How can I remove frozen steak from plate without thawing?

December 3, 2018 9:43 AM

I like to freeze uncooked steaks before individually wrapping them for later use. This reduces ice crystals from forming if cooking them from frozen, and freezes them flat which works better for pan searing and getting a good crust. I put a couple steaks on a plate in the freezer and now they're impossibly stuck. How can I get them to release from the plate without thawing them or breaking the plate?
posted by ms_rasclark to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Best answer: I would try filling a sheet pan with warm water and setting the plate in it for a few minutes. That should warm it up enough to unstick the steaks without actually thawing them.

ETA: and for the future, parchment paper for sure.
posted by Knicke at 9:57 AM on December 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Can you turn the plate upside down and run some cold water on the bottom, just long enough to thaw it enough to get the steak off with a spatula? It shouldn't take long, and if you use cold water the plate won't break.
posted by mccxxiii at 9:58 AM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: turn the plate over, run it under hot (or warm) water from the sink for what will turn out to be a very short amount of time (order of seconds) before the steaks will release (and fall into the sink unless you put your hand/another plate/something on that side).
posted by brainmouse at 9:58 AM on December 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I should have added that I normally freeze them on parchment paper but I was out and put them on a plate. I won't do that again :) I held the plate upside down under warm water but was afraid of doing it too long that the steak would fall into the sink and get wet, thus undoing the whole purpose of freezing first, or the plate would fall in the sink and break. I finally ran a metal spatula under hot water, dried it, and they released. Now they're back in the freezer on parchment, which I now have, so the part that got a teeny bit unfrozen refreezes before wrapping them. We just got a sous vide which just replaced the method above as our favorite way to cook steak, but that requires a lot more advance planning so I want to leave the option open for cooking either way.
posted by ms_rasclark at 10:19 AM on December 3, 2018

We just got a sous vide which just replaced the method above as our favorite way to cook steak

Consider getting a basic vacuum sealer (Costco has them cheap, if you are in a place with Costcos). Then you can vacuum seal individual pieces, freeze them, and later drop the frozen/sealed steak into the sous vide bath -- no thawing or repackaging needed beforehand.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:52 PM on December 3, 2018 [1 favorite]