The Searzall by Dave Arnold

[pbear]

Yep... raw brats cooked SV. I'm using a TS8000, but I don't think that should make as dramatic a difference as you're noting. How far are you holding it from your food? You really have to get up on it (like half an inch or so away).

 

Pretty sure I'm doing the distance right, as I did a bunch of things one after the other and this was the only outlier.  In light of your and Chris' experiences, I'm inclined to think it was the sausage.

 

[pbear]

Out of curiosity, when using the naked torch how long does browning your items take?

 

Don't remember, as it's been a while since I did it that way.  (Mostly use a hot convection oven these days.)  But, bear in mind that's a different process.  The trick with a naked torch is to keep it far enough away to avoid torch taste.

[jmolinari]

I got mine on saturday and have been playing with it.

There is a learning curve to know how close you can and should be to the object you're torching. I did a steak last night after SV and it took about 5.5 minutes, but looking at the demo video of Booker and Dax searing steak it looks like i was keeping it too far. Theirs took about 2.5 minutes, and it looked like they had the searzall as close as the guard on the front will allow it to be to the steak.

 

What have you guys seared? I tried to toast bread, and got more of a speckled burnt than a real toasting...maybe i had it too close?

 

Also, have you found that when holding the searzall so it's facing down the torch sputters every so often?

Edited October 20, 2014 by jmolinari (log)

[Chris Hennes]

I have toasted bread quite a few times now: keep the torch close and moving quite quickly over the surface and you can get very even browning. I've also been refining my bratwurst technique, letting the guard just graze over the brat while seeping the torch back and forth. It probably takes about 60 seconds to sear them uniformly now that I'm getting the hang of it. I've also been broiling peanut butter on toast, which is great, and not something I'd ever considered doing before I had the Searzall. 

[Chris Hennes]

Also, have you found that when holding the searzall so it's facing down the torch sputters every so often?

Yes, it seems quite sensitive to the angle you hold it at: it's hard to judge the angle from your position holding it normally, but keeping the screen close to parallel to the ground seems to actually me to be a shallower angle than I was expecting.

[dcarch]

Yes, it seems quite sensitive to the angle you hold it at: it's hard to judge the angle from your position holding it normally, but keeping the screen close to parallel to the ground seems to actually me to be a shallower angle than I was expecting.

 

Don't use a full tank. It will work better.

 

dcarch

[EdipisReks]

I received mine on Sunday.  I'm using it with a TS8000.  I definitely agree about the learning curve, but it's worked really well for the small amount of food I've had a chance to use it with, so far.  I'm really looking forward to experimenting.

[pbear]

Today was Round 2 with the Searzall.  (Wednesday is my cooking day for the week.)  After a lot of back and forth, decided to spring for a TS8000 to see whether that would be significantly faster.  The answer is yes, as in nearly twice as fast.  Tested on (in each case, cooked by SV/LT): beef chuck (top blade), Italian sausage (New York brand), a banger (Whole Foods), a rack of lamb (TJ's), a short slab of pork spareribs (five bones), a bone-in chicken thigh and a small salmon fillet (lunch).

 

The top blade was a particularly welcome outcome, as that's always fairly thin at my market (just under an inch) and difficult to brown well with a convection oven.  The Searzall made quick work of it and left the interior pink.  Indeed, the only clunker was the chicken thigh.  With the TS8000, the Searzall scorched the skin without actually cooking it out.  There's probably a way to manage this by dialing down the flame and/or using more distance, but I didn't have time for that today (nor did I have any more chicken thighs).

 

BTW, I did try toasting a slice of bread.  Not that I'd ever make toast this way.  Just out of curiosity.  On full power, it scorched rather quickly.  By dialing down the flame, though, was able to get a more normal finish.

[Unpopular Poet]

Here is my first go with the Searzall...I have to say that I am pretty impressed.  Nice ribeye cooked at 130 for a couple hours, then hit with the searzall, then salted.  Fantastic. For future use, I am going to brush the steak with melted clarified butter, so I get some of that butter sear flavor on it, but otherwise, I am pretty happy with the results.

[jmolinari]

Is anyone else's front screen concaved in the center after seasoning and use?

