St. Louis Style Barbecued Pork Steaks

There are as many ways to barbecue pork steaks in St. Louis as there are people who enjoy barbecue. The great thing is, no one’s is ‘the original’ or ‘the best’; we love them all the same. My mom and dad worked in tandem to do the pork steaks at our house. Mom would prep the meat and sauces, Dad staffed the grill. All of us kids loved having our turn to flip, baste or sauce because a piece of the pork steak might ‘accidently’ come off and go into our mouths. Try this with Fast and Easy Coleslaw and Mom’s Garlic Biscuits and you’ve got a terrific meal.

Ingredients:

2 handfuls hickory chips

Baste:

2 teaspoons bacon grease or canola oil
¼ cup finely chopped onion
1 can beer
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Meat:

6 pork steaks (if you can’t get pork steaks where you are, get a 4 or 5 pound pork shoulder (butt) and slice it lengthwise into steaks)
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:
1 bottle Maull’s barbecue sauce (that’s straight up St. Louis, but you can use anything that you like)
½ can of beer

Directions:

First, put the hickory chips in a container and just cover with water. Let them soak for an hour or so before you start the charcoal fire.

Make the baste by heating the bacon grease or oil in a saucepan on low heat and sweating the onions in it. Add the beer and Worcestershire and let simmer for 30 minutes or so. Keep warm until ready to use.

Prep the meat by lining a baking sheet or 13 x 9 cake pan with foil. Lay out the pork steaks and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Get a charcoal fire going by lighting about 25 briquettes. Let the coals completely ash over. Spread out the charcoal to make one side with a lot of coals and one with less (this will be your ‘hot’ side and your ‘cooler’ side. Throw on a handful of drained hickory chips over the hot coals and put the grill on. Lay the meat evenly over the grill. Cover the grill and cook (flipping once halfway through) for about 10 minutes. Start basting every 10 minutes and cook until the meat is done (about 2 hours). During cooking, add the second handful of hickory chips about 1 hour in. You may also want to add a few more coals-up to you. Keep moving your steaks from the hotter portion of the grill to the cooler side if they appear to be getting too dark brown on the edges.

Make the sauce while the pork steaks are cooking by bringing the bbq sauce and beer to a low simmer and holding it until you are ready to use. Then, just slap on some sauce over the pork steaks. Turn and sauce the pork steaks every ten minutes or so until the outside is caramelized.

Remove the foil lining from your baking sheet/cake pan and pile the steaks in there.

If you need to hold the pork steaks for any reason (late guests???) Just cover with any extra sauce and put clean foil on top, sealing around the edges and keep the steaks warm either on the cool side of the grill or in a 225 degree oven until you are ready to eat.