With the July 4th Holiday upon us, I thought that I’d share a favorite barbecue recipe that has been enjoyed by my family and many others in the St. Louis area for decades. We call them pork steaks and they are unique to this part of the country. Your local butcher will likely know what they are, but if they don’t ask him/her to slice up a Pork Shoulder or Boston Butt into steaks approximately 3/4″ thick. This is a less tender part of the hog, but it has a lot of fat surrounding it that’s full of flavor. So with proper cooking and a little patience, you’ll end up with a moist, slightly chewy but tangy and tasty bite.
Prep: 4-5 mins
Cook: 40-45 mins
Servings: 5
Yield: 5 steaks
Ingredients
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5 pork shoulder steaks
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1 teaspoon seasoned salt
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2 teaspoons garlic powder
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1 teaspoon seasoned pepper
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1 cup apple cider vinegar
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1 cup water
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1 can cheap beer
Directions
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Step 1Preheat grill to medium/high heat.
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Step 2Generously season the pork steaks on both sides with 1/2 of the seasoned salt, all of the garlic powder and 1/2 of the seasoned pepper.
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Step 3Mop Sauce: In a large bowl, stir together the vinegar, beer and water, and season with remaining seasoned salt and seasoned pepper.
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Step 3Lightly oil the grill grate. Place pork steaks on the grill. Cook/sear the pork steaks over medium/high heat 4-5 minutes on each side.
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Step 4Continue to cook steaks by basting with generous amount of mop sauce and turn every 3-4 minutes per side for 20 minutes or so until desired doneness is reached.
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Step 5Lower the heat on the grill or move steaks to a cooler area of the fire and finish the pork steaks by brushing with your favorite barbecue sauce, turning and brushing on more sauce every couple of minutes for 10 minutes. Sauce should be caramelized but not too burnt.
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Step 6Remove steaks from grill and serve. Additional sauce can be added at the table if desired.
At our house the pork steaks are served with a sweet/sour style slaw, potato salad, baked beans, and corn on the cob.