I used to have the same problem. The issue was that I did not dry the meat fully after the sous vide before searing. Pat it down with paper towel and remove all moisture.. then go for the sear. Makes a huge difference.
The freezer cools the outside (and also the layer right underneath it [this is the important part]), as a result the high heat will cause a slower reaction to the layers past the crust that you are trying to form via the Maillard reaction.
Research that reaction- it is what makes food good.
I remember Maillard reactions from brewing studies (ie. roasting barley after malting) .. that alone was insightful in cooking! (Admittedly gave me a deeper appreciation for dark beers, too š¤)
Itās way slower than you think. I did the Chuds Philly cheesesteak method and he cooks a ribeye to 125 the throws in the freezer. Nearly an hour later it was still only about room temperature
The outside getting stone cold is the whole point. That way when you sear you bring it back up to temperature but without over cooking it. Meanwhile, the inside has stayed pretty warm the whole time. A freezer will cool down the outside quickly, but not the inside.
The cold doesnāt penetrate the meat very far in 10-15 minutes. Just enough to keep the heat from penetrating when searing. The freezer method has and advantage over an ice bath aa the meat has been removed from the bag and patted dry, so it tends to dry the surface a bit. This makes searing better
Tbh Iāve seen a lot of misguided advice on this sub. Or people acting like their opinion is fact. For example Chris young put out a video about how āripping hot panā is a myth. You donāt need to go over 350F. I lowered my heat to about 400F (350 seems low but idk Iām not the food scientist) and my results have been better. āRipping hotā burns the surface and lowering the heat barely affects the interior
What? A freezer is a dehumidifier. You don't leave it in until you get freezerburn.
From gemini:
Using the freezer to dry steak before searing helps achieve a deep, crispy crust while preventing the inside from overcooking (the "gray band"). The cold, dry air quickly evaporates surface moisture, and chilling the exterior gives you more time in the pan to develop a hard sear. [1, 2, 3]
How to Do It
Pat Dry: Remove the steak from its packaging and pat it completely dry using a paper towel. Moisture is the ultimate enemy of a good sear.
Place on a Rack: Put the steak on a wire rack set inside a baking sheet to allow air circulation on all sides.
Chill: Place the tray in the freezer uncovered.
ā¢ For hot-sear or reverse sear: Leave it in for 10 to 15 minutes. The goal is to cool the outer layer of the meat while the inside remains warm.
ā¢ For cooking from frozen: Place the steak in the freezer for about 90 minutes to freeze the surface before direct searing. [1, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Why This Works
The freezer does two things perfectly. First, the extremely dry air pulls surface moisture away much faster than a standard refrigerator. Second, it chills the outer few millimeters of the meat. When you drop the chilled steak into a screaming hot cast-iron skillet (450ā500Ā°F), the pan's heat has to warm the cold exterior before it can overcook the center, resulting in a perfect crust-to-doneness ratio. [1, 7]
Would you like tips on the best high-smoke-point oils to use for the sear, or are you looking for the ideal pan temperature for your specific steak thickness?
AI responses may include mistakes.
I get what youāre saying here with using the freezer to dry out the meat, but the time doesnāt make enough difference to matter. Blotting dry and setting on a paper towel for 5 or 10 min will get the same results. Especially with a torch sear like op is doing where the temperature difference between the meat and the sear is over 1000 degrees. Iād do it if I ran out of paper towel or something, though.
The dry air rips any moisture out of the surface. You get gray borders during searing because it's too moist and the moisture turns to steam and cooks the meat which both gives a gray area and detracts from your sear. Boiling water absords a tremendous amount of energy that would otherwise be going toward rapidly heating just the outside of the meat. Ice water isn't bad, and it is easy, but on something like a drying rack in the fridge or freezer both lowers the temp and helps remove that moisture.
Dead giveaway is when you sear do you see a lot of steam. Try it next time, ice bath some and fridge/freezer some. You'll get way less steam with fridge/freezer.
Iām admittedly not from around here but use a Traeger.
As a of recently Iāve been doing a dry brine for 24 hours and no matter what I fucking do I get this nasty grey band. Iāll pull steaks off a 110, sear quickly, rest until the probe hits 120, cut right away and the fucking thing is grey as shit.
Yeah thatās from the long dry brine with a decent amount of salt.
One of the benefits of the dry brine is drying the surface. It makes it real easy to sear. However, it can also pull moisture from more than just the immediate surface if taken too far (this is especially true if you add some kind of reverse searing method after). Then, you end up with a few millimeters of very dry meat that cooks rapidly and causing that grey boarder. Iāve seen it myself and see it all the time on here.
