Inspired by sous vide many people have started to slow cook meat before searing it. Unlike sous vide which controls the temperature by immersing a vacuum sealed bag or jar in warm water where the temperature is controlled, reverse sear is done in an oven on low heat or on the cool side of a grill.
Unlike sous vide, the temperature of the container is hotter than the target temperature so you can overshoot the target internal temperature and therefore, the window of when to pull the meat is much smaller than sous vide. On the other hand, the temperature is much lower than direct heat or normal roasting temperature so the window is a bit longer.
Looking at various recipes, it appears that smoking which is done at around 200ºF to 250ºF is similar or even lower than most reverse sears so the timing and learnings from smoking may apply to reverse sear.
The other important part of a reverse sear is the sear which is done in a skillet, broiler or on the hot direct heat side of a grill. Unlike sous vide, because the meat is not immersed in fluid, the surface is drier so sears better. On the other hand, because fluids can evaporate, I assume that it would suffer from the evaporation-effectEvaporation Effect
When meat is cooking it will hit a plateau of temperature as the evaporation cools the meat and prevents it from entering the sweet spot for roasts and braises of 180-200ºF. To get around it, heat at a higher temp like 325ºF before going down to 200ºF after it hits 180ºF. Something that needs to be taken into account for roasting, basting as well as [[Reverse Sear]]. Useful links genuineideas - waiting for “Q” identifying the BBQ “stall” as evaporation with nice experiments Cook’s Illustrated... (and I assume it doesn’t in sous vide). However, the difference in the sear is so pronounced that for any meat that needs a good sear, reverse sear seems to be better that sous vide. It is possible that more drying before and better execution of the sear after a sous vide may produce better results than I’ve gotten in the past.