Porksteak Questions

[petehalsted]

Daughter and Granddaughter are visiting for a week at the end of the month. We are planning to have most of the meals vacuum seal so we can spend more beach time, but they still get their fix of Papa BBQ.

So going to do a batch of Porksteaks this weekend. After doing my Pork Belly burnt ends, the wife said, I want pork steaks done like that, meaning the finish product is close to fall of the bone and covered in super sticky sauce.

So my plan is to apply rub, smoke the porksteaks until they reach an internal temp of ?, then put them in covered foil pans with and continue until they reach ?, then remove foil do my burnt end sauce treatment to them and get it good and sticky so about 10-15 minutes uncovered.

Fill in the blanks. I am thinking 165 then 180, but not sure how far I can go before they completely fall of the bone. I want them still be be porksteaks at the end. But I want them to be melt in your mouth.

Can I risk going to 190 - 195, remember that they are still going to be cooking in sauce for another 10 - 15 minutes.

What's everyone's thoughts?

 

[ab canuck]

I watch this to see what you get for answers, I have not had the chance to do burnt ends with anything other than brisket, But I am interested in that. The fall off the bone part I would think it would go to 200-205 i think same as we do our ribs or pp.

 

[petehalsted]

You can see my Pork Belly Burnt ends in this thread

 

[browneyesvictim]

Depends on what cut of steaks you use. I would choose a pork shoulder steak that can take longer low and slow and do it the same. A loin chop would not work so well. In fact what you are describing is much like CSR's.

 

[chopsaw]

We do alot of pork steaks in St. Louis . I like to buy the center cut steaks . All cut from the shoulder , but if it says pork butt cut into steaks they will have more fat in them . Still good , and might be what you are lookin for .

I don't cook by temp , I check the firmness of the meat and look for shrinkage around the bone . If I had to guess I would say they are around the 185 mark when taken off grill . I'm not a fan of cooking in sauce in a pan . I have put them in a pan , and poured hot sauce over them and covered with foil and let rest off the heat . I know it depends on personal taste .

I like to dip mine in vegetable oil and coat with bread crumbs . Cook indirect on a hot grill .

 

[tallbm]

Depends on what cut of steaks you use. I would choose a pork shoulder steak that can take longer low and slow and do it the same. A loin chop would not work so well. In fact what you are describing is much like CSR's.

^^^^ I agree 100% with what this guy said.

Country Style Ribs (CSRs) are your friend for this. If you use a pork loin chops/steaks you are maybe using the leanest part of the pig that is notorious for drying out and having little fat.
My money is on CSRs!

 

[chef jimmyj]

Not sure where you are but in NJ and PA, Pork Steaks have always been sliced Pork Butt as are Boneless CSR's. Any portion of the Loin cut into 1/2 to 1" slices are sold as Pork Chops. Hard to give cooking temps. I have grilled pork steak to 145 and cut it with a fork and others required cooking to 195 before they got fork tender but still held together...JJ

 

[chopsaw]

Pork steaks are cut from the shoulder . Plenty of fat .

 

[petehalsted]

From St. Louis originally. Travel full time in RV, and we are in South Florida for the winter.

Yes I was talking about Sliced Shoulder/Bone-in Butt, not loin chops. As far as I know Country style ribs are the same thing just cut into strips instead of full steak. For this smoke I wanted whole steaks for the final presentation.

Apparently around here they are called Pork Shoulder Steaks. I managed to find 8 of them at Publix without having to get the butcher to slice a butt.

"Momma" wants thick sticky sweet sauce like I had on the pork belly burnt ends, so that is why I will be cooking them with the sauce at the end, basically just to caramelize/thicken the sauce and get it good and sticky.

Let to my own devices, I wouldn't have any sauce on them.

I have 8 of them all dressed up and in the fridge. Got to run to the Farmers Market and get the Doc Brown Really Bad Rum BBQ sauce. That she wants on them, That will get combined with some honey, and maybe just a bit of black berry jelly, to form the sauce.

I think I will go for 165 before going in foiled pans. Got a feeling I will be able to go to 195 before saucing, I will play that by ear tomorrow, once I see the way they are looking.

Will report results tomorrow.

 

[chopsaw]

I knew ,,, that you knew ,, So I know you are smoking , not grilling . Your not new to this , so I'm just asking . Are you going in a pan @ 165 no sauce ? Then sauce at finale temp ? Sounds like you got it under control .

 

[petehalsted]

Thanks Chopsaw, Yes that is my plan smoker @225. Porksteaks direct on the grates until IT is 165, then put in pans (I will probably add a touch of butter, brown sugar, extra rub, like I do my pork belly burnt ends), pans will be covered. Then somewhere between 180-195. Cover will come off, liquid drained, and then sauce added and cook 10 - 15 minutes to thicken the sauce and get it sticky.

There use to be a place in Farmington, MO called the Branding Iron. That served Pork steaks like this, Still on the bone and together, but you didn't need a knife to eat them. I am basically trying to duplicate that, but with the addition of a thicker, sticker, sweeter sauce, like the boss wants.

I am pretty comfortable with everything except for when to pull and sauce, since they will be cooking in the sauce for 10 - 15 minutes, I got to be careful and not overshot the tenderness and end up with "Thin pulled pork"

I have 4 trays with 2 each in them. So I may do each tray at a different temp for uncovering and saucing, that way I will have my answer for sure next time. But I also know how distracted I get towards the end of a smoke, so not 100% sure I will be organized enough for all that. Last time I tried something like that by the time I got them in the house I couldn't remember which were which LOL

I will definitely let you know, success or fail tomorrow. Although I will say I have never had a smoke fail bad enough that I didn't eat the results.

