Searing Steak/Cast Iron Skillet/Temperature?

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airedale

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I have started searing steaks in a cast iron skillet, but pretty blind on the temperature. Now I have one of those pistol-grip spot thermometers inbound. Kind of silly I know.

Any experience or suggestions on what skillet temperature I should be looking for?

TIA
 
I don’t know an exact temp. I use beef tallow and sear as soon as it starts to hit the smoke point. Depending on where you read, that’s anywhere from 400 to 480 degrees. So my guess would be around 450 degrees.
 
This is a timely question - we've been grilling burgers indoors of late in a cast iron skillet. I love the crunchy "crust" you can get cooking on a super hot cast iron skillet or griddle! I never thought of checking the temp, until recently.

Last cook I did, I used my infrared thermo to check the temp. The surface temp was reading about 640F. That might or might not be too hot for a steak, depending on thickness and how you want it cooked...but it sure works great for burgers!
 
Moose said:
... That might or might not be too hot for a steak, depending on thickness and how you want it cooked...but it sure works great for burgers!
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Well, I'm doing the steaks sous vide at 125deg. Searing for a couple of minutes each side of a 1" steak does not seem to overheat the medium rare inside.

Re temp steaks & burgers, I'm not sure why it would be different. It's still the same meat after all. But if I knew anything useful I wouldn’t be here asking the question. :doh:
 
I would say in the 450 range. But more importantly, you've got to slowly preheat the cast iron so it can build up heat. Cast iron retains heat better than other cooking metals, but it takes time to build heat. Start off on low and gradually turn the temp up to get to 450ish. Allow a good 7-10 minutes for the preheating. Do this and you'll get a great even sear.
 
Carne Crosta wants temps in the 600-700 range. So that’s where I am
 
RemoGaggi said:
I would say in the 450 range. But more importantly, you've got to slowly preheat the cast iron so it can build up heat. Cast iron retains heat better than other cooking metals, but it takes time to build heat. Start off on low and gradually turn the temp up to get to 450ish. Allow a good 7-10 minutes for the preheating. Do this and you'll get a great even sear.
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Just to clarify (Physics undergraduate major here), the "specific heat" of cast iron is almost identical to that of carbon steel. This means that two samples of identical weight being heated will be approximately the same temperature. The reason cast iron seems to "retain" more heat is simply that there is a lot more mass in a cast iron pan vs a similar steel pan. So yes, it takes longer to preheat for a given level of fire.

There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
 
airedale said:
Just to clarify (Physics undergraduate major here), the "specific heat" of cast iron is almost identical to that of carbon steel. This means that two samples of identical weight being heated will be approximately the same temperature. The reason cast iron seems to "retain" more heat is simply that there is a lot more mass in a cast iron pan vs a similar steel pan. So yes, it takes longer to preheat for a given level of fire.

There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
Click to expand...

Do it outside:loco:



i often treat different cast irons like this, never had a failure of the iron yet
 
Another method is to place the cast iron pan in the oven and set the temp you want the pan. Leave it in there while doing some other chores and it will be the set heat at some point - time depends on your oven.
 
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airedale said:
Just to clarify (Physics undergraduate major here), the "specific heat" of cast iron is almost identical to that of carbon steel. This means that two samples of identical weight being heated will be approximately the same temperature. The reason cast iron seems to "retain" more heat is simply that there is a lot more mass in a cast iron pan vs a similar steel pan. So yes, it takes longer to preheat for a given level of fire.

There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
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I'm confused. If you're practice works fine then why did you ask?
 
I have an infrared thermometer on my birthday/Christmas wish list. I’ll have to check to see the temp on when I sear steaks. 450 sounds low to me, but I think part of the equation is that a big thick cast iron skillet stays at 450 when you throw the steak on it. I typically have my stove on 2-3 out of 10 for searing steaks, and they come out with a dark, heavy crust.
 
Don't have a heat gun. Hot as you can get it for searing.

Long time fan of cast iron. Got a carbon steel skillet not long ago...I like it better :tape:
 
airedale said:
Just to clarify (Physics undergraduate major here), the "specific heat" of cast iron is almost identical to that of carbon steel. This means that two samples of identical weight being heated will be approximately the same temperature. The reason cast iron seems to "retain" more heat is simply that there is a lot more mass in a cast iron pan vs a similar steel pan. So yes, it takes longer to preheat for a given level of fire.

There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
Click to expand...

The reason to slowly heat the pan is to avoid hot spots and get more even heating.
 
airedale said:
Just to clarify (Physics undergraduate major here), the "specific heat" of cast iron is almost identical to that of carbon steel. This means that two samples of identical weight being heated will be approximately the same temperature. The reason cast iron seems to "retain" more heat is simply that there is a lot more mass in a cast iron pan vs a similar steel pan. So yes, it takes longer to preheat for a given level of fire.

There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
Click to expand...

Science ^^^^^

RemoGaggi said:
The reason to slowly heat the pan is to avoid hot spots and get more even heating.
Click to expand...

Needs more Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer coursework. ^^^^^^
 
I do feel that it can be too hot. For me 450-550 is the sweet spot. If using butter you’ll want on the cooler side of that range and only use butter when almost done. Personally I’ll start my sear with either Tallow or bacon fat and finish with buttah....
 
Thanks, guys. This has been helpful.
AUswimKC said:
Carne Crosta wants temps in the 600-700 range. So that’s where I am
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So it does! I hadn't read the fine print before.

Titch said:
Do it outside:loco:
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Yes, my preference too. But when the cookers look like huge piles of snow and it is minus ten or minus twenty C the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

qapla said:
Another method is to place the cast iron pan in the oven and set the temp you want the pan.
Click to expand...
I don't think our oven goes high enough, but I have done this with the Camp Chef sear station on my DLX pellet cooker. It worked fine but I have no idea what the temp was. Hence this thread.

WilliamKY said:
I'm confused. If you're practice works fine then why did you ask?
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Using high heat to bring the skillet up works fine and, to be truthful, the steaks seem to sear OK. But the engineer in me likes to have some numbers associated with a manufacturing process.

More discussion is welcome but I think I have an idea of where I should be experimenting. Thanks again.
 
airedale said:
There's no reason to slowly heat the pan unless there is so much heat that there is a risk of the pan cracking due to thermal gradients. I'm not sure that is even feasible. I'd bet it couldn’t be achieved on a cooking stove. My practice is to begin heating with the flame on its highest setting, then back off as/when necessary. It works fine except the wife is not fond of seeing smoke.
Click to expand...

It may or may not be feasible to crack one over a home oven, but I did crack a 15" Lodge CI all the way through, from one end to the other, last year over a turkey burner. And I thought I was bringing the pan up to temp "slowly". It was one of my more stressful cooks; frying elk heart in a cracked pan, dripping oil right by the open flame of a turkey burner, on a mountain, in a forest. We had a couple fire extinguishers at the ready.

I replaced it with carbon steel, and so far I'm really liking it.
 
Whisky said:
It may or may not be feasible to crack one over a home oven, but I did crack a 15" Lodge CI all the way through, from one end to the other, last year over a turkey burner. And I thought I was bringing the pan up to temp "slowly". ...
Click to expand...
Interesting story. Can you say a little more about how it happened? Was 15" quite a bit bigger than the heat source? That might make for big thermal gradients. Did it crack when you put something in it? Was there any sign of a manufacturing defect? I'll probably never own a 15" skillet but I'm still curious.
 
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