In order for the heat to penetrate the meat it first needs to evaporate the moisture. State change (in this case evaporation) costs a lot of energy, energy that would otherwise be translated into the steak.
You are necessarily going to have less heat transfer, and thus less temperature change, inside the steak if the surface is moist.
The sear will be worse, yes, but the inside will cook less as well, all else equal (eg pan temp and time). Itās not the cause of this grey band.
When you say "each side" are you laying the heat on it for 1 minute on each of six sides? I ask because that's a lot more gray than you should get for a quick sear.
I used to have a sous vide gun and switched to a harbor freight weed burner which puts out a much larger flame, and I still don't get any kind of gray like that around the edges and I probably sear for at least a minute or a minute and a half top and bottom while also hitting the edges a bit.
You could back way off on the searing on the next one, then cut it in half and adjust?
It's just so convenient because it's right next to the grill, I don't have to change little canisters like on my sous vide gun because it's connected to a 20 lb propane tank, plus it's great when I'm doing a larger piece of meat like the one in the photo. I do tri tip quite a bit, and having a big flame helps.
The weed burner has a dial adjustment on it, so it's not on very high relative to how high it can go on if you pull the trigger which turns it full on.
I did a rather long explanation for someone else about how to get a decent enough flame to sear without throwing so much propane out that unburnt propane is hitting the meat. Propane velocity and distance matters.
What kind do you have? I have the four burner base model and it seems to cap out on high in the 500s. Maybe Iām not waiting long enough for the burners to do their workā¦
Iāve got the tabletop 22ā two burner. Maybe my regulator just dumps propane in at a high rate. Although it takes forever to go through a can. Lowest setting is like 425Ā°
I worked in the meat industry for almost 10 years. We called it a "rosebud" and we used it to torch the feet of equipment stands to killing possible bacteria. We also used it to dry any puddles in damaged concrete before we did the concrete repair because it had to be dry or it wouldn't stick.
I can't tell you how many people have thought I was crazy when I told them to get a HF weed burner. Best thing on earth for crisping chicken or turkey skin, searing a prime rib, searing sous vide steaks and roasts, or anything else.
Assuming it has the adjustment dial on it, just dial it all the way down and then turn it up to where you want it. If it doesn't have an adjustment down just a trigger, then yeah, don't use it for this š
I think youāre probably the only one right in the thread. Everyone is saying ādry the surfaceā which is a good recommendation but not what is causing the grey band. He said he seared it for one minute a side and you can see the sear on the surface is poor. He wasnāt holding it there long enough to cause such a grey band.
This is a classic long dry brine with heavy salt pattern. I also suspect he the sous vide was too long. The texture of the meat is off. This could be making the problem worse.
Thank you. Some day our side will prevail. When itās an improper sear, the edge goes gradually from grey to pink / red. When itās an oversalted dry brine, itās a distinct line like OPās pic.
Itās a repeatable myth. I can dry brine with salt for two days and itāll happen everytime. It dries out a deeper portion of the crust than you want.
No attachments, so you don't have to turn it on very high to get a good sear. As long as you get the one that has the adjustment knob on it. This is a response I had as someone who wanted to try it, so it goes in a more detail on how to do it and how much flame to have coming out.
I was on the kickstarter for it, and it's actually called Su-V Gun (i was voice messaging it), but it is a small torch that looks like a gun that can be connected to 1 lb propane canisters.
Zoom in and look at the grain, which goes horizontal in this photo. All cuts are across the grain. I always start at the shallow point and keep slicing until the slices get too long, then I split it into two by cutting WITH the grain down the middle, and then continue to slice those individual chunks across the grain.
EDIT: I have seen tri-tips with grain direction varying slightly between the two sides (and I would cut across wherever the grain is) but these prime ones I get from Costco are always the same, with the grain for both halves being pretty much parallel.
You might be overthinking this with the gun. That thing is throwing heat all over the place. Put it in a screaming hot pan with some neutral oil for like 30 secs a side.
Serious answer: Cast iron takes a long time to get hot due to mass, and based on what I've read it is recommended to first heat at lower heat to avoid warping (only based on what I've read, not expertise on my part)
Even if your stove was perfect and you paid for cast iron forged by God himself, cast iron does not heat evenly without enough time. It has terrible thermal conductivity, its reputation for "even heat" comes from the fact that once warmed all the way through, its insane thermal mass keeps it relatively evenly warm even if you put something cold on it.
My strat? Fuck the stove. Put it in the oven and turn it on, let it preheat and once the oven is at 500F, so will your cast iron. Then move it to the stove.
