Yes, traditionally people would sear and then put in the oven so the “reverse” in “reverse sear” is alluding to the fact that you’re switching the order by going oven first and sear second.
Some other comments:
I’ve never heard anything about the origin of the reverse sear being related to food safety, or better food safety is part of the reason to use it now.
Not that Vanvier is saying anything in conflict with this, but since food safety was brought up I want to say that food safety thing with chicken (as an example) is kinda annoying. I think this video does a good job explaining it.
Basically, you want to kill salmonella and other bacteria. The heat needed to accomplish that is a function of both temperature and time, not just temperature. See page 37 of this USDA guide. At 165℉ salmonella is killed instantly. At 160℉ it takes 13.7 seconds. At 155℉ it takes 44.2 seconds.
Conventional wisdom says that you need to cook it to 165℉ to be safe, but that’s just the guidelines being dumbed down because nuance leads to mistakes. In reality you can (and probably should!) cook it to a lower temperature if you hold it there long enough.
To me, the big reason to reverse sear rather than to the traditional sear-then-finish-in-the-oven is because of the better browning you get with the reverse sear. After taking it out of the oven with the reverse sear, the exterior is nice and dry, and since moisture is the enemy of browning, this dryness helps you get particularly good browning.
The other thing is that for physics reasons I don’t quite understand, the reverse sear is supposed to get you more even cooking with less of a temperature gradient.
Yes, traditionally people would sear and then put in the oven so the “reverse” in “reverse sear” is alluding to the fact that you’re switching the order by going oven first and sear second.
Some other comments:
I’ve never heard anything about the origin of the reverse sear being related to food safety, or better food safety is part of the reason to use it now.
Not that Vanvier is saying anything in conflict with this, but since food safety was brought up I want to say that food safety thing with chicken (as an example) is kinda annoying. I think this video does a good job explaining it.
Basically, you want to kill salmonella and other bacteria. The heat needed to accomplish that is a function of both temperature and time, not just temperature. See page 37 of this USDA guide. At 165℉ salmonella is killed instantly. At 160℉ it takes 13.7 seconds. At 155℉ it takes 44.2 seconds.
Conventional wisdom says that you need to cook it to 165℉ to be safe, but that’s just the guidelines being dumbed down because nuance leads to mistakes. In reality you can (and probably should!) cook it to a lower temperature if you hold it there long enough.
To me, the big reason to reverse sear rather than to the traditional sear-then-finish-in-the-oven is because of the better browning you get with the reverse sear. After taking it out of the oven with the reverse sear, the exterior is nice and dry, and since moisture is the enemy of browning, this dryness helps you get particularly good browning.
The other thing is that for physics reasons I don’t quite understand, the reverse sear is supposed to get you more even cooking with less of a temperature gradient.