LSU bounced back from its season-opening loss to Mississippi State with a resounding 41-7 win over Vanderbilt. Now 1-1 on the season, the Tigers return home to host another group of Tigers — Missouri. Mizzou is 0-2 so far this season with losses to Tennessee and Alabama.
While there is no food specific to Columbia, Mo. the University of Missouri does lie about halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis, so I had my pick of barbecue options for this week’s Tailgate Tuesday. Instead of choosing the easy route of Kansas City burnt ends or St. Louis ribs, I opted for a Missouri cult favorite — the pork steak.
A Brief History
A pork steak is essentially pulled pork in steak form. It’s a bone-in pork shoulder sliced into steaks and it has been a fixture of St. Louis area backyard barbecues for decades. But where did it originate?
According to barbecue historian and Southern Living Magazine contributor Robert F Moss, there were pork steak recipes in books and newspapers from the 19th century, but those were mostly referring to thinly sliced tenderloin or loins.
“A 1901 Boston Globe roundup of meat prices included, ‘pork blade steak 13 cents a pound,’ Moss wrote, and “The 1916 book A Course in Household Arts declared that shoulder steaks were ‘equal or superior to the loin and only half as expensive.'”
By the 1950s the St. Louis Dispatch was promoting it, and as described later, a retired butcher claimed that in those days freezer facilities weren’t great so the city would run out of ribs around the 4th of July. To meet demand, packers would slice pork shoulders into steaks and sell them as a cut that ‘tastes like ribs but are neater to eat.’
While it wasn’t invented in St. Louis, it’s now a cut of meat synonymous with the city. According to the National Pork Board, consumers in St. Louis purchased 4.35 million pounds of pork steak in 2016 — three times more than the national average.
Where to find pork steaks
If you’re on one of the coasts, you likely won’t find pork steaks at your local grocery store. If you want to give them a try, you’ll probably have to request them at your local butcher. However, if you’re in the Midwest, especially anywhere around Missouri, they should be readily available.
I found them at my local grocery store, Caputo’s, in the Chicago suburbs, though they weren’t as thick as I would have liked. They still got the job done.
How to cook pork steaks
Since pork steaks come from the shoulder, they really benefit from being cooked low and slow just like you would with pulled pork. You can simply grill them hot and fast, but that won’t produce a nice and tender steak like you will get from taking your time.
Start by firing up your smoker to 225-250 using your choice of wood. I used pecan for these, but like any pork, a fruit wood like apple or cherry, or even hickory, would also work great.
For this cook, I used my PK Grill because it’s so great for cooking on the go. It’s easy to take tailgating, camping, on vacation, or to BBQ pop-up events. But you can just as easily cook these on a Big Green Egg, Weber Kettle, or whatever other smoker you have on hand.
Cover both sides of our steaks with some yellow mustard as a binder and then our Down With the Swine rub, which is a great sweet-heat combo specifically designed for pork. It’s fantastic on these pork steaks.
Once your smoker is up to temp, place the steaks on the grate and let them go for 2-3 hours. This step is all about getting smoke on them. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. The reason I say 2-3 hours is because it depends on how thick your steaks are. If they are on the thinner side, you’ll want to stay on the low end of that time; if they are thicker, you can probably let them go for 3 hours.
Once they are a nice mahogany red, place them in a foil pan along with a few squeezes of Parkay, brown sugar, honey, and a red barbecue sauce. For the sauce, you can use whatever you want, but since we’re going St. Louis style here you want a nice tomato-based Kansas City style sauce. Folks in St Louis will tell you you can only use Maull’s sauce, but I went with what I had on hand, which was Hank’s Smoked Brisket BBQ Sauce, a KC-style sauce from Indianapolis.
Cover the pan with foil and place back into your smoker for a couple more hours. This will essentially steam the steaks and tenderize them to the point that they are shreddable. After a couple hours, take a look and if they are nice and tender, remove them from the foil pan, mop with the sauce in the pan, and place onto the smoker grate for 10-15 minutes to set the sauce.
Once the sauce is set on the outside, remove them from the smoker and serve. We ate them with some baked beans and washed it all down with some New Riff Rye.
Smoked Pork Steaks
A St. Louis backyard barbecue staple, pork steaks are basically pulled pork in steak form and they're absolutely delicious when smoked low and slow.
- 6 Pork Steaks
- Yellow Mustard ((for a binder))
- Down With the Swine Rub
- Brown Sugar
- Parkay
- Honey
- BBQ Sauce (Tomato-based KC style)
Fire up your smoker to 225-250 degrees using indirect heat
Rub all sides of your pork steaks with yellow mustard as a binder, then Down With the Swine rub
Place on your smoker grate and let go for 2-3 hours (the thicker your steaks, the longer)
Once they have a nice mahogany red color, place them into a foil pan. Cover with brown sugar, a few squeezes of Parkay, honey, and BBQ sauce.
Cover with foil and put back into smoker for about 2 hours
After 2 hours, check them to make sure they are tender, then remove from the foil pan and place back onto smoker grate. Brush with the sauce from the foil pan and let go for 10-20 minutes until the sauce sets.
Once the sauce sets, remove from smoker and serve!
I don’t list quantities of ingredients for this recipe because since you’re using butter, sugar, and honey, I’ll leave it up to you to determine how much you want to add based on your personal preferences.