I’m going to go ahead and caution you against freezing your steak.
I’d say to not buy your steaks well in advance and throw them in the freezer and thaw them out when you’re ready. You could do that, but it could take a while for them to thaw. 24 hours of more.
I believe freezing affects the overall quality of the steak.
Steak dinner in mind
We decided on a Sunday morning to thaw three steaks that had been in the freezer. We left them out all day.
At around 6:15 I took the steaks out of their foil, salted them on both sides, and let them sit for 45 minutes. This is known as “salting” your steaks.
I recommend doing this with your steaks.
After the 45 minutes, I rinsed them free of the salt that coated them, patted them bone dry, then let them sit out a little while longer until the coals were ready for cooking.
I threw the steaks on my grill. They were all 1″ thick.
The two I wanted medium-rare I cooked for five minutes each side. They came out fine.
The other steak I wanted medium, so I cooked it for six (6) minutes on each side over the same level of heat. That steak was raw, raw, raw in the middle. As they say, barely run through a warm room. Practically still mooing!
I threw it back on for another 5 minutes on each side, but by then the heat on the grill was rapidly dying. The ambient temperature of the grill was barely keeping about 200° F. By then I barely got it to medium-rare.
I was pissed. What the heck happened?, I thought.
Did I suddenly forget how to grill?
Breaking down what went wrong
I had enough heat. The burgers, hot dogs, and sausages I cooked all came out just fine. The two other steaks came out to my liking.
It was just that one steak.
The bottom line was I didn’t give the steak enough time to thaw all the way through. The steak was nice and warm on the outside but still icy on the inside.
I could have, and should have, accounted for the extra time.
As far as freezing goes, there’s a good argument being made that you’re better off slapping your steaks on the grill or frying pan totally frozen than thawed. Sure, you still have to cook them way longer than you otherwise would, but the end product is noticeably better.
I tried to prepare a frozen steak on the fly and it didn’t work out.
How to successfully go about it
Freshness is king.
The best way to get and prepare a steak is to buy it, prep it, and slap it on the grill the same day. Don’t even throw it in the refrigerator.
Buy the steak from the store, salt it, let it sit, rinse it, season it, throw it on the grill. It’s as simple as that.
You will get a more tender, better tasting steak all-around.
I like experimentation only to the extent of finding the right way. Once you find the right way to cook something, do not deviate from it. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.
I tried to reinvent the wheel and “mix things up.” It blew up in my face with a steak not cooking to my liking. I’m a perfectionist in that way, and the end result made me very angry. I was angrier than I should have been.
Bottom line, don’t refrigerate, and sure as heck do not freeze the steak.
Buy steak the day you intend to cook it. You owe yourself that much.
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