Freeze a steak - NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[medxam]

I just thawed out a very nice rib-eye that I froze in waxed paper and freezer wrap several months ago. I grilled it on the grill and it was horrible, by all great steak lovers criteria!

I will never freeze a steak again, no matter how good the price is at the butcher's.

I have decided that when I want a steak, I WILL go buy a fresh one, bring it home and grill it.

Any thoughts from any of you out there?

 

[DeathGrip]

Autopsy report?

 

[Capt Steve]

Freezing meat need not be a problem. Invest in the deluxe Seal a Meal and you will never have bad beef from the freezer again. I say "Invest" as they go for around $200 but it will pay for itself very quickly. Whenever meat, or cheese for that matter, goes on sale I buy in bulk, cut my own steaks and roasts and use the seal a meal. It uses a vacuum to suck out the excess moisture and then seals the food in. You will never get freezer burn and everything thaws out just as fresh as it went in.

Yesterday the local supermarket chain had two unadvertised specials, boneless cross rib roasts on sale for $1.77 a lb. I bought 4 weighing about 14 lbs total. They also had ground sirloin for $1.77 a lb and I bought 12 lbs. I ended up saving more than I spent as the roast and sirloin usually go for $5 or more per pound. It helps to have a large freezer but the savings can be incredible. Whole tenderloins of beef go for $4.99 a pound several times a year and I will buy three or four. As you can see I love good beef just as much as a bargain. (o;

 

[Bullseye 2620]

Seal a Meal seals the deal. 'Nuff said.


Bullseye

 

[ladder13]

Nothing like fresh from the butcher.

 

[Rule3]

Fresh is of course best but we do freeze sometimes. Freezing does something to the texture. Need to let it thaw slowly. We have the Food Saver Brand Vacuum sealer.. The bags are expensive but can be reused.

What works really well and much cheaper is good old Butcher/Freezer paper. Heavy white waxed type paper. We wrap the meat correctly, tape it and put in zip lock freezer bags. Never have freezer burn.

Paper works well to cover your cardboard targets also for a nice clean slate.

 

[VM]

Any thoughts from any of you out there?

I've been putting steaks, all sorts of meat, chicken and sausage in the deep freeze for 30 years and have never had a complaint after cooking it on the grill.
I have also had "fresh" meat cooked immediately on grill and I can't tell the difference.

 

[VM]

Need to let it thaw slowly.

+1
I do this when I take something out of the freezer

 

[Airpark]

As mentioned by others the secret is AIR getting to it.

Ever wonder why the local deli always re-wraps the product in heat sealed wrap immediately after use.

Air...is the culprit. If I have to use zip-loc type FREEZER type bags I make sure I get as much air out as possible before completely sealing.

 

[Capt Steve]

As mentioned by others the secret is AIR getting to it.

Ever wonder why the local deli always re-wraps the product in heat sealed wrap immediately after use.

Air...is the culprit. If I have to use zip-loc type FREEZER type bags I make sure I get as much air out as possible before completely sealing.

A great way to get the air out of a bag is to immerse the bag in water leaving just the tip of the bag open. The water forces nearly all of the air out, then finish zipping it the last quarter of an inch closed. We used this method on sport fishing boats when freezing fresh caught tuna. We would dip the bags into the bait tank, seal them then straight into the freezer. Now assuming you don't have a bait tank at home any large container of water will do. (o;

 

[Steave]

I agree the best steaks are those that come from the butcher. There is a small German market/restaurant near us, Kuby's for those of you from Dallas, that has awesome meat; when we want great meat we go to Kuby's. However, we always have a few supermarket steaks in the freezer and while I know they'll never be as god as a fresh steak from Kuby's, they;re generally pretty decent.

 

[westcoast362]

I like to put a semi thawed steak on a really hot grill. That way I can get black on the outside and cool on the inside.

 

[NE450No2]

I have eaten game meat frozen in the seal a meal vacume pack that was 3 years old and you could not tell it from fresh.

Even duck over 2 years old...

 

[JcMack]

Steak is but a fond memory for me. The fish sticks in my freezer are doing OK so far.

 

[writerinmo]

Air AND moisture... if I buy a steak that isn't going to go on the grill right then, I rinse it off with cool water then pat it completely dry before wrap it in white butcher paper, then into the seal a meal. I recently found one that had escaped my wife's eye clear in the bottom of the freezer and thawed it out (slowly, in the fridge, NOT in water in the sink!) and tossed it on the BBQ. Still fantastic... these are steaks that we bought from a butcher shop when we got our tax refund in 2010. I but meat from the butcher, not from the grocery store, it's just not the same stuff. Paper thin pork chops and pork steaks... not gonna do it!

 

[walnutred]

I never thaw the steaks. Take them directly from the freezer to the grill. Seals the exterior and then then as the steak thaws the internal steam tenderizes the meat.

 

[loutent]

Fresh is always best, but we do buy and freeze to a limited degree - I think beef should be used within a month for best flavor. Chicken & pork is more forgiving. I am a "food network" fan and picked up a few good tips for freezing beef.

1. Never buy the beef, bring it home and freeze it - first put it back in the fridge for a few hours to get it close to freezing temperature. This helps retain moisture when thawing - you will find less liquid around the beef when you thaw it.

2. As other have said, eliminate air. We use heavy aluminum foil, wrapped tightly and then place that in a plastic freezer bag. If possible, thaw slowly in the fridge.

 

[Scrapper]

May not have been the best piece of meat from the get go. I can vouch for the vacuum seal deal, I use it all the time.

 

[truckemup97]

If I don't freeze some of it, a lot of that steer is going to go bad before I can eat it.

 

[Kelly Green]

If the meat loses moisture, you'll wind up with freezer burn. Meat that you freeze has to be tightly sealed in moisture and vapor resistant materials because frost-free freezers take the moisture out of the air and anything that happens to be in there. That's why ice left in trays too long in a freezer will become smaller in size.

You want the meat to freeze as quickly as possible. If it freezes to slowly you'll get mushy steaks. A rule of thumb is to freeze only what will become frozen in under 24 hours or about three pounds per cubic feet of freezer space.

I freeze all my meats in tightly sealed butcher paper and haven’t had any problems.