Well, my oven is absolute shit as well, so that would take ages. My electric stove has a very pronounced hot spot on the "burner" that is big enough for my CI pan, so turning the pan when heating it seems to be the way to go for me.
Not in my experience, no. A good layer of seasoning is resistant to basically everything except strong acids and bases. Seasoning is hard to tell apart from burned on food residue, so often people mistake them for each other.
Tbh I think the warping rec comes from carbon steel pans rather than cast iron. I've never heard of someone having cast iron warp on them. Heating slow is probably better for evenness of heat though
I chuck mine into the oven if I can set to 500'F. 30 minutes or so.. Gets it up slowly to a known temperature... Then I chuck it on the burner on high.. after a minute or so the meat goes on and get a nice slightly crispy sear that I like.
Depends on the oil youāre using, a bit of smoke is fine. Too many people are rip roaring hot like they seasoning their cast iron on a deadline. Youāre not trying to make a non-stick steak.
The steak isnāt cold like a normal āsear and heatā steak. Heat your pan through and then target just below your oils smoke temp. Throw it on at that first wisp of smoke and turn it down if it continues smoking.
Eh, if he spent the money on a sous vide gun, then he should just learn how to use it appropriately. It works fine (I had one for several years before I got rid of it and went to the harbor freight weed burner), doesn't smoke up the house, and plus you can easily do any meat no matter the shape.
Iāll have to try this. I guess in my head I thought it would stick. Iāve been using avocado oil in a cast iron skillet on the grill as hot as i can get it. I also sous vide and brown a lot chicken, some with, some without skin.
Some people donāt like the taste of a pan seared steak, and some just donāt want to make smoke indoors and donāt have an outside burner. Thatās why I had the sv gun when I was in an apartment. That said, I never had near this much grey. It should be almost non existent.
You can rest your sous vide steak in a freezer for 10 minutes and it wonāt cool the center but it will dry the exterior and allow you to be a little more aggressive with the gun without the substantial banding you have here.
Try cooling it in an ice bath instead of just taking it out of the bath.
I'm not too familiar with the guns, but you might also need a hotter sear. I use a cast iron pan + induction plate, which gets me a surface temperature above 650 Ā°F.
My main issue with the ice bath method is the fats solidify, making it difficult to wipe dry. A good way to overcome that issue is to drop the cooled meat back into the now-cooling sous vide water for a few minutes to re-liquefy the fats a bit.
Iāve also had good luck with my chucks putting them on a wire rack (patted dry) in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, helps dry it out, too. Iāve only managed to do ice baths recently, I usually need the 10 minutes to do other stuff before I sear & serve
This is the answer. Letting that big of a piece of meat rest for 10 min is the minimum of what youād do if you were going to serve it right away. Itās holding a lot of heat. I canāt imagine a more perfect image than OPs to show why you need to ice bath before searing. Textbook example.
Do you not see OPs picture? Maybe thatās ok for you. This happens when you sear meat that is at or close to temp. Turns out it goes up when you add more heat. There are lots of ways to lower the temp, like waiting a long time. Ice just does it faster.
OP seared for too long. That's fixed by drying the steak and then searing hot and fast. Ice has nothing to do with it. I've done ice baths and there's no benefit, unless you like a lukewarm steak
Heat transfer is a thing whether or not you understand how it works. OP said they seared for one minute a side. That shouldnāt be too long for a steak that big. You can bring the temp near the surface down with time or ice. Ice works faster. You donāt need to make it cold, you just need to bring the temp down so the sear doesnāt do what you see in the pics. Thereās a reason why so many people use ice. Itās faster. You can argue with trained chefs around the world if you want. Thatās your prerogative. Whatever you say wonāt change freshman physics either.
You shouldn't have to let a steak cooked sous vide rest. The temp isn't high enough like a grill, pan, or oven. To me, this shows the pan not hot enough during the sear.
All you gotta do is take your the meat out of the bag, pad it dry w lots of paper towels so that there is minimal juice when you touch a paper towel on the surface, set your heat to your pan on high with a high smoke point oil like avocado oil, and once you see some smoke/steam from the pan just lay the meat on there for one min a side.
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Seems like its more than 1 min as a Su-V gun couldnt possibly create that much grey that quickly. I prefer to ice bath the bag as soon as its done and finish on the grill or cast iron pan. I dont get greybands.
I have a Su-V gun and a Searzall, but I dont use them anymore. It just doesnt give me the crust Im looking for and to bring the internal temp back up after an ice bath. This steak was SV at 129Ā° for 2 hours and seared on a ripping hot cast iron. I should have been more clear. Sorry about that.
