I didn’t think of it as ‘hounding’. This is a matter of interest to me because I am a classically trained chef. And I have worked and staged in restaurants including those that dabble in molecular gastronomy. There are many ways to cook meat but there is a reason we have some standard methods.

So..I also understand why it’s not always necessary to sear meat. I have cooked meat several ways including sous vide as well as slow braises. A pre cooking sear has many uses and one of them is certainly to create a barrier to ‘keep the juices in’(said colloquially) and to retain shape.

Further, food safety issues require meat to be handled in a certain way and searing ensures that the food is fit for consumption with minimal risk of contamination or undercooking it. There is a reason why we prep even before we prep food to cook it. (Ditto with fish. Most ‘fresh fish’ is frozen and then thawed. Especially if it’s from the sea. They come riddled with worms. It is a right of passage in the kitchen to be handed tweezers to pick worms. Hands down, one of the most unpleasant jobs ever)

I am not trying to nit pick, but these kind of details were important to what I did for a living some years ago and part of my job was also to train others like I have been trained. I can assure you that if we used a cold pan to start meat, we’d get a fail grade with the health inspectors in a restaurant.