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IrelandGuga's cold-pan steak test leaves the fat cap unfinished
He gets the promised low-mess cook, but viewers question whether his burner and steak thickness gave the technique a fair test.
Guga Foods
Story of Why this story? 966,137 views so far, and here is what is inside it.
Apparently I’ve Been Cooking Steak WRONG All My Life!
Things we can learn from the video
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- 0:58Guga reacts to Lan Lam's America's Test Kitchen demonstration before conducting his own cooking test.
- 8:18Cold searing starts without added oil; Guga objects to delayed salting and the untreated fat cap.
- 14:34His test begins with a pepper-seasoned New York strip in a cold nonstick pan on a camp burner.
- 15:13He flips every two minutes; the powerful burner browns the steak quickly while the edges remain unseared.
- 18:53The sliced steak has a medium-rare center, an uneven gray band and unrendered edge fat.
- 19:48He credits the method's lack of smoke and mess but prefers reverse searing or traditional high-heat searing.
A clean pan and very little smoke sound like good news for anyone cooking steak indoors. Guga gets both when he tries cold searing. What he doesn't get is the evenly cooked steak and rendered edge fat he wants.
In "Apparently I've Been Cooking Steak WRONG All My Life!", Guga Foods reacts to America's Test Kitchen presenter Lan Lam before trying the technique himself. The idea reverses the familiar instruction to get a pan hot first: the steak starts in a cold nonstick pan, without added oil, and is flipped repeatedly as it cooks. Salt comes later, another departure that immediately bothers him.
Much of the video follows Lam's explanation, with Guga pausing to examine her choices. His own kitchen test begins well into the episode, after a paid sponsorship segment for a law firm.
He puts a pepper-seasoned New York strip on a portable camp burner and flips it at regular intervals. His powerful burner produces browning quickly, but the edges remain unseared. After resting and slicing the meat, he finds a medium-rare center alongside an uneven gray band and unrendered fat.
"There's no smoke, there's no mess, the pan's still nice and clean," he acknowledges. For him, though, those conveniences don't outweigh the result: he prefers reverse searing or a conventional hot-pan sear.
The comments raise a useful distinction between rejecting a technique and judging this particular attempt. Viewers question the steak's thickness and the burner's heat, and several point out that nothing prevented him from searing the sides. Those are their objections, not a second cooking test, but they explain why the discussion goes beyond his verdict.
Guga ends with a practical correction to his own dinner: heating the pan again to sear the remaining fat cap.
Published on Trari
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What viewers say
Hey Guga, just wanna point out: she never said "don't sear the sides"! Plenty of people using the front sear forget to sear the sides too. I think you gotta be fair.
@Nikifuj908See it on YouTube@18:58 "I don't have an explanation for that"
You changed the heat after realizing your stove was more powerful, then began flipping regularly?@thomaspalmer1927See it on YouTubeGuga, I cant beleive you didnt do multiple steaks this way like searing the sides on one, trying a thinner cut on another & of course dry brining it the day before etc
@BillyOceanSmokinSee it on YouTube
1 more comment
The problem is that your burner is too small in diameter. All the heat is there yes, but it's concentrated in the center. Think of it like cooking on charcoal. You don't want one small mound in the middle but you want enough that it's hot in all directions.
I'll stick with cold sear thanks. So good when done right. (Though I'm with you on 'salt it first!')@Triaxx2See it on YouTube
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- Channel
- Guga Foods
- Subscribers
- 5,900,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 7,490,840
- Channel views, pace per day
- 779,056 (on a normal day: 977,218)
- Video published
- November 4, 2026
- Video views so far
- 966,137 (7 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 43,097 (on a normal day: 245,595)
The numbers
The cold-searing experiment has drawn nearly a million views in its first week. The interest here is the cooking test, rather than an unusually fast start.
💡 Test your knowledge
In a reverse sear, which cooking step comes first?
Reverse searing gently brings the interior toward the desired doneness before a hot finishing sear develops the crust.