Reverse Seared Pork Steaks
This will be my new method of making pork steaks from now on simply because of that smoke ring above, something I’ve never strived for in a pork steak in the past.
First, what is a pork steak? I’ll hand that over to my dad to explain (you can find this explanation in our first pork steak post with a different cooking method.)
Outside of the Midwest region of the country (where pork steaks are an extremely popular grilling staple) they aren’t well known and retail grocers do not offer this particularly tasty cut of pork. My cousin, Carol, lives in Maryland and has used the information provided here to obtain pork steaks in her area where they are not normally available. You can obtain them most everywhere if your local purveyor handles whole Boston butt or pork butt roast or any of the myriad of other names such as the pork shoulder butt shown below:
Pork steaks are also known as ‘blade steaks ‘ and simply put, pork steaks are merely a sliced Boston pork butt.
I visited a local Save-a-Lot grocery store (known for value, quality, and low prices) where the head meat-cutter, Mike, agreed to assist in illustrating how pork steaks are cut:
This is what the whole butt looks like prior to Mike performing his craft with this tasty cut:
Mike trims the end and any excess fat to fit the steaks to the tray used to sell:
The Boston butt is sliced into steaks (usually ½” to 1 1/4” thickness) on the saw:
Mike does not slice the whole butt into pork steaks. He saves a portion of one end to sell as a small roast (the back of the pic below) and sells the small end pieces as finger ribs which Mike thinks are the tastiest part, (the front of the pic below). What’s in the middle of the two are known as center cut pork steaks:
Some grocers slice the entire Butt and that’s referred to as whole butt sliced into pork steaks and usually offered at a lower retail price since the end pieces are included:
Finally we have view of what the end product looks like before wrapping, pricing, and offering for sale in the display case – small roast on the upper left, finger ribs on the upper right and center cut pork steaks down the middle:
Our thanks to Mike who is a very accomplished griller in his own right (and a pretty good Texas Hold ‘Em player) for helping out with the explanation of what exactly is a pork steak.
Hopefully you’ll be able to take this information to your local butcher (careful here, they usually prefer to be called meat-cutters) and obtain pork steaks in your area.
Now for the write up by Scott
So, I lost the chip that had the pics of the rest of the process of making reverse seared pork steaks. In order to show you how this is done I had to bite the bullet and make pork steaks again. The things I subject myself to in order to help my fellow Grillin Fools make great BBQ!!!
I started with two fairly thick pork steaks. I don’t recommend trying this method with thin pork steaks as you can dry them out. I also don’t recommend using this method if you are cooking for a crowd as it takes about three hours. But, if you follow my instructions here you will make the best pork steaks you have ever made.
Here are the bad boys ready for the grill:
All I did was add coarse salt, black pepper and white pepper. I forgot the granulated garlic in this second round so remember to dust with granulated garlic or garlic powder or use whatever rub you prefer here as it will make a great flavor crust later.
Then put them on the grill for an indirect smoke – coals and hickory on the right, pork steaks on the left. I went with the more robust hickory over my usual favorites of pear, peach or apple as I will be saucing the pork steaks and going with a milder fruit wood would get overpowered by the sauce. Click here for a lengthy list of different things you can use to smoke and what they pair the best with
While there are a million ways to make pork steaks, many people put them right over the coals, sear them and put them off to the side to smoke them. The problem with that is that the once the outside of the meat reaches a certain temp it no longer takes on any smoke. That’s why I am going with this method from now on. I want that smoke flavor in the meat before I give it a sear and add a nice flavor crust. So, put the meat off to the side and let it stay there between 200-225. As you can see here, the temp is a little high, but once I lock down the vents the temp will get down to where I want it to be:
After just one hour look at how they are turning a nice golden color:
I realize that in this next pic you are seeing the pork steaks on a different grill. I needed the grill space on the larger grill for some ribs so I transferred these guys to my grill manufacturer that shall not be named. Here they are after 2 hours cooking indirect between 200-225:
And here they are after 2.5 hours. Look at how golden brown they are from all the smoke they have taken on:
Now it’s time for that sear. I added a few more coals to the small pile of coals in order to have enough heat to put on a nice flavor crust. Put the pork steaks right over the hot coals for a couple minutes on each side to give it a nice char:
After you sear each side of the pork steaks, pull them off the heat so they don’t burn or dry out and slather with your favorite sauce. This is a new sauce dad picked up in Dauphin Island called Richee’s which can be ordered here. It’s a tweener between a tomato based and mustard based sauce. It’s pretty original and really good:
Here are the pork steaks pulled to the side with no heat and slathered on each side with Richee’s:
I slathered them a couple more times over the next 30 minutes and allowed the sauce to thicken up and caramelize before I plated one of them:
Let’s see if I recreated the magic of the first time I tried this method:
Smoke ring? Check.
