A reverse sear is when you smoke your meat first then finish it off with a hot quick sear. There are two ways to do the finishing sear. 1 is with a cast iron griddle or skillet, the other is using grill grates. You can use either; I did both here to show you. Using grill grates you get the diamond grills marks or as I call them flavor bars. On a griddle the whole steak caramelizes and turns that beautiful mahogany brown.