This will change the way you cook steaks, roasts and everything else that isn't normally braised slowly, like pot roast. It is a paradigm shift that changes everything you know about cooking meat.

Lets look at a few problems with traditional grilling. First, it has been thought that searing meat "seals" the meat, thus preventing loss of precious juices inside. Nice concept, except that it doesn't work that way. Testing, by measuring weight loss, shows that the magical sear does not result in plumper moister meat. In theory, chicken breast that is well-charred on the grill should be nice and moist inside, but it isn't. It is dry and chewy. So lets talk about about the second issue, browning.

Two things typically result in browning; the first is carmelization, where sugars breakdown from heat, like in crème brule', not meat, or French fries, toast etc. The Maillard (May-yar) reaction is the involves proteins combing with sugar to make new compounds. A key point is that it requires temperatures in the range 280 to 330 degrees F. The surface of a raw steak must reach this temperature to begin to brown. The problem is that the temperature of the steak surface cannot go above 212F until the water is boiled off as steam. Converting water to steam absorbs energy and prevents the temperature increase required to trigger the Maillard reaction. Last on this list is cooking temperature.

Protein is made of amino acids linked together which twist themselves into intricate shapes based on various chemical forces. In scientific terms, "Cooking" protein, is simply heating the chains of amino acids up to the point that the chains untwist. Frying an egg is a familiar example. Cooking a steak is no different. A med rare steak is completely denatured on the outside and partially denatured on the inside. Why is Prime rib pink throughout? Simple, when you gradually heat meat, the outside never gets much hotter than the middle. So who cares? You will if you want to cook meat perfectly every time. Here is why.

Reverse cooking uses the above scientific concepts.

1 . Make the Snake. We start by slow cooking the meat in the oven. I start with a aluminum foil "snake" on a cookie sheet. The meat goes on top of the snake and therefore does not come into contact with the sheet itself. Air circulates under the meat, and the meet cooks evenly

2. Slow roast at 200 degrees and remove from oven at a temp of 130 for med rare. cover the meat with foil and hand towel to maintain meat temp. Turn the oven up to 550 and let it come up to temp. Or start a hot fire with lump charcoal.

3. Brown the meat in the high temp oven, Hot skillet with ghee, or hot grill. The outside of the meat will increase rapidly since there is no water that will absorb heat as it converts to steam. As a result, the Mailard reaction can proceed quickly so there isn't enough time for the heat to penetrate the meat and cause overcooking

4. Perfectly cooked at 130 degrees!