Is it ok to cold smoke steak before freezing?

Question

About to wrap up a 60 day dry aged ribeye. After slicing to 2" thick cut steaks and trimming the pellicle i was debating on cold smoking with cherry for two hours. I've done this before but directly grilled. Instead im looking to freeze this round but from my research I havent seen any direct issues.

So this leads me to ask are there any issues with cold smoking a ribeye before freezing or should I freeze and cold smoke the day I'm going to cook to temp? Steaks will be vaccum sealed and probably when ready to cook dropped into a sous vide for 6 hours. Doubt these will be frozen past 6 months

Answer 1

No issues, as long as you control the temperature and remain outside the danger zone. In other words, can you cold smoke below 40F (4.5C)?

Time in the danger zone is cumulative. Freezing does not re-set the clock. If you can't stay out of the danger zone during the smoke step, I would smoke, sous vide, then freeze. This is probably a more common approach. You can then re-therm the steak directly from frozen when you are ready to eat.

As an aside, 6 hours seems like a long time to sous vide a rib-eye...even from frozen.