Juicy? Check.
Tender? Check.
Multiple levels of flavor from the seared flavor crust, the penetrated smoke flavor and the barbecue sauce? Check.
As a coworker said who tried the first batch said, “the flavors just keep going and going.”
This is now my go to method for making pork steaks. Try it and I bet it becomes yours too.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to shoot me an email or simply leave a comment below.
If you like this dish, click here for other pork done on the grill.
Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures or keep up with us on Twitter@GrillinFool (no S).
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- Dear Grillin' Fool - [...] great rub on, will give you a great flavor crust. So smoke, then sear for the best of both ...
- FRIDAY SHOW BLOG (7/01/2011) « - [...] REVERSED SEARED PORK STEAKS? CLICK HERE FOR THE STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS! DELICIOUS. GET IN YOUR MOUTH [...]
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Scott, don’t you know that pork steaks have to be fire blasted, and then thrown in a bath of Maull’s bbq sauce? lol
Looking forward to the rest of the story!
Great post, pics, and pork steaks Scott!
I’ve sorta tried this method, but see that I didn’t keep my temps low enough at the start.
Can’t wait to give it a go!!
Well I attempted this today and it came out OK, however I had one fatal mistake – not keeping the temp low enough. I kept it around 250 and overshot the cooking time enough to dry it out a bit. Reverse Seared Pork Steaks, I will not let you down next time! Thanks for the awesome method, this is really great.
Brass,
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Same thing happened to me the first time I did this method. The pork steaks were too thin and the fire was too hot. Happens to the best of us. But us Grillin Fools keep trying till we get it right…
…….Scott
Made these tonight. Steaks were a little thin, but still amazing!
Hey Scott, just wanted to let you know that GrillinFools has inspired a Prague, CZ griller.
Link to the TVWB forum post:
http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5980069052/m/614106485
Webert,
I caught that over the weekend. Not sure if he found the site on his own or through a Dutch website I hit a lot. For some reason I’m very popular in the Netherlands. Some very cool comments from our European Grillin Fools. It’s great to get other perspectives on this art form. Some of it’s in English, the rest I translate with a google app. [url=http://barbecueselwerd.forumcircle.com/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=0a2a199721becbedc1825a852249e392]Check it out.[/url]
Oh, and I registered on TVWB.com over the weekend. Got in a couple posts today…
…….Scott
WOW! These look amazing! Will try these myself. Scott, would you say these steaks are an inch thick? My apartment doesn’t allow coal grills so I have to use a gas grill
. Will stuff some chips wrapped in aluminum for an imitation smokey flavor. Will definitely try these!
Darren,
The second ones I did were about an inch thick. The first ones were just under that. The thicker the better here.
And nothing imitation smokey about chips in a foil ball. Smoke is smoke as long as it isn’t liquid…
…….Scott
Tried this today. Awesome.
Scott,
You may be very popular in the Netherlands, but you are a grillin’ G-d in the Midwest!
Thanks for the ideas.
I going to try this recipe but I’m going to use a brine first.
I have lived in the STL area my whole life and thought I had tried pork steaks every way possible. This is truly the best way to make pork steaks. The biggest tip is what has already been touched on which is keep your temps under 225, especially if they are thinner. If done right they will be fork tender but will in no way be like they have been in a Maul’s barbecue bath!! Awesome tip!!
Mark,
I agree. This is the best way to do them. I can still be creative with rubs and sauces, but this way I get the smoke flavor and the flavor crust from the sear. Starting to crave some pork steaks now. I may have to do them this weekend…
…….Scott