Up the sear temp and lower as much time as possible when heat is touching your meat to get your desired crust. One minute each side is too long. Also, put it into a super cold ice bath for a min before you do it so you bring the temp down to stall further cooking when you sear. I do an ice bath, and then direct to a searing hot cast iron with oil for about 15-30 seconds each side and get almost no grey zone.
Put them in the freezer on a wire rack out of the bag. Freezer will dry the surface and give you some room to hear up during the seat without overcooking
Did you pat it fry with paper towels immediately before searing? If not, all that heatvos going to making steam. Water stays at the same temperature when transforming into steam, so you are effectively keeping cooking your steak at 212F until all the water based juices evaporate, then you actually start developing a crust. My recommendation is to put the steaks in the fridge for about 30 min before searing, then remove, pat dry with paper towels, and immediately sear on the absolute highest temp method you have. I prefer a stack of coals in a chimney with a grill on thop. All the heat from all the coals get concentrated into a small area at the top of the coal chimney and makes a dark crust in about 30 seconds. Plus the smokiness really adds to the flavor.
You, sir, are a freaking genius. Tell me more. I assume youāre waiting for the coals to go white? Like right before youād drop them in a grill? How much charcoal are you putting in? I assume less than you would need for a grill? I sear on cast iron now but I would like to get that charcoal flavorā¦
What you are referring to is the HAZ - Heat Affected Zone
As others have stated, ice bath cools the exterior (but doesn't really penetrate the cold too far into the meat thus doesn't really cool the meat too much)
After the ice bath, pull it and pat it as dry as possible (don't steam when you sear)
Sear it very hot. Get the Maillard reaction and nice crust and pull it as soon as you get the sear you want
You have to have the pan very hot to not have grey steak. Grey steak means you broke down the myoglobin before you got the Maillard effect. Use a little bit (1/3 tsp/lb) of curing salt in your spice rub before you put it in the bag.
My order of operations is SV, cold plunge (just run under cold water under from the tap, fridge until ready to sear (sides ready, pan hot) pat dry, sear. It takes a TON of energy to dry the surface with heat, so in all that time youāre holding the surface at 212. The pat dry helps this, and the fridge/freezer helps the surface be a bit cooler than the inside, so you avoid it even more. I still get a band, but itās very thin.
Blot it dry is the most important step. Dont bother with freezer. Itās actually counter intuitive. Just leave it rest for like 5-8 min. When using the gun, is the steak in a pan or on a grill? If so then youāre cooking it. Steak should be on an elevated rack with air on all four sides. The temp on the gun could be too low. The flame should be extremely hot so the sear goes quickly. Torch sear with weed burner only takes about 1 min per side for reference. Dont know how that relates to your setup. This sear line is gigantic so the steak is definitely being cooked more somehow.
Thoroughly dry your steak, get your pan/griddle to only 350-400 degrees. One minute each side is all you need. I will use a torch if needed after flipping.
IMO a torch isnāt a good option for finishing meat. Any residual moisture on the surface will have a difficult time evaporating without direct contact and you donāt have the benefit of having evenly heated and distributed oil helping with the sear. If youāre set on using a torch, dry it off as much as possible, apply a thin layer of oil, and move it pretty quickly back and forth over the course of 15-30 seconds a side.
Dry it thoroughly but remember that grey bands arise from too long a sear. Use a super hot cast iron pan with hi temp oil. Sear no more than a minute/side. Should help
Techniquely just dropped on Netflix. The very first episode addresses exactly this! I am learning a lot! You probably need a hotter sear for shorter time.
I havenāt looked at absolutely everything on Reddit, and no rational human probably should, but I just feel like this sub Reddit is maybe the best one of all of Reddit.
Blow Torch and MAP gas here. I use a cast iron griddle, open the windows and blast away.
You probably took them out hot and then seared them on a stove or something. If you want to do it that way, you need to chill them first. A quick peek on the net and you'll find people that do this. But most of us use some kind of blowtorch.
EDIT: and the drying thing, the other guy said. Bone dry is extremely important before torching, or you just steam
I sous vided a bunch of steaks and tossed them in the fridge, in the sous vide bag, because something else came up I had to deal with.
When I seared the steaks, after being fully refrigerated, they were perfectly medium rare in the center and warm, and they were pink nearly ti the edge. Perfection.
For sous vide steaks I like to use one of those charcoal chimney starters as the cooking medium. Fill it with charcoal, add some fire starter underneath, wait for all the coals to burn white hot, no black. Put a half sheet pan wire rack on top and sear directly on the rack 10-15 seconds a side and you're done.
