Browning meat before putting it in the oven, although time consuming, can be used if you're cooking steak very slowly Heston Blumenthal-style. I watched a sushi chef use it to cook only the very outside of tuna steaks before slicing it for sushimi.

Although mine mostly gets used for lighting smokes...
(Canerbry porks kittens, Mon 3 Jun 2013, 7:21, Reply)