Grilling Frozen Steaks

[Pistol Pete]

Since the first time I opened amazingribs.com, I have been a crusader for "Reverse Sear" on my Weber Genesis. I usually grill 2" filets I get in Sam's Club and dry brine in a 37°F fridge. I use a Maverick ET732 for both the food and grill temps. The problem is, at 225°F it takes between an hour and an hour and a half (depending on the ambient temp) to get the steak to 127°F when I pull it (That's 6- Fosters, Canadian). Mrs. Lucky does not like to wait. So I got some 1" Rib Eyes.....It took an hour even though the ambient temp was 98°F! (Damn hot, Canadian). In the mail today, ThermoWorks sent me a copy of their blog. Frozen to plate in less than an hour.

http://blog2.thermoworks.com/2016/08/perfectly-grilled-steaks-freezer/?utm_source=Nl-2016Aug13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Feature&utm_content=inbox&utm_campaign=Aug2016-Grill-Frozen-Steaks-cs

I own a bunch of their products, and they are fantastic, but I am a bit skeptical on the technique and appreciate guidance from the experts before I waste a steak.


Thanks, Pete


"Beer is the liquid version of Photoshop"

[vBlake]

I may be skeptical, Them fine cutlets need time to go to the meat spa. Rest, relax, soak up salt and flavor.... I guess I'm never in that big of a hurry...

[fuzzydaddy]

Pistol Pete here's a recent thread on grilling frozen steaks that might be helpful.

[Steve R.]

If you know it's going to take around 90 minutes, why not just start earlier? Honest question, not to be rude or anything.

[Huskee]

Yep, that's reverse searing a thick steak for ya. The nice thing about it is that slow rise in temp lends itself to a more tender steak. Similarly, a steak allowed to sit out and come closer to room temp for a couple hrs (not that I'm necessarily advocating that) has an even more gradual rise in temp and theoretically will be slightly more tender yet. You surely could front sear to cut down some time but it takes you being more on top of things. I have no clue about T-works' time claim on frozen steaks.

[Pistol Pete]

I try to get my time management down right but I'm not there yet. What perplexed me was that it took the same amount of time for a 1" ribeye as a 2" filet. "Upon further review" I may not be measuring my indirect cooking temp properly. I am going to run a test using my kitchen oven, which I know is accurate, at 225°F and see.

There is another thread in this forum which indicates the Frozen to Plate in 40 yields desirable results. I might as well give it a shot too. Sometimes the Warden doesn't give me a lot of lead time. I'm sure its just to aggravate me.

[abandonedbrain]

Well, I grabbed a pack of five 1.5" - 2" top sirloin steaks at Costco about a month ago, after seeing the ThermoWorks blog post. Froze them flat with two pans, then vacuum-sealed them and into the deep freeze.

First three steaks were done on charcoal in my Weber 22" kettle, on Kingsford regular. I don't think my sear temp was hot enough; took 6 minutes per side to get much color. Moved them to the indirect side, got the temp around 350F (measured at the grill level with my ET-732) and cooked until they hit 130F (measured with my Thermapen MK3) for an upper-range medium rare.

My biggest problem was that there were MANY different temps around the steak, depending on where I stuck my Thermapen; each steak had cold spots at 120F, and hot spots at 145F. And not where you'd expect them to be (right in the middle for the cold spots)!

On top of that, the salt just wouldn't stick, because the sear had dried the top layer of both sides of the steak. No flavor = no happiness.

This week I grilled the last two frozen steaks from that batch. This time I used more charcoal to get it hotter, and hit temps over 900F on the hot side. Seared both steaks four minutes each side, then slide them to the indirect zone. This time I sprayed a little EVOO on them and hit them with kosher salt.

I could NOT get the indirect zone under 450F!!! No matter what I tried, that cook temp was just too high, and I think that ruined THIS batch. I still had cold spots all over the steaks, and I even flipped those babies a few times each to keep the heat moving around. I salted them again (the sear killed the salt earlier) and added pepper, but the flavor just didn't get down into the steaks.

I realize now that I should have:
A) dry-brined the steaks before freezing
B) picked a steak with more marbling
C) grilled one of the steaks the standard way as a control, so I knew if the steaks were of bad quality or not.

Will I do this again? Probably not. But neither will I be freezing/thawing steaks any time soon. I'm completely turned off of those. Pork, sure. Chicken, you betcha. But I won't do steaks again from the freezer. I blame myself, but when the family has the smell of steak wafting into their windows from the deck, they have good idea of what they're going to be feasting on. This didn't meet my criteria for 'Good Eats (TM)'.

[RonB]

If you decide to do this again, I suggest searing on an upside down chimney of hot coals. That limits the # of hot coals. Once seared, you can put them on a plate until you add the hot coals to one side of the grill, then add some unlit coals to one side of the lit coals so that not too many light at once. Then put the steaks on the indirect side to finish. This way you shouldn't wind up with such a hot fire.

[Pistol Pete]

Wow! What a great review Brain! What I noticed was both ThermoWorks and Weber make great products, they both take full advantage of the ability to manipulate graphics.

Remember, Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.

[abandonedbrain]

If you decide to do this again, I suggest searing on an upside down chimney of hot coals. That limits the # of hot coals. Once seared, you can put them on a plate until you add the hot coals to one side of the grill, then add some unlit coals to one side of the lit coals so that not too many light at once. Then put the steaks on the indirect side to finish. This way you shouldn't wind up with such a hot fire.

And that "rocket engine" sear method was definitely going through my mind as I wrote this out today, RonB! I was even thinking that I could control the "bake" heat better on my Ducane gasser, but I couldn't see heating up TWO grills just to do steaks. Your method makes good sense; hopefully it'll help someone else willing to give this a try.