Get a cast iron, that is what I used when I lived in an apartment. Sear it on the stove and finish it off in the oven, it makes the perfect steak. Ina Garten has a good step by step recipe in one of her cookbooks where she puts butter on the top before she finishes it off in the oven. I think some smoke is inevitable though, if you want a well seared steak.

Another problem might be oil. You want to use one with a higher smoke point. You can find a list of oil smoke points here.

I have the Kitchenaid pans rated highly by consumer reports (that may be what you have also) but I agree with cpa1 - CAST IRON ALL THE WAY!

As someone with a horrible electric stove in a rental I understand exactly what you are saying.

Don't turn the stove higher than medium high (7 out of 10 levels on my stove). Allow the cast iron (or any pan) to heat up before adding the meat. You want to use medium heat and let the pan warm before adding any food or fat. If the pan is too hot and you have a smoke issue it is too late to lower the temp.

Do not use olive oil - low smoke point. But another area is to make sure you use the oil minimally. I got a lot of smoke once pan searing steaks and realized I had been lazy with oil and used too much. I had smoke EVERYWHERE (the smoke alarm went off even). Now I make sure I use just enough to coat the steaks.

I follow the Alton Brown method to pan sear steaks. Turn the oven on to 500 degrees, heat the cast iron in the oven. Put the hot cast iron on the stove. Sear the steaks (coated in a little oil and dry rub) and then finish in the hot oven.

I want to second the call for a different, and possibly more oil. Don't bother trying to sear with Extra virgin olive oil. Use the cheap stuff... corn, canola, or peanut. They burn at a higher temperature, which will give you more leeway, and eliminate some of that funky taste you mentioned.

Also, wait until your pan is hot to add the oil, and add enough to coat your pan. Sometimes that will be more than the recipe calls for... remember that the recipe is written for the specific equipment the writer used, which could be non stick, enameled or anodized. Stainless steel will generally require a little more oil than all these anyway, so increase the oil a bit.

Also, make sure the pan is an appropriate size for the amount of food you're cooking. If you have a lot of empty space on the pan, that part of the pan will over heat and cause you problems.

Also, as mentioned above, searing is not intended to cook your food. it is intended to develop flavors and seal in the juices so that what you're cooking doesn't dry out when you continue to cook it slowly over low heat. Make sure you're turning down the heat. If your electric range doesn't cool off quickly enough after searing to make the transition, try moving your pan to a different element when you're done searing and set that one to medium low.

Lastly, until you get this figured out, don't try to coat things with parmesan cheese. It's tricky even if you know your pan well.

AND finally, everyone has cooking disasters when they experiment with new equipment. Just try to learn from your mistake, and save the stories for your nxt dinner party.

I think the editor nailed it. Searing is NOT a technique for cooking all the way through, it's just supposed to add flavor and texture to the outside and then the meat should be finished at a lower temp (unless you or your guests like their steak still mooing).

I've had great luck searing in any pan that wasn't non-stick and I usually don't use oil at all because I want some of the brown frond to stick so I can scrape it into the sauce later. The others are right, though, olive oil smokes too low, use canola or something.

I agree with all the responses, turn your temperature down!

I use Calphalon One hard anodized pans most often and have never gone above a 7 (out of 10) on our range to reach smoking, and really stay around the medium, 5-6, range for most of my cooking. I am not in the hurry that most chefs are, and don't mind taking a few extra minutes to cook at the temperature I'm most comfortable with.

Also, please remember that even though you are on an electric range and can't adjust heat as quickly as with gas, there is no reason why you can't move the pan off the heat if it's getting to hot. Simply slide it off the burner. Leave it off for a few seconds or a few minutes depending on how overheated your pan is, a little smoke is indeed necessary, but a lot is going to burn your food. I also frequently adjust the settings during cooking, I may start at a 7 to brown, but cook at a 5 because of the heat retained in the pans.

The advice about searing not being intended to cook protein all the way is good, and if you aren't comfortable with pan frying, definitely start by getting a good browning, then transfer to the oven to finish cooking. I highly suggest using a thermometer to know when meat is done until you are comfortable enough to understand the feel and smell of it.

If you want to use butter to sear, mix it with some oil to prevent burning the butter, as oils have a higher smoke point. I most often use olive oil (not extra virgin), and canola oil for pan searing.

