As many will say, this is true culinary Americana but few know about it. This BBQ recipe and technique has a fun history and well worth adopting into your own family of recipes.
It is a hot and humid summer day in St. Louis. The sweat running down your face and back are mimicked by the beads of condensation rolling down the side of the nearly ice cold can of Budweiser on the table in front of the patio chair. The smell of freshly cut grass is overpowered by the aroma of the white hot charcoal in the grill and the smell of pork steaks cooking on the grate. It is a moment of St. Louis Zen.
After the steaks are done they are sometimes covered in a layer of a tomato based slightly sweet, sticky barbecue sauce. Sometimes they are placed in a covered pan and left to slowly steam until the meat is as tender as cotton and almost falls off the bone When they reach perfection the pork steaks are typically served with deviled eggs, a creamy potato salad or baked beans with chucks of bacon. On a good day there might be gooey butter cake or funnel cake, other St. Louis specialties.
St. Louis has given its name to ribs but pork steaks are by far the most popular. Pork steaks are cut from the shoulder or as old timers called it the butt or Boston butt. The perfect thickness for the steaks is a matter for debate among barbequers as intense as disputes about the quality of grapes in a vintage year for vinophiles. A half inch is thin, an inch is thick, but there is no such thing as a bad pork steak in St. Louis. Pork steaks are truly a St. Louis creation.
A local grocery chain called Schnuck’s started cutting the steaks and promoting them as an inexpensive cut of meat in the late 1950s. Soon every store in the region followed suit. Pork steaks have another local connection in the sauce. The most popular sauce is from Maull’s, a family owned business since the 1890s. In the 1920’s the company introduced its original barbeque sauce. Now it makes eight varieties but the original tang of tomatoes with a pinch of anchovies remains a favorite.
On weekends Boy Scouts, church groups and other charities set up large grills in parking lots to sell side of ribs and pork steaks. They are always served with square slices of white sandwich bread which soaked in sauce which are almost as good as the steaks themselves. Of course not everyone is a fan. A well know story, which may be true, is about a couple walking into a Barbeque place in Memphis. Another place in America for great and distinctive barbeque. The couple looked at the menu written in chalk on a board above the counter for many minutes, studying it like a page from the Talmud. Finally the man steps up to the counter and asks “Don’t you have any pork steaks?” The owner behind the counter grimaced and said “you people from St. Louis disgust me.”
I will let the experts below show you a great recipe for
St. Louis Pork Steaks,
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Take your meals to the next level with Maull's Barbecue Sweet-N-Mild Meat Sauce. It embodies the spirit of grilling and lets you cook your foods with a delicious baste on top.
This Maull's barbecue sauce has a zesty flavor. Use it to enhance your chicken, steaks, hamburgers and more. This 42-oz Maull's sauce is also nice to have with some vegetables as well. It works well when used as a marinade.
