Due to my current lack of a backyard in which to grill, I have taken to trying to convert some of my favority grilling recipes to cooktop or oven use. One of the recipes I had more/less mastered was the proper searing and cooking of beef steaks on the grill (see: Steaks, damn near perfect).
So when Young reminded me of an Alton Brown Good Eats show on cooking steaks indoors, I decided it was worth trying:
Recipes : Pan Seared Rib Eye : Food Network
The only variation from this recipe was the use of a stainless stell pan in place of the recommended cast iron. Although I'm not sure if that was the cause of the lack-luster output, I'm guessing that it was. The ribeyes just didn't have that well-seared external seal that makes the grilled variety so tasty.
I'm going to try and find my old cast iron skillet to see if that makes the difference - it may just be that the stainless steel cooking surface loses too much of its heat when the steaks hit the pan to effectively sear, whereas the cast iron (wich a much higher specific heat) holds up better.
Once I've run that experiment, I'll post a follow-up.