Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/29/how-to-cook-a-frozen-steak-in.html
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Making steak in your popcorn popper?
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I made a sous vide steak a while back and it was atrocious. I tried just sous viding it without a sear, pan sear, and torch sear. Every attempt was horrible.
Now I just throw a frozen steak on my smoker for an extra hour or so and it’s amazing. Comes out at medium rare and it tastes better than 95% of steaks I’ve had at restaurants.
Sous vide has its purpose, but not for my steaks
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What were you trying to cook & how were you doing it? 130 deg for 90 minutes and then a finish in the pan has never not turned out lovely for me.
ETA: I do think that the thicker cuts work better, or at least highlight the positives more, and once I started drying them in the fridge for a couple of hours after the bath before searing, shit hit the next level
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Finishing in the oven after Quick browning works great for a grilled cheese too.
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Yes, Nestle Quick is brown, but no, you shouldn’t use it on steaks.
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Practically every high end steakhouse does this now, because it’s nearly foolproof - bring the steak to just shy of temp, sear the outside, and you have perfection on a plate.
In fact every time I try to cook an expensive cut of meat on the BBQ or in the oven to finish I kick myself for missing temp by a degree here and there and think to myself I should have just sous-vided the thing in the first place.
Is it because it’s coming out of the bag too ■■■■■ to get a good sear? If so, I strongly recommend butter basting to finish.
This, on the other hand, surprised me - was bringing it to temp sous-vide vs, say, overnight in the fridge having a material impact on the finished product?
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Sous vide just fails for me with steak (and probably why I prefer my steak over steakhouse 95% of the time). It is, however, my go to when it comes to pork chops… thems some tasty chops!
Yes, I found that the over night thaw cooked more like raw meat and the texture of frozen into sous vide to be off FOR BEEF. For pork I have seen no difference. I have not tried chicken.
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So you did it wrong? Or is there a typo/confusion there. Cause it sounds like you poached a steak and got a poached steak?
Or did you do it the 3 ways and not like any of it?
For the most part high end, dedicated steakhouses still use insanely hot broilers to do the job. And there’s little benefit to sous vide over that method besides alleviating some staff training and experience. But it cooks considerably slower, and you miss out on some serious crust action.
It’s high end restaurants that aren’t steakhouses and don’t have large 1000 degree broilers that have largely switched to sous vide. Without the specialized equipment and staff it’s just a much more reliable and efficient way to put out high quality steaks. There are some steakhouses that specialize in sous vide steaks, but the “just like high end steak houses” story mostly seems to be marketing.
I haven’t found that to be the case.
Are you pulling from the freezer, seasoning and bagging? Or seasoning, bagging and freezing?
I’ve found the later works better, and textural differences seem to be down to the time the salt has to do it’s work. Salt seems to penetrate better during sous vide than searing straight from frozen. But there’s a noticeable difference from salting well ahead of time.
Torches are fairly shitty for searing, even with my searzall. Just takes too long. But they’re excellent for prep and touch ups.
I’ve found schwacking things with a torch after taking them out of the bag and giving them a wipe with paper towel burns off most of the excess moisture and helps get a great sear. And I’ll touch up the sear on the top side as I go.
Works well without sous vide as well. A nice long dry in the fridge can work better. But a lot of the benefit to sous vide steak is how convenient and prep light it is 80% of the results with 20% of the effort.
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A George Foreman Grill works well, too. 
None of this makes any sense. Toss a frozen steak on the grill, clink like an icecube. Season it on the top. Flip it a few times, season on the bottom. Take the temperature, take it off at the right time, it’s perfect. All this foolishness with sous vide and torches and whatever. Weber.
You don’t even need the grill. I’ve been pan-frying steak in cast iron straight from the freezer for some time, no oven. You just need a bit more oil than normal, and of course more time. Season before freezing to skip the part-thawing, though as you say you can also season the frozen steak directly.
One thing you really need to cook a frozen steak properly in a skillet is a flat steak. He starts with them in the video, but they look like some kind of prepackaged item. If you are doing your own freezing, season the steak, wrap, put it between something flat top and bottom in the freezer so that it freezes flat.
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So, a little cold water, a $100,000.00+ kitchen, some salt and pepper only to overdo some steaks to medium? It all seems just a little bit… pointless.
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Pretty much this is exactly what I would have done, although I’d probably thaw the steaks a wee bit more. It is what I do with my ahi tuna steaks, except I sear the edges also.
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