Hm, I'm willing to pay hundreds of dollars to buy a special pan that doesn't preheat, so I could cook the steak through first, then sear. Maybe I've been doing this wrong! Or maybe there's a Cinder Grill rep here that can get me a special deal for shilling their product :)
"The Food Lab" is also a good book, if you like diving deeper on this sort of thing.
> pay hundreds of dollars to buy a special pan that doesn't preheat, so I could cook the steak through first
You don't need hundreds, just ~$100 for an inexpensive sous vide cooker with integrated thermometer & temp regulation [0]
You can put the meet in a zip lock bag and suck the air out with a straw and have it work just fine if you want to avoid the added expense of vacuum bags. When the meat hits the desired temp, remove, unwrap, sear the outside, and voila!
Everybody has one. Most ovens can get down to 200-275 degrees and stay fairly consistent in temperature. You can take the internal temperature of the meat while its cooking, instead of waiting a set amount of time. The meat comes out dry, which saves you having to dry it coming out of the bag before you sear.
If you really want to pay to make better bread I suggest you save your money and spend a little time researching designing bread recipes instead. I did and I can recreate almost any bread just by looking at it or by person describing what they want to get. It is not at all difficult once you learn how different processing steps and different ingredient ratios influence the result.
The best investment is to learn how to do it right. Every home that has an oven and a weighing scale has essentially everything that is needed to make artisanal breads.
Of the tools that make life easier but are in no way essential:
"The Food Lab" is also a good book, if you like diving deeper on this sort of thing.