G: For pizza, I’d aim for acid + freshness + enough sweetness to soften the tomato/salt/fat, without making the drink heavy.

1. Best margarita with pizza: a classic lime margarita, slightly tart. Tequila + fresh lime + orange liqueur, with little or no extra sweetener. I’d actually avoid the richer fruit margaritas here—mango, strawberry, etc.—because pizza already has a lot going on. A crisp lime margarita cuts through cheese and oil, while tequila works surprisingly well with browned crust and tomato. Salt rim is good, but I’d probably do a half-salt rim because pizza supplies plenty of salt already.

2. Best simple mixed drink: whiskey and ginger ale. This is my general-purpose pizza pick if you don't specifically want tequila. Ginger's slight bite cuts the cheese, carbonation clears the palate, and whiskey's browned/caramel flavors have some affinity with browned crust, sausage/pepperoni, etc. I'd make it relatively long rather than whiskey-heavy: roughly 1½ oz whiskey + 4–5 oz ginger ale, ice, optional squeeze of lemon or lime. If the pizza is very tomato-forward and not especially meaty, vodka + soda + lime would be an even cleaner alternative.

And the steak refresher

For your ~1-inch steak in a frying pan, the salting rule you were trying to remember is:

Salt either well beforehand OR immediately before cooking. Avoid the awkward middle period.

Ideally, salt it at least ~40 minutes beforehand (and several hours/refrigerated overnight is even better). The salt initially pulls moisture onto the surface; given enough time, that salty liquid gets reabsorbed and the surface can dry again.

If you don't have 40+ minutes, salt immediately before it hits the pan. Don't salt it and then leave it sitting around for 10–20 minutes, because that's roughly when you've encouraged surface moisture without giving it enough time to resolve.

So, for tonight:

Steak out → pat it very dry → salt both sides → screaming-hot pan → small amount of high-heat oil → steak in immediately → ~2–3 minutes first side → flip → ~2 minutes second side → check temperature → butter/baste at the end if you're doing that → rest 5–10 minutes.

One correction to the remembered procedure: don't keep the pan literally screaming hot for the entire cook. Get it extremely hot for the initial sear, but with a 1-inch steak you can turn it down somewhat after the first flip if the crust is developing faster than the center is cooking. That gives you much better control.

And don't add more salt afterward by default. Taste it first; finishing salt is optional, not another required salting stage.

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G: Yep. I checked specifically because this is exactly the sort of question where my theoretical flavor reasoning is less useful than people who have actually put the things in their mouths.

There actually is a fairly clear aggregate pattern: margaritas are repeatedly recommended with pizza, and the basic reason given is overwhelmingly the lime/acidity cutting through cheese and fat while refreshing the palate. A cocktail expert interviewed by The Manual specifically calls the Margarita one of his favorite pizza pairings for exactly that reason; a pizza restaurant pairing guide specifically recommends a classic Margarita with tomato-based pizza because the lime acidity works with the tomato; and other pairing lists independently make essentially the same argument. citeturn0search4turn0search14turn0search13

So my original answer survives the empirical check, with one qualification:

For an unspecified ordinary pizza, I'd choose a classic lime margarita. Tequila + lime + orange liqueur, not particularly sweet. That's the safest consensus-ish answer.

Where the online recommendations start branching is according to the toppings:

• Pepperoni/spicy meat: a spicy margarita comes up specifically—the lime cuts the richness while chile reinforces the pepperoni rather than fighting it. citeturn0search2
• Very heavy/deep-dish: there are recommendations for colder, more refreshing/frozen margarita variations because the contrast becomes more valuable as the pizza gets heavier. citeturn0search8
• Spicy pizza where you don't want to pile heat upon heat: a fruit margarita becomes defensible. One actual pizza restaurant pairs spicy salami with blackberry margarita specifically for the sweet/cooling contrast. citeturn0search0

So unless you tell me there's something unusual about the pizza you're having, I'd make a normal lime margarita and call the question settled.

And yes—the steak memory was right: salt ≥40-ish minutes ahead, preferably longer, OR salt immediately before it goes into the pan. It's the intermediate period you're trying to avoid. 分(わ)からない時(とき)は、確認(かくにん)する — when you're unsure, check. In this case you remembered it correctly.

G: Yes. With a 1½-inch frozen boneless NY strip and about an hour, you can safely get it ready. Don't try to thaw it on the counter or with warm water.