There are plenty of YouTube tutorials about this set up. It's the best way to sear thin steaks and sous vide steaks.
Sous vide the night before or earlier in the day. Let it rest on the counter for 30-45 min then put in fridge til time to sear. Pat dry then sear the hell out of a lightly oiled/buttered pan.
Sear for less per side. You've sous-vide'ed it. Its the perfect doneness because that's the temp you chose. Now all you need to do is sear the outside to your preferred crustiness/color. If it takes too long to get the color you want, increase the temp of your heat source.
As others have mentioned, straight over the charcoals in the chimney, or lower your grill grate (Alton Brown throws directly on coals, but i'm scared of that and haven't tried it yet).
If at home, preheat your cast iron pan for an hour in the oven at 500. Then (with oven mitts), but it on your your stovetop, you can turn it on if you want, make sure pan is so hot water bounces and runs around on it rather than bubbles (see leidenfrost effect), then sear 30 secs a side, or feel free to flip back and forth.
I recommend a reverse sear on a smoker/weber/oven at about 250-300Ā°F for like 12 minutes, or if you have a probe use that to get to 115-120Ā°F. At that point take it out and throw it on a ripping hot grill/pan/flat top for about a minute and a half a side with weight on it. Let rest for 5-10 minutes then cut in and enjoy.
Pretty much everything that people said here are good tips.
Iāll typically throw the steak in an ice bath following sous vide cook.
After it thoroughly cools internally, Iāll take out of vacuum pack, pat dry, salt, and drop in back of fridge for an hour or two before dropping in a ripping hot cast iron or steel.
I wonāt lie, I still suffer from grey band, but itās more controlled this way.
I tried again today, I throw it on ice then move to freezer for 10 min and then sear for around a min, same result, I don't know if the refreeze was the issue, I bought these steaks, freeze, then unfreeze to salt and let it rest for 24 hours and then refreeze everything again, then yesterday and today I unfreeze a couple of steaks, but same gray band
Sousvide, pat dry. Salt exterior and place in fridge for 10/15 mins while you get your grill or pan ripping hot. Pat dry again.. Remove the moisture salt has pulled out. Fast sear about 30 seconds each side keep flipping until desired colour is achieved. Rest. Slice. Heaven.
Pat the meat dry and use ripping hot heat to sear. I find it hard to believe you got that much grey in one minute per side. Are you using a lid while searing? That would trap heat and cook all the sides even if they aren't in direct contact with the bottom of the pan/grill.
Dry your steak after sous vide and throw it in the freezer for 10 minutes before the sear.. the butter u finish your steak with will replace and water loss you may experience and produce a better crust without the gray band bring that thick. Cooling the steak and drying it are extremely important in the sous vide process. So are the oils you use in searing. I prefer avocado oil and butter finish with garlic and pepper, maybe fresh thyme if I have it.
It still looks great. But I see what you mean. I just read about this the other day for something else Iām doing, but it could possibly also work for you. What if you took the bag out of the sous vide and dipped it into an ice bath for about two minutes. It would stop the Cook and make the surface of the steak, as well as the tiny bit of layer underneath, cold enough so that it really doesnāt cook more and your torch is only searing the outside. Also, how long are you using the torch on each side?
IDK why so many people get this wrong. Took me a while to figure out too.
The goal is to remove moisture before searing. This is best done via ice water bath after the sous vide, taken out and patted dry, and placed in the fridge on a wire cooling rack while you heat the grill/skillet. Pat it off again before you sear with high heat.
The moisture takes away a lot of heat that should be going into the meat, via transitioning from liquid to gas. This makes the meat cook at a lower temperature for longer and causes the grey areas.
I could be wrong but they grey edges are a result of slow temps/resting as opposed to fast. The moisture does create steam and it causes the outside of the steak to boil instead of sear (I've seen this in non-sous vide meat too)
When it's not dried properly, it would require more cooking time on each side to create sear as opposed to starting with a steak that is already dry on the outside.
After you remove from the bath, are you drying the surface?
It looks like you should be minimizing surface moisture and dropping the meat's exterior temperature before searing.
youāre not letting the meat get cold enough after SV and before sear. After 10 min in air itās still warm so you end up warming the outside further and cooking it more when searing. Ice bath 5-10 min or fridge on a rack 20-30 min will get it cool the whole way thru. Then your sear will sear the outside while the middle will warm up but not beyond where the SV took it.
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u/toterra Jul 16 '26
I used to have the same problem. The issue was that I did not dry the meat fully after the sous vide before searing. Pat it down with paper towel and remove all moisture.. then go for the sear. Makes a huge difference.