The Case For Cooking Steaks Frozen...

An age old culinary fact when cooking steaks is that room temperature meat is optimal versus cooking from frozen. This video courtesy of Cook's Illustrated suggest that that very fact might in fact be a myth. 

After cutting a strip loin steak into eight segments, 4 are frozen and 4 are kept thawed. Both sets of steaks are browned in a skillet and finished in the oven for a medium rare finish. Interestingly, the thawed steaks had a thicker edge of grey band "doneness" than the frozen steaks and lost more moisture. Equally as interesting, the test kitchen staff preferred the frozen steaks as opposed to the thawed meat. Keep in mind, the method for cooking the steaks here is pan fried with an oven finish, and as is evidenced in the video, there's a certain way to optimally approach this cooking technique which includes freezing and storing frozen meat a certain way to prevent flare ups in a pan, minimize frozen moisture on the surface of the steaks, and cooking it in a particular way. This method hasn't been tested on a BBQ and the variety of applications of heat to tenderize meat with vary. For all intents and purposes though - this is an interesting and informative approach and in many ways dispels a bit of a myth. 

What do you think? Have you tried this approach with frozen steaks? Share your thoughts and comments. Need restaurant quality meats to test it out? We have you covered. Check out our selection of dry aged steaks and premium beef or contact us.