# My DIL hates searing food **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 16, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722 "2019-08-16T02:11:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/41 "2019-08-18T06:21:27Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Of course you can change her cooking habits - “I’m not eating the food you prepare because it’s not good. I’ll teach you some basics so you can make better food” > > If she doesn’t accept that, just say “I’m not eating anything you cook anymore, because it just doesn’t taste good” “And it is literally dangerous to eat what you have undercooked.” ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/42 "2019-08-18T16:06:13Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Searing food is browning it - not burning it. “Burned” is a bit of an exaggeration, yes; I’m aware you don’t mean burned to a crisp. I have certainly run into “seared” food that had what looked and tasted to me like burn marks across it, however. And possibly the DIL doesn’t like the flavor of the browned crust that searing is supposed to provide. “Improves the flavor” is a subjective thing. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > You missed the point that it is everything. Hamburgers? No sear. Steaks? No sear. Chicken in a skillet? No sear. Everything cooked on medium-low boiled in their own juices until (hopefully) not raw. I didn’t miss it. I noticed that your posts read as if you want everything seared, and as if your DIL wants nothing seared. And I was responding to a specific post that appears to say that it’s wrong that a particular baked chicken recipe your DIL is making didn’t involve searing. Why don’t the two of you just eat different things? That would involve more cooking; but it seems to me much simpler, and maybe more to the point more possible, to cook separately than to try to force either one of you to like what the other one likes. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/43 "2019-08-18T23:40:12Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > My husband cooks all foods, by all methods, at only one temperature: full blast! And it actually works very well for the most part. 🙂 Ugh. My husband cooks this way. I have told him over and over and over (and over) that a high burner doesn’t make food cook faster. It makes food BURN faster! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/44 "2019-08-18T23:47:00Z")
Dearest OP: If you were a mere visitor to your son’s home, I’d tell you to eat before going over there. But now I realize you three live under the same roof. It sounds like neither of them gives a good damn about decent edibles. If you wish to eat anything other than cold cereal at home, I suggest you take over cooking duties. HOWEVER, insist Thing One and Thing Two do all clean up! And if you are the one who winds uo shopping, make sure they fork over some cash! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/45 "2019-08-19T01:17:09Z")
Buy her a slow cooker. Be trendy. Be flat-earther insistent about it being he only way to cook. Terminology may be a problem. I associate searing as often being nearly burnt on the outside and too raw for my tastes on the inside. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/46 "2019-08-19T15:27:36Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Fair enough. I wouldn’t eat raw chicken either. Neither would I. Are you serious about chicken sashimi? Who thought up that one? I love sashimi, but only if it comes from seep sea fish. As for raw chicken, well, undercooked chicken is bad enough. In 1981 I was in South Korea and after a week i was tired of being seared internally by all the chili. I like chili, but not for breakfast as well. So I decided to cool down and have some fried chicken. It seemed a bit pink, especially near the bone, but I ate it anyway. \*Big \*mistake. I spent the next 36 hours within leaping distance or porcelain, alternatively - and sometimes simultaneously - chucking up from both ends. I have never ever been so ill from food poisoning, and I say this after a trip to Nepal, hygiene capital of the entire world. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/47 "2019-08-19T15:53:16Z")
This thread confuses me. Is it about the need to sear food, or is it about someone who’s a bad cook? You can be a good cook and never sear anything too. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/48 "2019-08-19T15:55:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > You can be a good cook and never sear anything too. And vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/49 "2019-08-19T15:57:47Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Neither would I. Are you serious about chicken sashimi? Who thought up that one? I had it at a Japanese restaurant in the Caribbean. I’ve also had, and _really_ enjoyed the German dish [Mett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mett), which is minced raw pork. I had Mett served with good, fresh bread and diced onion. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/50 "2019-08-19T16:08:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This thread confuses me. Is it about the need to sear food, or is it about someone who’s a bad cook? You can be a good cook and never sear anything too. It’s seems the bigger issue to me is the undercooked food. Whether or not something is seared first won’t changed that. Get her a good instant read thermometer and show her how to use that. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/51 "2019-08-19T17:10:35Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > It’s seems the bigger issue to me is the undercooked food. Whether or not something is seared first won’t changed that. > > Get her a good instant read thermometer and show her how to use that. Same. Searing or not searing food is a matter of preference. (Her “pour sauce on chicken and bake it” method is one that you see in magazines as one of the “15 quick dinner recipes” all the time.) Serving raw meat is. Is she trying to kill you all? ---
**Author:** ![MarvinKitFox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MarvinKitFox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarvinKitFox)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/52 "2019-08-20T06:47:41Z")
I’m reading here a Saga about two people. One knows what she prefers to eat, and prepares her food that way. Unconventional, but not extraordinary. The other is a bigot who believes that he is the only person who is allowed an opinion. To the OP: from your ranting, I assume you crucify people that steam their food, and tar-n-feather sushi eaters? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/53 "2019-08-20T10:59:40Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > And vice versa. You mean, you can always be searing, and still be a bad cook? ---
**Author:** ![MarvinKitFox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MarvinKitFox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarvinKitFox)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/54 "2019-08-20T14:05:21Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > OK, time to eat some chicken breasts that she put in the oven raw … Oh My GAWD! Call the health service, she is putting RAW food in the oven! So, are we supposed to COOK the food before we are allowed to put it in the oven? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/55 "2019-08-20T14:40:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > You mean, you can always be searing, and still be a bad cook? It does seem possible. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/56 "2019-08-20T17:43:39Z")
Sounds like the opposite of my wife. Her meat isn’t done unless you can snap it in half. In her world, the stove has two settings: Off, and 11. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/57 "2019-08-20T23:06:39Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > You missed the point that it is everything. Hamburgers? No sear. Steaks? No sear. Chicken in a skillet? No sear. Everything cooked on medium-low boiled in their own juices until (hopefully) not raw. I prefer my hamburgers and steaks unseared. Don’t cook chicken on stovetop generally. Sear is just burnt-tasting to me (not the entire piece of meat, just the black parts of the steak/burger). I know almost everyone like a sear on steak, but I thought that hamburgers were generally considered fine unseared. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/58 "2019-08-21T00:35:50Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > I prefer my hamburgers and steaks unseared. Don’t cook chicken on stovetop generally. Sear is just burnt-tasting to me (not the entire piece of meat, just the black parts of the steak/burger). I know almost everyone like a sear on steak, but I thought that hamburgers were generally considered fine unseared. Yeah, to me, the essence of a great hamburger is in a good sear. I actually prefer my burgers cooked on a flattop/pan instead of a grill for this reason. I mean, I’ll eat it however, but when I make it, it’s full heat, smashed down, seared with a nice crisp brown crust. Depending on what I’m doing, I may sear or I may not sear meats in general. For some stews and soups, I don’t sear – like when I don’t want that deep roasted maillard flavor in them. For bolognese, I do _not_ brown my beef. I want the meat delicate. For steaks, roasts, and heartier stews, I do sear. So it all depends on whether I want to play up that “meaty” taste or keep the flavor and texture more delicate. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/59 "2019-08-21T04:43:33Z")
Wait, you sear a steak before you put it on the grill? WHY? Steaks shouldn’t be brown! They should be pink and juicy! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722/60 "2019-08-21T10:50:47Z")
Steaks and burgers I sous vide rare, then use a torch for a light sear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dil-hates-searing-food/838722.md?page=4)