at least five minutes, while a larger item, such as a beef roast, should rest for at least 20 minutes.

And that's it! Once you're done with the resting period, it's time to chow down, and if you managed to avoid all (or at least most) of the mistakes above, you'll be treated to a beautifully seared piece of meat.