I have been doing a reverse sear when I cook steak inside and am generally pleased with the results but when I get the pan "screaming hot" to do the sear, I always create smoke and often cause the alarm to go off. I do get a tasty crust but it doesn't feel worth the hassle to me so steak is, 90% of the time relegated to an outdoor grill food.
How does everybody keep their kitchen from smoking up when searing steak in a hot pan indoors?
by kalyknits
38 Comments
I too would love a solution to this. Not that I’ll be able to afford steak again in the UK with all the costs for everything going up, but whenever I cook steak in my small London house, the alarm always goes off…
Unjacking that thing is step one in my cooking process for steak, so no
Dry brining + reverse sear. The surface of the meat gets dried out from the brining, increasing your chances of getting a great and flavorful crust. Reverse searing decreases the overall length of the time the steak needs to be in contact with the high heat, meaning less smoke overall. Have a fan running and open windows while cooking if necessary.
This happened everytime in my last apartment. It was right over the damn stove too. I just took it out when I knew i was going to do a steak, which was often. Now, the one in my house, is allllllll the way down the hall near the master bedroom on the opposite side of the house. Thank god.
You know you got a good sear when smoke alarm goes off
Nope because the broom handle took care of it. I may die a fiery death but my steak has crust!
Yes. It turns out the over range fan doesn’t actually exhaust outside (apparently not a requirement for electric ranges where I live)
I’ve found it needs to be very hot, but not screaming hot. Since I’ve dialed back the heat a bit and switch to avocado oil, I haven’t had any problems with the fire alarm. Use to set it off all the time.
Every time bro.
Yup. Even with fans and vents on I seem to set it off pretty frequently.
Use avocado oil or algae oil with a high smoke point
everytime here too, i pre game it by opening windows and turning fans on
I actually just keep it unplugged battery out at all times because it’s not even worth the hassle at this point
Me and my smoke alarm have an understanding (I beat it with a broom and it broke)
You really need to have a kitchen exhaust that vents outside, not just a fan with an air filter. Reverse sear or sous vide is also a great way to minimize your smoke buildup because then you don’t have to rely on your stovetop for actual cooking.
That said, OP, you clearly got the worst of both worlds here. The alarm apparently went off, and you got no sear. Higher heat and making sure the meat is patted as dry as possible might help.
Can’t set them off if they aren’t there.
Based on your lack of sear, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The pan has to be blazing hot and you need a high smoke point oil, I.e., Avacodo oil.
Some part of your process is not quite working. If you’re setting off your fire alarm, and getting that much gray band, but then also that weak of a sear there is something that needs to change. Less oil in the pan maybe? Maybe those big chunks of garlic and peppercorn are preventing good contact on the pan? Are you burning butter?
My smoke alarms are annoyingly sensitive and they really distress my pets when they go off, so I’ve yet to ever get a decent sear on my steaks. Even frying bacon is a stressful task
Every
Fucking
Time
No, I take mine down so I can make steak😂👍🏻
Having a working smoke alarm in the first place is a rookie mistake
I think you want to dry your steak before searing. Pat it with some paper towels. Get it as dry as possible right before you put it in the pan.
I used to when I had a small place in an apartment.
Now I have a new house with gas grills in a large kitchen and I really have to a lot of smoke to set things off.
What I ended up doing at my small apartment as I just bought an electric outside grill. It was just a very small thing I could use to grill things with instead of using the oven or pan. But it worked
Get a shower cap and rubber band it over the smoke detector. Am I the only one that smoked in my dorm room in college?
Yes! I sear mine a blackstone outside lol!
Yes, I just take down the smoke alarm
Not anymore. I (re)moved it.
I’m buying a gas stove top that I can use outside specifically because of this issue.
wife cooks everything till smoke alarms go off , that’s how she knows it’s done .
Yep same here!! They installed a heat/smoke detector in my kitchen literally 5 feet away from my stove/oven so I can’t even roast brussel sprouts anymore… Past 2 times I seared a steak on the stove and finished in the 450 oven, dam thing went off every time I opened the oven…. I am about to give up… I can’t even disable the dam thing as they wired each one of the sensors up to the security system in the house so if you turn it off or remove the battery, the main board starts with an alarm that is louder than the detector… yay..
I’m **NOT** recommending that anyone else try this approach, but I admit to doing this when I lived in an apartment and had no access to an outdoor grilling area or a properly ventilated cookspace. The smoke detectors in this apartment were particularly bad- boiling water would set them off.
Before I went to sear a steak, I closed all doors that led to other rooms with a smoke detector. Then, I covered the exposed smoke detectors with either a plastic shower cap or, in a pinch, some Glad press and seal plastic wrap. Seared the steak, waited for the smoke to dissipate, removed the covering.
How else do you know your food is done?
Yes
I’m about 50/50 with setting it off. One of my dogs freaks out about the smoke, so he hates it when I sear steak in the house. He seriously thinks we are all going to die.
If it ain’t smokin, it ain’t searin
But for real, it’s gonna smoke if you’re searing with hot hot heat as you should be. Maybe start using Avacado Oil which has a higher smoke point? Won’t completely solve the smokiness, but should help
How’d you manage to set off an alarm with no sear
I open the window and have a fan running and facing outside. I’ve found that that usually works unless I forget to pat my steak dry and/or it needs searing for too long