Have you ever started cooking dinner only to realize that you forgot to thaw your meat? If you’re about to prepare a juicy steak, there’s good news – you don’t actually have to thaw anything!
Dan Souza, professional chef and editor-in-chief of Cook’s Illustrated, reveals that not only is there no need to thaw that frozen steak, but that it’s actually better to cook it frozen.
In the video below, Souza slices a nice marbled strip loin into quarters and froze them in vacuum sealed packets. The next day he placed half the meat in a refrigerator to thaw and left the other half frozen.
When it was time to cook, be put both the frozen and thawed steaks onto the hot skillet and seared both sides for 90 seconds each. After that, he moved the seared steaks to a 275 °F oven until they reached an internal temp of 125 °F (the perfect rare steak).
While the frozen steaks took a bit longer to reach their target temperature, they developed a better exterior with far thinner bands of overcooked meat compared to the thawed steaks. Overall, the frozen steaks lost less moisture, which left them delightfully juicy.
Watch the full video below for yourself and see the benefit for cooking a frozen steak!
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