Science: Make the Best Steaks By Cooking Frozen Meat (No Thawing!)

Conventional wisdom holds that frozen steaks should be thawed before cooking, but we wondered if you can cook frozen meat straight from the freezer. Cook's Illustrated Senior Editor Dan Souza explains our cooking experiments.

WATCH: How to Quickly Defrost Meat

EXPERIMENT

We cut a strip loin into eight steaks, cut each steak in half crosswise, put the pieces in vacuum-sealed bags, and froze them. We then thawed half of each steak in the refrigerator overnight and kept the other half frozen. Using our preferred method, we seared both sets of steaks in a hot skillet for 90 seconds per side and then transferred them to a 275-degree oven until they reached 125 degrees, or medium-rare. To track moisture loss, we weighed each steak before and after cooking.

RESULTS

Not surprisingly, the frozen steaks took longer to finish cooking through in the oven (18 to 22 minutes versus 10 to 15 minutes for the thawed steaks). What was surprising was that the frozen steaks actually browned in the skillet just as well as, and in the same amount of time as, the thawed steaks. Furthermore, they had thinner bands of gray, overcooked meat directly under the crust than the thawed steaks had. We also found that these steaks lost on average 9 percent less moisture during cooking than the thawed steaks did. Sampling the steaks side by side, tasters unanimously preferred the cooked-from-frozen steaks to their thawed counterparts.

EXPLANATION

A fully frozen steak is extremely cold, which prevents overcooking while the surface reaches the very high temperatures necessary for browning reactions. As for the difference in moisture loss, we know that when meat is cooked to temperatures higher than 140 degrees, its muscle fibers begin to squeeze out a significant amount of moisture. As its slightly thicker gray band indicated, the steak that had been thawed had more overcooking around the edge, so it made sense that it also had greater moisture loss.

THE TAKEAWAY

While we prefer to start with steak that’s never been frozen for the best texture, if we do have frozen steaks on hand, from now on we’ll cook them straight from the freezer. (But if you can choose between frozen vs. fresh, definitely go for fresh.)

Here's what to do for the best frozen steaks: Freeze steaks, uncovered, overnight on a baking sheet (this dries them out to prevent excess splattering during cooking), then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, place in a zipper-lock bag, and return to freezer. To ensure that the steaks brown evenly, add oil to the skillet until it measures 1/8 inch deep. And because frozen steaks will splatter more during searing, use a large skillet.

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[thegoodplate]

I did this when I was a teenager. My father told me to put the frozen steaks under the broiler and cook them. They were the best steaks we ever had. This also works for ground meat patties as well. When I prepare ground meat patties for freezing, I put the patties on a board, freeze them, then put them between pieces of wax paper in a plastic bag and take out all the air before sealing. I use an extra large mayonnaise jar top to form the patties, it's the perfect size.

[meh-]

Been searing steaks after sous vide in a cast iron pan with a small layer of oil. The sear is better than what I get with butter since the smoke point is higher and it's much more evenly seared and less messy than putting it in dry. Kind of surprised to see so many here complaining about using oil, in my experience it produces the best texture and doesn't interfere at all with the taste.

[marklarsontube]

I saw a test done with 3 steaks, one of them being cooked from frozen. They took a blowtorch and charred the outside of the frozen steak, then put it in an oven at a low temperature for like an hour or something. There were a couple Iron Chefs (Simon and Batali) along with the owner of a high end steakhouse. Hands down they all preferred the frozen steak and were all very surprised. The steakhouse owner was laughing that he should be freezing all of his steaks.

[james.randorff]

Another possible freezing method: Dry brine the steaks (season with around 3g salt per pound of meat, then place them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and put in your fridge overnight), then vacuum seal and place in the freezer. The dry brining will remove surface moisture, allow the seasoning and water to penetrate deeper into the steak, and create a much more flavorful steak. The vacuum sealing and dry brining will prevent the ice layer.

