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Comment by xb | Hacker News Reader

For those interested in a practical method to cook steak with a perfect char + medium rare inside (no lava required), check out immersion cooking (aka sous vide). You can cook a steak edge to edge to exactly your desired doneness, cool it down, then char the outside with a hot skillet or open flame.

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I've found that the Alton Brown steak method works remarkably well for me. 2 minutes each side in a cast iron skillet over high, and 2 minutes each side in a 400 degree oven on the same skillet. Let rest for 5 minutes after.

Turns out as a nice medium rare, with lots of juices and a great flavor.

This is how we did it in cooking school. In fancy steak houses, they have a broiler with specific heat settings for each steak row and standardized steak thickness (always done at 20min mark). The black and blues are put between two cast iron skillets that were upside down on gas burners set on high.

This is the only way to cook meat. (Aside from special purpose stuff.) I thought I'd end up using my sous vide maybe once per month and I probably use it three times per week. It's perfect for fish, pork, duck, and of course steak. The best thing is that you can cook chef cuts (like hangar and such) that would otherwise be really tricky to get right.

I generally finish in a cast iron skillet, and haven't seen any need to cool the meat off before the transfer. That's usually a good idea if you aren't going to sear right away, as it prevents bacteria growth from going into overdrive, but isn't strictly necessary to cooking if you're doing everything at once. Then again, I'm not an expert.

I really want to get a good torch though, since skillets are a lousy way to finish bone-in meat since the meat contracts away from the bone.

I'm still using a skillet to finish, and then making a pan sauce. (I did a hanger last night, with a morel mushroom/cream sauce, crazy good.)

If you want to do the torch thing, you should look into the "searzall" attachment.

Awesome. Thanks for the tip!

One in return: I've found that vacuum sealing meat when it's somewhat frozen helps maintain its shape.

For an affordable yet great torch, try the Benzomatic TS8000, easily found at Home Depot, etc. for around $40.

The Benzomatic takes a long time to develop a good sear. It's fun but not terribly effective in my experience. I should point out that I'm using it with the Searzall.

I do some amateur blacksmithing, and I find the forge to make an excellent steak grill. I live in a wooded area, and use home-made charcoal to forge with instead of coal. With the blower running, the coals can become hot enough to melt steel - then it's simply a matter of turning off the blower (nobody wants ash on their steak), setting the grill grate on the forge, and cooking some meat! I don't generally go for the rare to medium rare, though.

A fireman's shovel in the firebox of a steam locomotive also works well.

Don't do it whilst moving though! When a coal fired locomotive is in full flight, the draft though the firebars (the grate at the bottom of the firebox) is strong enough that the entire fire rises up and floats on a bed of air. Stick a steak in that and it will get sucked though the boiler tubes and out the chimney.

  >> use home-made charcoal

How do you make your charcoal?

The only method I am familiar with is the method used at Plimouth Plantation - a giant pile of wood buried under earth, tended round the clock for two days.

    http://blogs.plimoth.org/pilgrim-blog/?tag=charcoal

You really just need a potato drying machine:

http://blog.medellitin.com/2010/08/sous-vide-historical-note...

I've had the best chars by using a searzall (which attaches to a propane blow torch).

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