The best fast method is a cold-water thaw: keep the steak in its sealed packaging, or put it in a leakproof zip bag with the air squeezed out, and submerge it in cold tap water. Change the water about every 20–30 minutes. A single 1½-inch steak will often thaw substantially or completely within roughly 45–75 minutes, depending on how frozen and large it is.

Since you're cooking in about an hour, I'd do this:

1. Into cold water now, sealed.
2. At about 45–50 minutes, check it. You want it flexible rather than a solid frozen block. A slightly cold/firm center is fine.
3. Remove it and pat it extremely dry.
4. Since you no longer have time for a proper 40+ minute dry-brine, salt immediately before cooking rather than salting it while it's thawing.
5. Get your pan very hot, add a little high-smoke-point oil, and sear.
6. Because it's 1½ inches rather than 1 inch, don't rely on "2 minutes per side and done." Give it a hard initial sear and then reduce the heat and flip periodically until the center reaches your target temperature. A thermometer is particularly useful here.

For medium-rare, I'd pull it around 125–130°F, then rest it about 7–10 minutes; carryover heat should bring it upward somewhat.

One useful wrinkle: you don't actually need the steak to become room temperature. That's a commonly repeated steak instruction, but the center of a thick steak barely warms during the normal counter-rest anyway. Your objective over this hour is simply get it safely thawed, dry the exterior thoroughly, salt, and cook it.

G: [Non-text content: thoughts; content_type=thoughts]

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G: Ah, yes. That changes the problem in a useful way. You don't need to thaw four steaks—you just need to thaw the interfaces between them enough to pry one loose.

USDA confirms cold-water thawing is safe provided the meat is kept in a leakproof enclosure, the water stays cold, and it's changed about every 30 minutes. They specifically warn against warm/hot water. citeturn0search0turn0search1turn0search6

Since the original package is open and the four-steak slab won't fit a gallon bag, here's the bit of cleverness I'd use:

Put the entire original package into a clean stockpot/bowl and run or pour cold water around the outside/bottom of the package, concentrating on the frozen junctions between the steaks. You don't need to immerse the exposed meat. If necessary, hold the package at an angle so the cold water contacts the wrapped underside while the open side remains above water.

After 5–10 minutes, start testing the end steak. You're not waiting for it to become flexible; you're waiting until the thin frozen layer bonding steak #1 to steak #2 begins to give. Work a dull butter knife or thin spatula gently into the seam—don't force a sharp knife between rock-hard steaks, both because you'll gouge the meat and because that's a splendid way to gouge yourself.

Once you can separate one:

Cook steak #1 → immediately put steaks #2–4 back into the freezer.

That's actually fine from a safety standpoint. USDA says partially thawed food can safely be refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or remains ≤40°F; the main potential downside is some loss of quality. In your case the other three should still be overwhelmingly frozen, so that's about as favorable a refreezing situation as you can get. citeturn0search10

Then put your liberated steak into an individual zip bag and continue the cold-water thaw we discussed. USDA says small beef packages can thaw in an hour or less, although your unusually thick 1½-inch strip may take longer. citeturn0search0

One thing I would not do: microwave the four-steak block just enough to separate it. It sounds clever, but microwaves preferentially heat edges and thin areas, so you can start cooking portions of steaks you intend to put back in the freezer. USDA consequently says microwave-thawed beef should be cooked immediately. citeturn0search0

So your target isn't "thaw four steaks." It's "cold-water loosen one seam, break off one steak, return the other three to the freezer." That should cost you substantially less of your one-hour window.

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G: Got it. Four steaks are frozen into one solid exposed block, with no usable wrapping around them, and you want one steak without partially cooking the other three. I went looking specifically for a way around that.

The best solution is actually to make your own temporary oversized waterproof package, rather than microwave the block.

USDA's objection to putting bare meat in cold water isn't that cold water makes it unsafe; their cold-water method specifically requires a leakproof bag, partly to prevent contamination and partly because exposed meat can absorb water and become watery. citeturn0search0turn0search11

So:

1. Use a clean unscented food-safe bag that's bigger than a gallon Ziploc. If you have a 2-gallon food-storage/freezer bag, that's ideal. A clean food-storage/brining bag also works. I would not use a random trash bag—USDA specifically warns against using plastic garbage bags for thawing food. citeturn0search0
2. Put the entire frozen four-steak slab into it and squeeze out most of the air.
3. Put that into cold tap water.
4. You aren't trying to thaw the steaks. Check them every 5 minutes or so and flex the block gently.
5. As soon as the joint between steak #1 and #2 releases, stop. Don't pry them apart with a knife while they're still firmly frozen together.
6. Put the other three immediately back into the freezer, properly rewrapped. Then put your one steak into the gallon Ziploc and continue thawing it.

