DaveD I need to read this thoroughly but I am puzzled by the comparison photos. I have done this MANY times for audiences and they almost unanimously prefer reverse sear. Here is what one of my cooks looked like. Admitedly "hot and fast" is not the same as front sear, but the fact remains that physics demands that front sear imparts more energy into the surface and that energy will migrate towards the center producing more tan meat creating the rainbow effect. I am puzzled as to why your RS sample appears to have a large layer of tan.
Meathead First off, I'm honored you're spending time reading my thread. Thank you! And I quite agree, my lovely bride is brilliant
Of course, the physics is the physics, as you say. And perhaps tossing the hickory chunk in there muddied the waters as you suggested? I interpreted most of the color change on the RS piece as "smoke ring", although I may be wrong of course - it had only 30-40 min on the kettle. But the IT on the RS piece did get a few degrees higher than did the FS piece.
And this was not the kind of controlled experiment I would prefer. It got very hectic moving things around and running back and forth from the deck to the kitchen. If I do this again I'll try to streamline things better and perhaps use the gas grill instead of the kettle to have a little better control on the hot and indirect side temps.
For example, my indirect side temp was a lot warmer than I had hoped for - 300-325/150-165 instead of the ~250/120 I would have preferred. But at that point it was Go Time and I didn't have time to do anything else. One thing I can absolutely rule out is mistaking the FS and RS pieces for one another, they were very obviously visibly distinguishable.
I've still got two more pairs of strips cut from this hunka meat, so there is scope for another experiment. I'm really curious to explore this a bit more.
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