You’re in the mood for steak – but you forgot to take it out of the freezer that morning.

We understand; it happens all the time.

What you may not realize is that thawing your steak before cooking is entirely optional.

Dan Souza is the host of America’s Test Kitchen and the editor-in-chief of Cook’s Illustrated, the parent brand of CI. Souza performs a fantastic steak experiment in a YouTube video that has already received over 5.6 million views.

Souza tries to disprove the common belief that a steak must be thawed (and some say to room temperature) before being thrown in a hot pan or on a grill.

The experiment begins with cutting a large, beautiful, marbled strip loan steak into four pieces.

The pieces were then vacuum sealed and frozen individually.

Half of the steak was thawed in the refrigerator before cooking while the other half remained frozen.

To cook the steaks, Souza seared both thawed and frozen pieces in a hot skillet for 90 seconds on each side. He then transfers them to a 275-degree oven to cook until they reach an internal temperature of 125 degrees.

Ie. medium-rare.

Moisture loss was also measured by the food scientists, who weighed each steak before and after cooking.

The outcome

One thing was clear: the frozen steaks would take much longer to cook. But that makes sense and won’t completely derail your steak dinner plans.

The thawed steaks only took 10-15 minutes in the oven, whereas the frozen steaks took 18-22 minutes to reach 125 degrees. But is there much of a difference if the steak still tastes good?

The fact that even frozen steak managed to get a nice brown crust in the skillet surprised us the most. We would have thought it was too cold to brown. They also developed their crust in the same amount of time (the 90-second sear).

But there was a twist!

In many ways, the frozen steak actually cooked better than the thawed steak.

Before you get to the nice, juicy center, there are small bands of overcooked meat beneath the crust of the meat. After both steaks had been cooked, it was surprising to see that the frozen steaks had thinner bands of grey meat than the thawed ones!

The frozen steaks also lost 9 percent less moisture during cooking.

But none of that matters if they don’t taste good, right?

Well, with a pro behind the pan, all the steaks looked and tasted great. The steaks cooked directly from the freezer were unanimously preferred by the taste-testers!

But why exactly?

Some of the outcomes make sense when you think about them.

The frozen steak would still be patted dry on the outside. And the temperature differences will brown the surface of the meat while not overcooking the meat below.

Because the process is slower, it is also a lot harder to overcook a frozen steak.

The ideal steak

Souza believes that the perfect steak has never been frozen.

Of course, not everyone has that luxury, but it’s useful to know.

Souza has perfected the best freezing method if you want to freeze your steaks more frequently — now that you know they can be cooked before they’re thawed.

First, place your steaks uncovered on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in the freezer overnight.

This helps dry them out so that ice crystals don’t whizz off of them when they hit the hot pan.

The next day, wrap the steaks in plastic and place them in an airtight bag (such as a Ziplock) before returning them to the freezer.

When you’re ready to cook your frozen steak, add oil to a skillet. Souza recommends using enough to reach 1/8 of an inch deep (which is more than you might think!).

Watch the video below!

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Sources: YouTube – America’s Test Kitchen, ABC News