There are some things that you do around the house that you never question. You don’t know whether these old wives’ tales make a difference or not! One of these tips is to thaw frozen steak before cooking it. Do we have to go through this time-consuming step? And does it really affect the taste? Dan Souza, senior editor Cook’s Illustrated has an answer for us. And it is quite surprising!
To see if thawing the meat makes any difference, he cut some strip loin into eight even pieces of steak. He then froze all of the cuts. Afterward, he took out half the frozen steaks and left it to thaw on the refrigerator overnight, while leaving the other half frozen. The chef then takes one of each set of steak and sears it in a hot skillet for 90 seconds per side. Moreover, he transfers it into a 275° oven until the steaks cook to medium-rare.
Unsurprisingly, the frozen steak took about 3 minutes more to cook inside the oven. However, when he cuts open both the steaks, the result is shocking! The frozen steaks have a thinner layer of overcooked meat directly under the crust. Furthermore, the thawed meat lost an average of 9% more moisture during cooking. But the most defining factor is the taste, and the people at the test kitchen seem to prefer the frozen steak! Watch the video for the science behind the experiment:
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