Lastly, recipes are written on many different stoves using many different cooking vessels, don't follow them exactly. Get to know YOUR oven and YOUR pans and find the right settings and cooking times for you.

nothing sears like cast iron.

we have two different size elements on our electric range. the larger of them can get a good crust on medium so long as the skillet has five to 10 minutes to heat up. finishing in the oven is an excellent way to go.

bobcatsteph3 has the best (of all this great) advice with the emphasis on finding methods and materials that work for you. takes some time and patience, sure but the results of your comfort and confidence will shine through in your results!

roast first, sear second. this may seem backwards, but trust me, it works a treat.

I've found with most meats, slow cooking to nearly done first, *then* hitting with a higher heat to finish does a much nicer job. my electric stove does this best around setting 5-6 then turning up to 8. YMMV.

the trick seems to be cooking some of the moisture out of the surface before attempting to brown. if the meat is too damp, a high heat will do more to steam the meat than caramelize it. especially good technique for roast beef and pork... haven't tried it with poultry yet.

generally speaking the concept of 'searing to seal in the juices' has been disproved. see McGee...

for just grilling a steak, I set it around 7 and flip every minute or so to keep the heat moving.

After cooking most of my life with just nonstick cookware, I tried to use my wife's old RevereWare stainless skillet, and burned the heck out of everything until I turned the burner down 2-3 notches from what I was used to using. The stainless probably doesn't get any hotter, it just heats up so much more quickly than the hard anodized Circulon I'm used to. Now searing is much easier and better than with nonstick (but I still use it 90 percent of the time).

Such helpful advice here from the post author and the commenters.

I may have missed this in comments above, but it's very important to dry meat well before trying to sear it. Heat the pan, add oil (amount depending on how fat the meat is you are going to sear), add dry meat, and then leave it alone uncovered for a few minutes. Don't touch it, don't move it around in the pan. Then you can stick it in a hot oven or turn burner heat very low and cover the pan for a few minutes to finish.

In addition: if I'm cooking something with a coating like the pork chops described, I do it in the oven. Coatings get crispy and meat gets cooked in a hot oven.

I totally agree with cpa 1. Get a cast iron pan and your problem should be solved. I also think circusboy is right about searing being overrated.

One other reason that your meat might be toast on the outside and raw on the inside is if you aren't letting the meat come up to room temperature before putting it in the pan. If you start with meat straight out of the fridge, you will have cold raw insides and burnt dry outsides every time.

Cast iron is great for searing, but if you are searing chicken and are making a pan sauce, I'd go with stainless steel. If you try to make a pan sauce with a cast iron skillet, you end up "cleaning" the skillet. Two problems...you have to re-season the pan and all that "stuff" is in your sauce...ugh.

I've found searing, and making a pan sauce, in a stainless skillet works great.

The electic stovetop is the issue, and as people have mentioned, once you get that stovetop too hot, you're done, or at least for a little bit. You HAVE to remove the pan from the stovetop or your food will burn.

I used to cook on electric burners when I rented a house. You just can't be lazy. OK, so how hot does it need to be? I'd suggest you run a little experiment so that you will learn at what level you need to sear. Since all burners are different, you have to test them a little.

Try this...
1. Use the burner that is sized for your pan and warm the pan on med-low heat...#3. (Let's assume the burner has heat levels 1-10)
2. Once the pan is warm (don't wait until it's hot or you can burn the oil or brown the butter), place some canola/vegetable oil or clarified butter in the pan and kick up the heat to 5. It should shimmer and smoke (whisps) within a minute. If not, that temp is too low. Kick it up to 6. If you still don't see whisps of smoke within 30 seconds, then you know you need to have it at least at 7. BTW, if it starts to burn (lots of smoke), that's too high.
3. Assuming you've been able to see whisps of smoke, place the food in the pan (it should sizzle) and immediately kick up the heat since the food will cause the temp to drop. Keep the heat high for 30-45 seconds, and then drop the heat back down to the "normal" sear level from step 2.

The key with electic burners is patience, anticipation and experience. You just can't rush anything and you must think ahead or you'll have the temp wrong just when you need it at a certain level. The only way to learn this is with experience. Obviously, you've been cooking at too high a burner level or using the wrong oil, but my guess is the heat is too high.

Virgin olive oil and plain butter are not good for searing because of the low smoke temps. Regular olive oil is better, but I really like clarified butter. Canola or vegetable oil is good too.

Good luck...we've all been there.