Steaks: Pan sear frozen or let them thaw?

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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America’s Test Kitchen reports: Science: Make the Best Steaks By Cooking Frozen Meat (No Thawing!) - YouTube

Results - frozen with oil in a pan and then finished in the oven results in a superior steak.

I would have lost that bet.

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Interesting, I’ll have to try this out soon.

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I just pulled two from the freezer and will cook them outside on my turkey fryer burner with a skillet. I’ll report back.

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okay did the pan sear (man, I love my outdoor turkey burner as my indoor is a 23 year old, electric glass coil with a horrible down draft).

They are in the oven now. I must admit - the color is stupendous.

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okay - the good news is, it works.

The bad news is, I’m not sold. I happen to like the notes that a grill brings to the table in the flavor department and frankly, I season my steaks prior to cooking them and you simply cannot do that to a meatsicle. And, the seasoning while resting or on my table, isn’t quite the same.

I will say, in a pinch, should I forget to thaw a steak out, this works and I’d do it again. But, I think I’ll stick to the old fashioned way.

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I doubt this method is meant to replace grilling. CI have always been proponents of properly done stove top steaks and this is just another way to enhance a steak experience for people who can only cook steak indoors.

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I have long had a saying: whatever goes into the freezer does not come out.

The idea of freezing protein and taking it out and cooking it in hopes of producing a great result is…not conducive to any experience we work toward here in Napa Valley.
Snobbish? Elitist? Uniformed? Biased. Perhaps.

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Merrill, I’m not sure what your experience or familiarity is with Cooks Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen, but they’re very scientific and don’t try to assume or predict outcomes…and they fail a lot. For lots of things they try, conventional knowledge triumphs, but every once in a while the status quo is wrong. Again, in the video they say that this method doesn’t beat cooking fresh, never frozen beef. They’re just saying if you have some frozen steaks that the result is better with cooking them frozen rather than thawing them.

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Yes, Nolan, I have seen it. Too instructive, too…I just take what is offered here in Napa Valley and in Northern California in general. When I am in Boston I eat a lot of fish. Here…not that much. I just prefer to eat fresh. What area of the country really needs to succumb to frozen beef? Really? I can’t believe that the latest “cult” steak is better forzen and thawed than whatever top line is offered in your local top-end store. Honestly.

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That I won’t argue with. I haven’t had any of the ‘cult beef’ you reference but I’m always surprised when I see it’s shipped frozen.

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What area of the country really needs to succumb to frozen beef? Really? I can’t believe that the latest “cult” steak is better forzen and thawed than whatever top line is offered in your local top-end store. Honestly.

Despite living in Chicagoland, I do buy and keep frozen Flannery and other top-flight steak providers and have no qualms with the quality nor can I replace it here.

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Well, if you watch the video, they take fresh steaks and freeze them unwrapped, so that they are drier and do not form ice crystals. I think taking packaged frozen steaks out and plunging them into hot oil might be a bit, um…sting-y? They even say NOT to do that in the video.

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That’s fine when you can run out to store and get fresh, high quality meats. If you are out in the boonies (an hour plus drive each way) it is not practicle not to have a freezer. My sister and bil along with my bil’s family go in on a half a grass fed steer every year from a rancher in Grass Valley. The meat is excellent quality and reasonably priced for the quality but you need to freeze it unless you plan to consume all that beef in a couple of days [wow.gif]

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I get it - not sure of your location, but an hour each way is tough. Very tough. What I have done in those situations is just what you hinted at: go once a week and get the amount that will stay fresh for a few days and then cook it and eat it fresh. Then go to vegetable based meals for the rest of the week until I can return to the store.

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And apologies to Chris, the OP, for veering off and not answering the original question posed. I really hate that, but that’s what I have done. [wow.gif]

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There are lots of meats (and their different usages) which do well out of the freezer. I cook Indian food quite a bit, and most of the time I cook Indian food with chicken or lamb/goat out of the freezer. Most of the time these preps include a lot of sauce, but the meat is fine that way. If you are cooking a steak of a whole chicken, I can see how fresh might be better, but not all foods or preparations are created equal.

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Chris - this discussion was held on Facebook by a friend of ours. A notable Chicago chef posted this in the thread. Might be worth a look.

“Not psyched about this, the only way to freeze properly is liquid nitrogen and holding it below -60 to prevent cell breakdown. Japanese do it with tuna belly. No way beef industry does. Beef is always dry when cooking from frozen it slacking then cooking”

George

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George,

I froze some steaks with dry Ice ( Pellets ), once, to see what difference. Did it with beef filet.

I had the intentions of doing a side by side with regular freezing, wait two weeks or so, but because of some family circumstances… never got around to the follow up testing.

3-4 " steaks froze with in an pretty damn fast, I vacuum sealed them… boy did that plastic suck down on that steak. Tried one a few weeks ago… you know they weren’t to bad , sometimes you lose a fair amount of moisture. These actually had juice.

Cheers Paully

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say what? what’s that??
[scratch.gif]

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Tried this last night.

My bottom line is - don’t freeze meat unless under epicurean existential steak duress.