Not to speak for him, but reverse sear is gaining ground these days for steaks & other things. Usually it's sous vide, but can be smoking, too.

The idea is to get a steak to 100-120 degrees gently, either sous vide, or smoking.. Then, you take the meat out, and sear each side in a very hot pan (or on a very hot grill) for a minute or two, creating a seared bark exterior, while the interior gets to a perfect 120-135 degrees. Part of this is to try to eliminate that overdone grey band underneath the sear.

My wife still prefers when I pan-sear one side in a hot cast iron skillet, and then flip & finish in the oven.

There's an even newer thing where you take a frozen steak, and sear each side, and then finish in the oven, and that does what reverse sear does with less hassle.

The idea is that with the frozen interior, the inside dozen get they grey band, nor overdone while searing. Haven't tried that one yet, but Seroius Eats & a few others are promoting that.

(edited: the other bonus of the frozen method is that you don't have to thaw, so no pre-planning )

lamrith and nwgunner are on to something. this is a trend growing in popularity, especially for very thick cuts. i've done some limited experimentation with it. the hardest part is that you need a grill setup for relatively low heat to start to reach something close to your desired internal temperature, then you need to transfer it to an extremely hot grill surface for the final sear...

in theory pretty easy to do with a two level fire on a charcoal grill... a little harder in practice after a lifetime of grilling steaks by searing first then slow cooking to finish. more practice required on my part to become proficient in this technique

there's a good article on it at the amazing ribs website:
http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/cooking_temperatures_and_reverse_sear.html

Major props to Geek for pointing out something I completely forgot to mention.

This is for thick steaks, like 1 &1/2" +....you might could do 1"&1/4 with careful monitoring....

Thanks geekster

Yeah, I get it, and with my limited experience I think I'm a believer. I might have to try that frozen steak approach, that sounds interesting; I imagine it could work with thinner cuts, too.

However, that doesn't get our local Rec Tec Ambassador off the hook for cheating on his smoker! Get that thing on high and get the sear plates glowing!

Hey guys one interesting application of reverse sear is for thick, steakhouse burger patties
http://amazingribs.com/recipes/hamburgers/steakhouse_burgers.html

For me this is a completely different approach to cooking hamburgers. The trick is that I don't cook them often enough to get really good at this technique

Okay, this could be interesting, but I'm really wary when it comes to ground beef. Something like this, I would probably want to grind my own. Too much 'danger zone' time for me.

If you want high temps for grilling, try binchotan. It's a purer Japanese charcoal that burns at a higher heat. You can use it in anything, but works in a Hibachi, Yakatori, or Thai griller. It can be expensive, BUT, it's reusable. Also, Andy Ricker, of Pok Pok fame, sells a less expensive version called Thaan Charcoal on Amazon.

good point on the ground meat. i always use a thermapen for burgers and steaks to help prevent undercooking (burgers, pork chops) or overcooking (steaks). i've cooked a long line of hockey pucks in my grilling career the thermapen has really helped up my game

thanks nwg actually up early this morning starting a cook for two large pork shoulders.
i'll take a look for binchotan this morning while the grill temp is stabilizing.

running a Primo Oval XL here which is basically just one big Kamado. my fuel of choice has been standard hardwood lump charcoal from Lowe's or Home Depot. one of the strong points of these grills in general are their efficiency in terms of charcoal usage. i can cook 12-14 hours on one batch of lump charcoal. after shutting the grill down most of the charcoal remains re-usable for the next cook. actually after 2-3 cooks i have to pull the remaining charcoal aside and clear the whole interior of the ceramic liner with a shop vac to clear out the accumulated ash and small bits of remaining charcoal which starts to choke the air circulation.

just had to do that yesterday afternoon. have two large pork shoulder roasts on the grill now.

one of the other beauties of this grill is it's ability to regulate air flow well and that you can run it anywhere from 200 degrees at the grill surface all the way up to 600 or 700 degrees. different configurations have ceramic deflector plates that go between the charcoal and the grill/food surface for low temp smoking to a nifty vertical firebox divider to help setup two zone or indirect cooking for grilling.

Those are sweet rigs. Plus, unlike many, like Kamados, they're able to do two-zone grilling. Very versatile.

Usually low and slow does keep meat tender.

I've been doing this for a whike now, and nit realizing it was a thing until recently. A buddy says Joe Rogan is a big proponent of this method as well. Since I got my home smoker I've been using this method on just about everything. My favorite, and most successful are pork chops. The wife will buy those super thick(like 1.5-2") chops from costco. Perfect for this method. Smoke them for about 3 hours, then sear over the fire for abiut 2 min a side. Come out amazing!

Sous Vide 4 steaks this weekend. 131 for 45 minutes. I have been doing thick pork chops too. I will sear them on the cast iron sometime this week.

Only while the rectec increased temp to 550. If you leave them in there they will be overcooked before hit searing temp, and you run a big chance of getting soot as the grill is working to build heat.

WOW, 3hours? Are you putting them on while frozen? What smoking temp? Please do tell, after 3hrs I would think they would already be at full temp?

I use an Oklahoma Joe smoker. I out them on as soon as I have any sort of fire going. I keeo them in the coolest spot on the smoker. Its all indirect. My temp never exceeds 225. Theu are definitely "done" at temp, but not overcooked. I pull them and put them on the grate in the firebox. Works beautifully. Very moist and tender chops.

A little lunch snack: