There’s a three year old video from America’s Test Kitchen making the rounds on Facebook of how to cook a frozen steak. You can see it here: Science: Make the Best Steaks By Cooking Frozen Meat (No Thawing!) - YouTube
Has anyone tried it? I’m wondering about seasoning. It doesn’t seem like seasoning before cooking would work at all and seasoning after cooking isn’t very effective either.
If you’ve tried it, it please share your experience.
I haven’t tried that exact method.
I’ve zapped steaks and frozen hamburger in the microwave (set on 75%) power to defrost and then cooked.
The food was ok. Edible. I usually regretted not letting it defrost for an hour in the sink.
But when your really, really hungry it’s hard to wait that hour.
I probably won’t ever do that to a steak again. It’s better to make a run to a fast food place. Let the steak defrost correctly in the fridge and cook the next day.
The guy should have mentioned seasoning.
I’d guess he seasons in the pan while the steak sears in the oil.
Interesting technique. I may give it a try.
I want my steak cooked medium. That medium rare steak made me gag just seeing it sliced open. That’s nasty.
Didn’t watch the video but I can imagine it would work ok. I’ve put frozen Costco pre-prepared hamburger patties on the grill and it works fine. I imagine frozen steaks would work the same as long as they weren’t too thick. Have a hot side and a cooler side for searing/slower cooking the middle.
Yeah, the seasoning wouldn’t be ideal. It’s best if you can give it some time to let that osmosis magic happen with the salt & pepper and whatever other seasonings before grilling. With meat that starts out frozen, you season each side as soon as you flip and get a bit of a sear. Ideally you want to flip as little as possible, but with frozen steaks you might need to flip a time or two more.
The big thing is you have to use a mixed cooking method. If you try to cook a frozen steak with just frying, you’ll burn the surface long before you cook the interior. You have to do like the video shows and fry the steak just long enough to get a good crust and then bake it in an oven to cook the rest of the steak to your desired doneness. Or, if you really want to get fancy, use a sous vide.
solost I’ve done the same thing with burgers on the grill and you’re right, they’re fine. However, in the video, they cook a one inch frozen steak in a pan in 1/8th inch of oil to make a crust on both sides. Then, they finish it the oven. Maybe you could season the “up” side before the crust forms. It would be better than nothing I suppose.
Yeah, frozen burger patties cook fine straight from the freezer.
We routinely popped them out of the freezer, peeled off the wax paper and put in a skillet.
Salt & pepper after they begin to cook.
I burned my frozen steak. And went running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper.
Actually, the conventional wisdom on that has been challenged.
That’s pretty much how I do my steaks anyway (two steps, one oven, one pan for crust), so that doesn’t make much a difference to me. I’ve always wondered if this would work, but never wanted to sacrifice a piece of expensive steak to sate my curiosity.
I have done this, with a slight variation in the method. I do this on a gas grill. Cook over heat to get a crust, move to indirect heat until I get to desired doneness. It works ok.
Aceplace if you’re going to defrost in the microwave, you want to use the power setting at something more like 30%, and flip the meat at regular intervals. It will take a lot longer to defrost, but you won’t end up with weird partially cooked meat.
Thank you for the tip.
Lowering the power makes sense.
I have a sous vide machine, so I use that instead of the ATK method. But I season the steaks before I freeze them, so I can just put the frozen steak package directly in the sous vide cooker. I pull it out, sear it, and then make a pan sauce with the juices that came out during the sous vide process. I have had no complaints about my steaks. 
Here’s a link for ya: Low-Temp Oven Steak - Modernist Cuisine
Nathan Myhrvold is an ex Microsoft guy that made a hundred or couple of hundred million dollars. He retired and then has used his big bucks to really get into cooking. This is one of his recipes. IIRC he did a massive series of cookbooks that cost something like a thousand dollars a set. the NY times asked him for some recipes that real people could do and frozen steak was one. I made it a few times and it was pretty good. My wife is a traditionalist that won’t accept something new and good if I discover it, has pretty much veto’d it in our house.
I also like sous vide steak a lot. Spousal unit has the same reaction. oh well…
both sous vide and the frozen steak have a great result *and *they are much harder to mess up/much easier to get consistent results.
A professional chef told me that the only way they can get a reasonable medium on those thin steaks served at banquets and weddings is by starting with them mostly frozen.
Another sous vide vote. I’ve cooked frozen NY Strips to perfection by adding thirty minutes on to the water bath time.
For you sous vide users, surely you don’t just take them out of the water and onto a plate, right? Do you finish them on a grill or pan?
I won’t call you Shirley.
One of the very few times I’ve read something online and ***literally ***LOL’ed
About five minutes before I want to serve, I put a cast iron skillet on the stove over high heat. When the pan is ready, I take the meat out of the water, open the packet, and pat the meat dry. I then sear the outside 30 - 60 seconds a side.
Things are different today.