[ranahna]

20 yrs as a pro chef I'm here to support your experimentation ways and confirm that you are doing a great job, trying to educate people on how to feed them self good stuff in less time less money without tarnishing quality and taste is a damn hard job specially those who thinks good food is only provided in celebrity led restaurants .
Try pan fried or blackened salmon from frozen too, by the way to be a good cook you need to have a good intelligent brain not much to do with tools nor quality of ingredients of course if you can afford to fetch a fresh steak every time you desire go with that less cooking time more expensive, but if your a busy person or have a big family to feed trust me there is nothing better then the freezer to store expensive cuts and ingredients, you can buy a whole rib side cut into steaks to cover a planed monthly schedule freezing it the right way cooking it the right way as shown here in this video and the results are more money time saving to your budget, wild range of menus you can choose from at the conforting of your home and more importantly build the inner innovative chef in you, voila.

[M.Happie]

My dad has been cooking his steaks straight from the freezer for years. I never agreed to his method, but I can honestly say his steaks were good. Thank you for explaining the science behind it.

[longfade]

Great stuff. I dig the tip about the oil amount, which seemed excessive initially but made total sense when explained.

[MasterofOssus]

When using this technique, when is the appropriate time to season the steaks?  Is it done pre-freeze?  Just before cooking?  After frying, before moving to the oven to finish?

[herbvergara]

When do you season using this frozen steak method?

[p]

We use a Food Saver to vacuum pack our meats as we buy in bulk at Costco. I opened a NY Strip Steak from the freezer today and followed the directions you provided. 90 seconds per side in 1/8 inches Peanut Oil. Then 20 minutes at 275 (we used 300 due to convection oven). Turned out great.

My steak was a nice thick steak not a thin one. Great job on this recipe! Thanks.

[rhubarbpie]

I can already hear my smoke alarm screaming with a steak in that much oil 😂😂😂

[kylecronin]

Okay now this makes sense. A few years ago when I got into cooking steaks, I went to my parents' last minute for supper. Dad decided last minute, because I was coming, he'd make steaks and got some out of the freezer, and I assumed they would suck. He somehow made amazing steaks. It completely caught me off guard how good they were. He did them on the BBQ, but either way, the conditions must have been similar enough to those of the video.

[deemackraye]

just tried it and it worked! Came out really good and juicy!! thank you

[maximme]

WELL DONE.
full of facts and counter check your own findings.
Clever.

Wish there are more people like you on the internet.
subscribed.

[khujo]

Wow! This worked really well. I used a rib eye, but was still very surprised by the quality. Definitely recommend this method

[PanupatChong]

I was thinking "but wouldn't that lower the pan's tempurature" and you answered exactly that towards the end. Very nice.

[Crazylalalalala]

Man a lot of people here fail to grasp the important part of the video.cook "until they reached medium rare or until 126 degree" you should never fallow the time of a recipe unless you know that they are using regular ovens or that you have similar equipment even then its pretty dumb. The guy even said that they still prefer fresh steaks. This is just a method to cook steaks that you (for some reason) happen to need to freeze and how to properly freeze them and cook them after you already fucked up by freezing them. There really is no reason why freezing will be any worse than waiting for it to thaw its just a wives tale.  The damage is already done in the freezing so the cooking method is to rescue a bad situation. This wives tale of thawing the meat is just nonsense. This was a good break down as to why.

[pskully]

I take it a step further and season a fresh steak with salt and pepper, then wrap it in cling wrap, then into a zip loc bag, then into the freezer. I've found the seasoning penetrates better than seasoning after taking it out of the freezer. Try it, you'll see. you can also add garlic powder, onion powder, or white pepper to kick it up even a notch further. I've been doing this for a while now, and for me, it's the way to go.

[thetrumpnewsnetwork]

When I smoke a pork loin I always prep it first with my rub and then freeze it solid before putting on the grill. I use Kingsford charcoal and mesquite chips and smoke it for about 6 hours. People think I'm crazy but they are also crazy about my pork. When I cook a steak I semi thaw it and fry it in a non stick pan and then crust both sides and let the cooking process finish while it rests for 15 - 20 minutes and it comes out perfect every time. When I cooked my Thanksgiving turkey it was almost completely frozen but I cooked it in a convection over spreading the wings and legs away from the main body for about 2 hours longer than recommended. It was amazing a juicy for a 12 lb bird and even the leftovers are still moist. I'm always experimenting with cooking techniques that I figure out in my head while doing other things.

[tronixfix]

BTW this also works with ground beef! you can get really juicy burger patties by that way.