What is the deal with pork steaks, and how did they become such a St. Louis thing? —Stacie Z., St. Louis
Our city is known for several culinary delicacies (as a native St. Louisan, I feel I can say that): a certain spare rib, a style of pizza, a type of cheese, a fried pillow of pasta, and a cut of pork called a pork steak, a term usually reserved for beef cuts.
“It’s the only item in the pork family that’s called a steak,” says butcher Mike Byassee of Kenrick’s Meats & Catering. “I’ve never really understood that.”
Many St. Louisans think that the pork steak was invented here. It wasn’t. For a time, it was thought that a Florissant resident, Winfred E. Steinbruegge, was responsible for the cut, when in 1956 he allegedly asked Tom Brandt (of Tomboy grocery stores) to cut a pork butt into steaks that could be grilled. Also in the '50s, the Schnuck family took credit for its invention.
One thing everyone agrees on is where it comes from: Pork steaks are cut (in varying degrees of thickness) from a part of pork shoulder called the butt, or the marginally less offensive Boston butt (the cut usually associated with pulled pork). Since most pork steaks contain the blade bone, the bone-in version is also known as a pork blade steak.
But the pork steak originally appeared long before the '50s and far from St. Louis. This article claims that they “first appeared in butcher shops around the turn of the 20th century." In 1901, a Boston Globe roundup of meat prices included “pork blade steak 13 cents a pound."
The pork steak began appearing on menus in restaurants around the country in the 1920s, the article continues, and concludes, “St. Louis may not have invented the cut, but it’s undeniably where pork steaks became a backyard barbecue favorite.” Did they ever. When you see a grocery store ad for "meaty pork butts," you can bet a bag of Kingsford that a summer holiday is on the doorstep in St. Louis.
Although cooks disagree about the best cooking method (slow-cooked or braised versus high heat in a pan), most of us remember the fall-off-the-bone version of our youth: grilled and oven-finished with straight-from-the-bottle Maull’s barbecue sauce.
David Sandusky, who sells pork steak at his two BEAST barbecue restaurants, says “the one by which all other pork steaks are judged.” It's not an overstatement. He starts with a 30-ounce cut of Duroc pork, rests it overnight with a salt-and-pepper-based dry brine, and adds a spice rub before smoking for four hours. He then reverse sears the meat, having brushed it with something you wouldn’t expect from a renowned pitmaster—a Maull’s-inspired sauce he calls The Standard, his homage to reconnecting with St. Louis barbecue. “Ours doesn’t come out sauced, as it would traditionally,” he explains. “I let the sauce dehydrate and caramelize which results in this mahogany cherry hue.” Sandusky serves the pork steak with a fork, because that’s all that's needed, but will eventually acquiesce to supplying a knife.
Pork steaks are a tricky item for a restaurant to keep on a menu, as sales are sporadic and they don’t hold well, which is why you see them more as specials (such as the wonderful iteration offered at Sister Cities Cajun on Thursday nights). Highway 61 Roadhouse sells enough to have them on the menu. Barbecue joints are a natural outlet for pork steaks: iterations can be found at His & Hers BBQ, Hogtown Smokehouse, Ms. Piggies Smokehouse, Smokee Mo’s, and Smoki O’s.
Most pork steaks, however, are consumed at home, and in a variety of ways, as evidenced by the 125,000 pounds sold every year at Kenrick’s, according to Byassee. For its off-site catering jobs, they are grilled over charcoal and finished in the oven. In house, they’re smoked and sold warm or frozen in sauce. The shop sells smaller boneless cuts (for sandwiches) and another version coated with Italian bread crumbs and cheese, which can be baked or even air fried. The standard thickness in Kenrick’s cold case is just under ¾ inches, but there’s also an extra thick, 2 1/4-inch cut. “They’re huge," Byassee says. "That one pairs really well with a six-pack of beer.”
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September 12, 2020 at 01:57AM
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Ask George: What is the deal with pork steaks, and how did they become such a St. Louis thing? - stlmag.com
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