I have been trying the reverse sear method for since last summer. I just went back to searing first last night. I find I have an easier time controlling the internal temp of the meat when I sear first last night I grilled some rib eyes to a perfect medium rare. I am using a gas grill with a real sear burner. Maybe I am over doing the sear when I reverse sear. Darn I guess I'll have to practice more.
The reverse helps produce a more wall-wall medium rare, without the increase in browning as your near the outer surfaces, on thick steaks, 1.5" or greater.
I had a very positive experience with the reverse sear last night. It was the first time I had tried it after reading MH's recipe on the site. The ribeyes I cooked had the perfect combination of a char on the outside, but an even pink interior. No pictures were taken unfortunately
The steaks were Prime from Costco. There were 4 large steaks in the package, but I set two aside for freezing and eating later. I brined the other two with sea salt one day in advance (using a fine grind I had bought by mistake, but which might actually be better in this application). I had my wife set the steaks out on the counter about 90 minutes before cooking.
I fired up one full Weber chimney of Kingsford blue and once the briquettes were blazing, put them into the two Weber baskets, end to end on one side of the kettle. I put the steaks on the grate on the far side of the kettle and let it heat up for 5 minutes. After 5 more, I flipped the steaks. After another 5 minutes, I flipped them again and took a measurement, which was around 115 - the target!
The next step was to remove the large upper grate and set it aside, then push the two blazing baskets of charcoal together in the center of the grill. I laid my homemade hovergrill upside down on the blazing baskets and put the steaks down to "sear in the rear". Two minutes for the first side, but then only one minute for the other as it seemed to be getting pretty dark. I took a temp measurement and removed one steak as it was done, but the other was reading 135 so I put it back on to sear some more. After one more minute, I measure again and it was ready.
I had warned my family that we were going to eat at 7 when the steaks were ready and hot, so fortunately they did have the table set and sides of baked potatoes and asparagus ready. A little red wine was added and it was a fabulous meal for a Tuesday night!
This was the first time I had ever achieve that steakhouse-like combination of charred outside with tender juicy inside. I'm definitely looking forward to the other two ribeyes in the freezer as well as trying this with some filets. This technique might even make the cheaper vacuum sealed filets from WalMart palatable.
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