Well, the neighborhood cookers decided to do pork steaks this time. We've done ribs, brisket and chicken so far this summer (I took 4th in ribs, 1st in brisket and 2nd in chicken).
Here was the problem ... I had never cooked a pork steak in my life. This is something I had never even seen or eaten until I moved to the St Louis area. I had a buddy a few years ago quickly grill them on a gas grill and slap some BBQ sauce on them and serve them up. Tasted OK to me, kinda like a pork chop but with more fat.
So, needless to say I was very nervous about doing this as the other 3 cooks are from the St Louis area and have done pork steaks many times.
Well, I did some research and decided to combine a few recipes. Here are stages I did. I cooked 4 pork steaks total (sorry, no q-view)
1) Sprinkled on a generous amount of Cavendars (sp?) seasoning and a light amount of garlic powder. I got this idea from someone here. I let this sit for about 3 hours. Would have let it sit over night, but we bought the pork steaks early Sat morning.
2) Decided to not use my ECB, but instead simply use my Weber. I dumped about a 1/2 chimney of burning coals on one side of the Weber and put my pork steaks on the opposite side. I added about 3 pieces of mesquite wood chunks on top of the burning coals. I didn't do much else for the next hour and 15 minutes except to rotate and flip them so that the same 2 were not always closest to the coals.
3) After and hour and 15 minutes, I took them off and wrapped each one individually in foil. Before sealing up, I lathered on some butter and sprinkled with a generous amount of brown sugar. I then stacked them as far away from the coals as I could get.
4) After 45min in the foil, I took them out and brushed on some Sweet Baby Ray's sweet and spicy BBQ sauce. I cooked it for 15 minutes, then flipped them over, bruched on more BBQ sauce and cooked them for 15 minutes more.
Well, lo and behold I took first place. I don't think I had the best texture to my meat (I think I cooked them a bit too long during the entire process) as there was someone else who had very tender pork steaks. But, he didn't have very good flavor, which mine did. All the judges raved about mine saying they couldn't believe I had never cooked one before.
There was one cook who's pork steaks had some really good flavor, but his were way over done. Almost to the point of them being chewy. Would have been interesting to see how his would have fared if there were a better texture. Also would have been interesting to see how the guy with good textured pork steaks would have fared if he had more flavor in his meat.
Any way, the purpose of this is not to brag about the 1st place (well, maybe just a bit) but rather to give ideas on ways to cook these simple pieces of meat. My wife (who doesn't like pork steaks) commented that she would eat mine for a meal if I could cook them like that again.
Here was the problem ... I had never cooked a pork steak in my life. This is something I had never even seen or eaten until I moved to the St Louis area. I had a buddy a few years ago quickly grill them on a gas grill and slap some BBQ sauce on them and serve them up. Tasted OK to me, kinda like a pork chop but with more fat.
So, needless to say I was very nervous about doing this as the other 3 cooks are from the St Louis area and have done pork steaks many times.
Well, I did some research and decided to combine a few recipes. Here are stages I did. I cooked 4 pork steaks total (sorry, no q-view)
1) Sprinkled on a generous amount of Cavendars (sp?) seasoning and a light amount of garlic powder. I got this idea from someone here. I let this sit for about 3 hours. Would have let it sit over night, but we bought the pork steaks early Sat morning.
2) Decided to not use my ECB, but instead simply use my Weber. I dumped about a 1/2 chimney of burning coals on one side of the Weber and put my pork steaks on the opposite side. I added about 3 pieces of mesquite wood chunks on top of the burning coals. I didn't do much else for the next hour and 15 minutes except to rotate and flip them so that the same 2 were not always closest to the coals.
3) After and hour and 15 minutes, I took them off and wrapped each one individually in foil. Before sealing up, I lathered on some butter and sprinkled with a generous amount of brown sugar. I then stacked them as far away from the coals as I could get.
4) After 45min in the foil, I took them out and brushed on some Sweet Baby Ray's sweet and spicy BBQ sauce. I cooked it for 15 minutes, then flipped them over, bruched on more BBQ sauce and cooked them for 15 minutes more.
Well, lo and behold I took first place. I don't think I had the best texture to my meat (I think I cooked them a bit too long during the entire process) as there was someone else who had very tender pork steaks. But, he didn't have very good flavor, which mine did. All the judges raved about mine saying they couldn't believe I had never cooked one before.
There was one cook who's pork steaks had some really good flavor, but his were way over done. Almost to the point of them being chewy. Would have been interesting to see how his would have fared if there were a better texture. Also would have been interesting to see how the guy with good textured pork steaks would have fared if he had more flavor in his meat.
Any way, the purpose of this is not to brag about the 1st place (well, maybe just a bit) but rather to give ideas on ways to cook these simple pieces of meat. My wife (who doesn't like pork steaks) commented that she would eat mine for a meal if I could cook them like that again.