[btbyrd]

Mine's convex.

[pbear]

Mine too, but that's after having run something like 300 g of propane through it.  Don't recall what it looked like early on.

[btbyrd]

It was convex on mine out of the box. This seemed weird to me because they make such a big deal about getting the spacing right (to within 1/8") because you might melt the screen. But whatever... it's working just fine.

[glepore]

I'm very impressed, at least with the TS8000. Looking at the specs, its twice the power of the 4000, which I wouldn't bother with. Lowes has the 8000 for 49.95, almost 15 bucks cheaper than Amazon or ebay. The Searzall with the 8000 has salamander like power. Sous vide strip, 1.5 min/side, coated with EVOO, superb. Hold it close, keep it moving.

[Caruso]

Can't find any info on when/whether these will be available for sale to non-kickstarter backers. Anybody here know?

[scubadoo97]

Can't find any info on when/whether these will be available for sale to non-kickstarter backers. Anybody here know?

I'm assuming on Amazon at some point

[Caruso]

I'm assuming on Amazon at some point

 

"At some point" ended up being yesterday! I should have it tomorrow and am excited to try it this weekend.

 

A quick search of youtube and the web shows lots of people finishing SV steaks with the Searzall, but I wonder if anyone has taken a thin cut like a skirt steak and cooked it start to finish with it.

[scubadoo97]

Just got an email from Amazon as well

[Chris Hennes]

Here are some eG-friendly links to the Searzall and accoutrements at Amazon.com (US):

Booker & Dax Labs Searzall

Bernzomatic TS8000 - High Intensity Trigger Start Torch

Coleman Propane Fuel

[Caruso]

Amazon sold out the excess supply. For kicks I checked ebay. There's one with a current high bid of $449 right now. Ridiculous!

[torolover]

(This comment was moved, as it was originally posted in a topic specifically addressing the use of the searzall on poultry skin.)
 

Returning to the original question, I have a Searzall and have made several attempts at browning poultry skin.  Maybe there's some trick I have yet to discover, but so far it's not been successful.  I can get brown without scorching, but the skin retains a fair amount of water and fat below the surface, so the texture is flaccid rather than crisp.  The tool is good for other things, but not this one AFAICT.

How does the searzall work for other things like steak, burgers, and pork chops?

[cdh]

It works great on steaks and lamb chops.  I tried it on chicken thighs yesterday and will concur that it can't crisp up poultry skin.

[pbear]

(This comment was moved, as it was originally posted in a topic specifically addressing the use of the searzall on poultry skin.)

 

How does the searzall work for other things like steak, burgers, and pork chops?

 

For my experiences with those and other proteins, see Post #80 and Post #108 earlier in this thread.  To recap, I liked how the Searzall handled a pork chop, thought it successful but a lot of work for a burger and thought it successful for a steak but not as good as I get by conventional means.  To state the obvious, those are personal impressions.  I can easily see others preferring the Searzall steak, for example, depending on how they feel about the trade-off of temp gradient vs. flavor from the sear.

[glepore]

I don't think the searzall is the tool for the job for anything that has some fat that needs to be more or less rendered-ie a duck breast or a chicken thigh. Probably not the skin side of salmon either. The heat is too intense and would carbonize the surface before it could do anything to the fat. It is the bomb for lamb chops. Worked well with 72 short ribs the other night as well.

[Caruso]

I used my Searzall for the first time yesterday on a raw flat iron steak bought from Whole Foods. Would have gotten a thinner skirt steak but they were out. I'm not sure of the thickness, but would estimate my piece ranged from 1/2" to 3/4"across the approx 10" length of meat. Rested it on counter for an hour to bring internal temp up a little, and then brushed it with canola oil. I didn't time it, but think it took about six minutes to finish both sides, and then rested for five more minutes. Ended up medium rare on the thinner side and very rare on the thicker area.  The whole process produced far less visible smoke and grease in the air than my usual cast iron sear method, and the house did not reak of oil and meat (although interestingly my smoke alarm still went off). Pretty happy with this first attempt, and anxious for my Anova Precision Cooker to arrive so I can sear some precooked thicker cuts.