We have had subscriptions to a variety of food-related magazines over the years. As a results, Cook's Illustrated sometimes sends us promotional magazines to try to entice us to receive them regularly. We have yet to take the bait, but we do enjoy thumbing through the samples. This time around, a novel idea for steak preparation caught our eye.
Grill Master DJ was in complete disbelief that this technique would actually work, so we decided to give it a whirl.
We don't have a cast iron pan (need to work on that), so we followed the basic principles of the approach while using the tools in our kitchen and DJ's grilling intuition.
First, we seared on our stovetop griddle. DJ was concerned the sear wouldn't be as good as if we had used cast iron, so he didn't follow the exact timing outlined in Cook's. Rather, he left it on until the sear looked thick enough to hold its own in the broiler.
Once the sear was done and the meat was softened a bit, we seasoned with our favorite rub.
Then the steak was popped onto a foil-lined baking sheet and put in the broiler. We set the timer for 20 minutes and checked on it every 15 minutes. Because it was a pretty thick cut of meat, DJ followed his gut and put it back in until it didn't feel spongy to the touch. Wound up being about 30 minutes in the oven total.
When we cut into it, DJ was shocked: it actually worked! From frozen to perfectly cooked in relatively little time. If you can believe it, the Grill Master declared he may never make steak any other way again!
Paired with a variety of vegetables, this was a delightful meal made even more delicious by the fact that it was a victorious experiment. Cheers to Cook's Illustrated!
