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Photography by Greg Ranells and Candra Johnson
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Toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake get all the glory, but the humble pork steak is also as St. Louis as it gets. Blogger Scott Thomas of Grillin’ Fools (grillinfools.com) knows just how to take this regionally popular cut and turn it into a summertime dinner so tasty, it has the power to prematurely end an intense game of washers.
What to Buy: “Any grocer in St. Louis will have pork steaks,” Thomas says. Elsewhere, just ask for pork shoulder or pork butt sliced into inch-thick steaks. (Though the cuts known as “pork butt” come from the pig’s shoulder, they were once transported on sailing ships in barrels, also known as butts. The name stuck.)
How to Grill It: “Pork steak is a very fatty piece of meat, and it’s very juicy and flavorful,” Thomas says. “It’s a poor man’s steak. I put ’em on the grill and smoke ’em for a couple of hours, then sear them for a couple of minutes per side for caramelization. If you don’t have a smoker, you can do what’s called indirect or two-zone grilling. You put coals on one side of your grill, and that’s the hot zone for searing; the other side has no coals, for smoking. I put the barbecue sauce on at the very end and leave the steak on the grill so it can thicken.”
What to Avoid: Marinating a pork steak is unnecessary. “You can brine it in an apple cider or apple juice to add fluid to the meat,” Thomas says, “but you don’t need to—pork steak has plenty of flavor from the fat.” He adds a general tip: Use tongs to flip the steak. “People who flip meat with forks are poking holes in it for the juices to run out.”
How to Serve It: “I like a pork steak whole on a plate with a side of potato salad or baked beans,” Thomas says, “served with a nice wheat hefeweizen.” But don’t forget those kooky St. Louis sandwiches, where the wide steak sticks out over the edges of the bun. In Thomas’ words, “a higher meat-to-bread ratio is a win.”