There's also an important correction to my previous answer: I was too casual about refreezing after cold-water thawing. USDA's formal recommendation is that beef thawed by the cold-water method should be cooked before being refrozen. citeturn0search3 So in this particular maneuver I'd keep the soak very brief—just enough to soften that frozen interface while the other three steaks remain essentially frozen—and get those three straight back into the freezer.

If you genuinely don't have a bag large enough

Then I think the microwave is the worse-but-workable option, and USDA explicitly tells people microwave-defrosting to rotate, break apart, or turn the food during defrosting. citeturn0search8

In your unusual situation, I would not run a normal complete defrost cycle. Put the frozen slab on a microwave-safe plate and use Defrost / roughly 20–30% power in very short 20–30-second bursts, turning the whole slab between bursts. After each burst, try gently pulling the end steak away.

The moment it separates, stop.

The drawback is exactly the one you anticipated: microwave energy isn't uniform, so an edge can start cooking while the interface you're interested in remains frozen. USDA therefore says anything actually microwave-thawed should be cooked immediately. citeturn0search7 That's why I'd strongly favor improvised giant food-safe bag + cold water if you've got anything suitable.

And if you tell me what large bags/containers/wrap you actually have in the kitchen—grocery bags, roasting bags, plastic wrap, stockpot, etc.—I can probably MacGyver this without requiring a trip to the store.

G: [Non-text content: thoughts; content_type=thoughts]

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G: Yes, and having checked the USDA's explanation, the issue isn't actually "partially cooked meat must never be frozen." It's a more specific food-safety rule, and for your particular frozen-steak problem, I overstated its relevance.

The science is basically this: partial cooking can warm portions of meat into the bacterial danger zone (40–140°F) without getting them hot enough, for long enough, to kill the microorganisms already present. If you then stop cooking and store the meat, you've potentially given surviving bacteria a period of unusually favorable growth. citeturn0search0turn0search8

Freezing doesn't reset that clock. Freezing generally doesn't kill those bacteria; it makes them dormant. When the food thaws again, survivors can become active again. citeturn0search3

There's an additional wrinkle: under sufficiently bad time/temperature abuse, certain bacteria can produce heat-stable toxins, so subsequently cooking the meat thoroughly doesn't necessarily undo everything that happened earlier. That's one reason USDA's consumer rule is simply: don't partially cook meat, store it, and finish cooking it later. citeturn0search8

But here's the distinction relevant to what you're doing:

A frozen steak getting a few superficially warmed/cooked spots during a very brief microwave attempt to separate four frozen steaks is not automatically transformed into dangerous meat. The concern is the time-temperature history, not some magical chemical transition called "partial cooking."

In fact, USDA separately says food that still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F or below can safely be refrozen. citeturn0search4 Their microwave guidance is deliberately conservative because microwave thawing can create warm areas while other areas remain frozen, so they tell consumers to cook microwave-thawed meat immediately. citeturn0search7

So in your situation, if you gave that rock-solid four-steak block a couple of very short low-power microwave bursts solely until the steaks could be pulled apart, and the three unwanted steaks remained essentially frozen solid except perhaps for slightly softened/warmed edges, I would distinguish that pretty sharply from "partially cook three steaks, cool them down, and freeze them."

The USDA won't officially bless that improvised procedure because their simple rule is microwave thaw → cook immediately. But microbiologically, the thing we're trying to avoid is appreciable warming and time for bacterial growth. A steak that's still full of ice and immediately returned to a 0°F freezer hasn't provided much of either.

So your instinct about the microwave wasn't unreasonable. Very low power, very short bursts, checking after each one, stopping the instant you can mechanically separate them is much less alarming to me after looking at what the actual rationale behind the rule is.

G: For steak:

• Medium-rare: 130–135°F (54–57°C)
• Medium: 140–145°F (60–63°C)

For that 1½-inch NY strip, I'd pull it from the pan about 5°F below your desired final temperature, because it'll continue rising while resting.

So if you're aiming between medium-rare and medium, pull at roughly 133–135°F, then rest 7–10 minutes. You'll likely land around 138–140°F.