About Pork Steaks

• Readily available in the Midwest, pork steak is often a special-order item elsewhere. Pork steak is cut from the shoulder butt, often called Boston butt and sold as a roast. A bone-in blade roast or steak is from the same shoulder cut. Steaks can be bone-in or boneless. Meat gains its flavor and tenderness from ample fat marbling. Ask your butcher to cut steaks 3/4- to 1-inch thick.

Applying Dry Seasoning

• Sprinkle steaks on both sides with salt and pepper before putting them on the grill. Because of their marbling, pork steaks are not usually marinated or brined before grilling. While you can add a spice rub, St. Louis-style recipes usually suggest you use your favorite rub. Even competitive grillers show little enthusiasm for elaborate spice rubs on BBQ pork steak. The main goal of this dish is to highlight the contrast between naturally-flavorful meat and a spicy, sweet sauce. Since available recipes often describe rub as basic or all-purpose, choose one you expect will coordinate well with an abundance of strongly-flavored, tomato-based sauce, or use salt and pepper only.

Adding Smoke Flavor

• Grillers use several methods to add a smoky flavor to BBQ steaks. Most often, steaks are seared over direct heat, then moved off the coals. Apple, cherry or other smoke-wood chips are added to the fire, and steaks smoke under a closed lid for 30 to 45 minutes.

Adding BBQ Sauce

• As with a rub, St. Louis steak grillers allow latitude for your favorite sauce from the grocery store, which can mean many things in different regions of the country. An authentic St. Louis sauce is, first and foremost, tomato-based and sweet. Ketchup is the classic base, with additions of garlic, onion, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Liquid smoke seasoning can be added if the cook does not plan to smoke steaks on the grill. If you are buying commercially-prepared sauce, look for tomato and sugar among the first ingredients on the label. The sauce is generally more spicy than hot and is brushed on generously and frequently throughout cooking. Alternatively, grill-seared steaks can be placed in a baking pan, covered with sauce and finished in the oven. Steaks are served with additional sauce.