Put frozen steaks right on the grill?


 
Mark Barton

Mark Barton

TVWBB Super Fan
This morning I watched a fascinating video about cooking frozen steaks. Wondering if anyone has tried this on the grill? Anyone used reverse sear with this method?

 
Seems good in theory and after watching the vid but read the comments from people who said they followed the method. Not so good.

Comments from people who said the followed the method:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWsEg1LmaE&feature=youtu.be

To access the comments, when the link asks you either to open in your browser or in youtube, choose browser. It'll still play but now you can access comments section. You can't if you choose "youtube".

Madelyn Tivnan
This was the WORST steak I have ever had. Followed directions exactly, and after 18 minutes at 275, the internal temp was 80 degrees. Left it in for another 15 minutes - still cold in the center. Finally upped the temp to 300. What the heck are these directions for? The steak starts out frozen solid. Common sense indicates that it won't be ready in 18 minutes at 275, but I trusted America's test kitchen and cook's illustrated so I figured they knew their stuff. Dropped the ball on this one. What a waste of 2 beautiful strip steaks.
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Michael Mannino
Look, I am not some patzer, some ignorant kitchen drone who randomly ignores direction and instruction. I followed the letter of the law from this video, and my steak was TERRIBLE! Maybe in another video, ATK reveals the perfect frying concoction as a combination of peanut, grapeseed, and sassafras oil, but, absent instructions to the contrary, I used regular vegetable oil. Do you know what my steak tasted like as it quickly started to get cold? OIL! Then, the 275 degree oven for 18 minutes? NOT EVEN CLOSE!
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There are other comments ( didn't read them all) but those two seem to summarize some people's comments.

BTW, thanks for the original link Mark.
 
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Hi Mark; I'm a fan of ATK.... but am skeptical of this method of cooking a steak. I much prefer to use my Weber and have had excellent results using several different methods - reverse sear, sous vide, etc. Like Len, I can see where a lot can go wrong freezing meat and then attempting to cook and hit target temperatures.

If you haven't read Meathead's site on how to grill better than Steakhouse steaks then you'll enjoy some great info there. http://amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/steakhouse_steaks.html

If you do try the ATK method, please do post your results. I'm sure everyone would like your feedback.

Good luck.
 
The comments re-posted by Len really demonstrate a lack of understanding of basic cooking principles by the commenters.

Cooking steaks from frozen works great for the reasons described in the video: you can put a hard sear on a frozen steak without overcooking the inside or even close to the edge.

But you still have to take care that your steak is cooked long enough to be your desired doneness.

The real issue with cooking steaks from frozen is one of seasoning them properly.
 
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Read some more of their comments and it doesn't seem that a lot of people have actually tried it b4 commenting. Those that say they have say that 18 min at 275 still leaves the inside cold if not still frozen.

Plus the time it takes to go through all this effort as opposed to: take it out the night/morning before, thaw and cook for 6-7-8-9 minutes. You're done. None of this filling a pan with oil, then after frying the steak putting it an oven to bake for -->who really knows how long<--.

Go ahead and try this frozen method. Heck, I'd never pan fry a steak either but Ramsey does. I'm sure they have grills with excellent venting systems that can do this. My favourite steak house (second to mine ;)) only grills on grates with wood. With their venting system, you just get a nice aroma of grilled-over-wood meat.

To each his own.
 
Len Dennis said:
Those that say they have say that 18 min at 275 still leaves the inside cold if not still frozen..
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This is what I mean, this is totally irrelevant. You can't blindly follow a time/temp recipe when it comes to meat cookery. It doesn't account for differences in starting temperature, differences in size/shape/cut of meat, differences in oven efficiency, differences in oven temperature, differences in pre-oven sear process, differences in relative humidity, differences in emissivity of cookware materal & etc ad nauseum.

This is like the posts we get on TVWBB every so often that say "I cooked my brisket at 225 for 14 hours, why isn't it tender/juicy?"

Any method can be used, but you have to pay attention to what you're doing, if you want to have good results. Blindly following a recipe is surely not the way to achieve perfection. Especially with steak cookery, where a difference of +/-2 degrees F can take a steak all the way from rare to nearly medium (compare 126 to 130F internal temps).
 
I am the worst at wanting a steak and not having one thawed out , so over the years I have gotten pretty good at grilling a frozen steak and I can usually get it right....but having said that , Mr Dennis is right on the money. a bit of preparation is worth a pound of cure....wait , maybe that was Ben Franklin. :cool:
 
We have a restaurant here that cooks frozen steaks, as the customer chooses theirs from a freezer. If you want med rare you have to ask for med
 
Its not my prefered way to grill steaks, but I do it when I forget to defrost them early in the day. On the other hand, one of my buddies swears by grilling them from frozen.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I normally don't freeze steaks, but some relatives buy mail order meat that comes frozen and sometimes give me some. I'll try grilling them frozen next time, and will post some comparisons with photos.
 
I have grilled my share of Frozen steaks.

I would never dream of freezing a good steak; it's not right! But sometimes you get that deal, and they end up in the freezer. I've also mail ordered steaks, and they always arrive frozen.

It's cooks well, and it tastes good, but I would never prefer a frozen steak over one right from the butcher!
 
The only frozen steaks I have cooked was "Steak-um" back when I was in high school over 30 years ago. I could kill some steak-um sandwiches back then.
 
They can call it the science of good cooking if they want. But that's no way to cook a steak.
 
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