 

[chopsaw]

Sounds like you are aware of the fail factor . Taking a whole shoulder to 190 / 205 is different than doing the same with a slice . That being said , looks like you have " butt sliced into steaks " so the thickness and fat I would think works for the plan you have . Chef jimmy is on the money , some done at 145 ,,, others need more . Good on draining after pan / before sauce . I wonder if you had room to pan some sauce and cook it down along side the steaks ? Gets to thin add brown sugar at the end , ( a little mustard / and bourbon ) then onto the meat ? Keeps any grease out of the sauce ?

Let us know .

 

[petehalsted]

As promised back with the results.

First fail came quickly. Farmers Market is on Sunday not Saturday so I only had about a cup of the Really Bad Rum Sauce Momma wanted. duh...

So I decided to do sauce showdown while at it.

I made up a batch of Jeff's sauce only deviation was adding 1/2 a cup of bourbon. I knew right away it was going to have to much better for Momma. The recipe makes about 1 1/2 pints. I bottle a pint, then took the last 1/2 pint. added may a 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup of honey to sweeten it way up and be stickier. which was my goal for these steak. Sweet, Thick and Sticky. That went on 2 steaks.

The cup of Really Bad Rum sauce got about a 1/4 cup of honey, and went on 2 steaks.

The last 4 got Sweet Baby Rays, with a similar ratio of honey.


Anyway, on to the smoke. Smoke in MES30 @225 with AMPS. My 40/40/20 Apple/Cherry/Pecan mix.

Placed the steak right on the grill and set the Smoke Alarm for 165. At 165 I put them in foil pans, added a heaping table spoon of brown sugar, and couple pats of butter and a decent drizzle of honey to each steak, and covered the pan with foil.

First Note: They got to 165 way faster than I would have liked. Right about 1 hour. The issue is the rub had not set at all. I was tempted to skip the foiled pan but I was committed to my plan so I stuck with it.

It was obvious that 180 was not going to be tender enough. So I took them to 195. Before pulling the foil.

When that hit 195, I pulled the foil. Drained the liquid. Sauced both sides and placed back in the smoker uncovered.

More Notes: I am not convinced the braise (covered with foil) step did anything to make them more tender. I believe next time I will take them all the way to temp just on the grates and only put them in pans for the sauce step.

In my musing at the beginning of this thread, I was worried about what temp to take them to before saucing because I didn't want to overshoot them cook while setting the sauce. There was no need to worry about that. Even at room temp, the sauce and the time it takes to unfoil, drain liquid, sauce, and return to the smoker, the the evaporative effect of the sauce, they never make it back to the much over 180, even when I left 1 pan in for 30 minutes setting the sauce. These steaks were about 3/4" thick.

Each pan spent 20 - 30 minutes getting the sauce really thick and sticky.

Next Time Notes: I will take them to 200, possibly 205. I think I will skip the covered in a pan step all together. The saucing in the uncovered pans step worked about as well as I could have expected, except took longer than I expected (20-30 minutes). But like I mentioned above, no worries with overshooting the temp at that stage.

Oh.. and the winner of the Sauce show down ....

First I will tell anyone that makes their first batch of Jeff's not to judge it on its own. Momma about died from the pepper when she tasted a bit on the end of her finger. When I gave her a sample on the pork steak, she didn't think it was the same sauce. We ate 2 of the steaks tonight and she actually made me split them 1/2 a Jeff's and 1/2 of a Sweet Baby Rays for each of us.

If I had left most of the pepper out of the Jeff's it would have won hands down. But because of the pepper, Sweet Baby Rays won by a nose. She definitely wants me to make a tweaked batch of Jeff's for next time. Surprisingly the Really Bad Rum, that we both really liked on the Pork Belly Burnt ends, was a really distant 3rd in this competition.

The money shots. Six of them made it into Vacuum bags and in the Freezer.

 

[chopsaw]

So how were the ones you ate ? I don't have any luck doing them in the MES , I guess because I have a good grilled method . Your pics sure look good .
Thanks for the follow up .

 

[petehalsted]

Good, but not Great!

The ones that spent the longest time in the smoker (top shelf) were best, they had a bit more smoke and we closer to the level of tenderness I wanted.

I judge my smoked meat with my version of the toothpick test. If I got to pick it out of my teeth with a toothpick after the meal then it wasn't tender enough. I don't want mushy, but I don't want stringy either! These were close but not quite there. As has always been my experience with porksteaks, except for the ones I got at the Branding Iron mentioned above, they were overall tender, but had a few tougher spots here or there, where they were the leanest.

You could cut them with a fork, but it took to much pressure, it was easier to use a knife.

I love fat (wife doesn't) when its rendered right, but most of the backyard grilled porksteaks I have had, I end of leaving some of the fat on the plate, because it still to chewy and greasy. The fat on these was render to the melt in your mouth you want, with no greasy feel to them, so I am close just not there yet on the lean portion.

I really suspect that the braise step didn't do me any favors, and made the entire operation more complicated than it needed to be. I am pretty sure next time I will just take the to 200-205 straight on the grates. That will set the park much better, get more smoke, and I believe get them to the level of tender I want. I now know I don't have to worry about my sauce stage over cooking them, so I am going to take them the full way before saucing.

Bottom line, if I put them out at one of our typical family gatherings, they would have been eaten and even complimented. But a real BBQ Foodie, wouldn't say DAMN that's good, which is what I am trying to achieve.

I am doing them in the smoker, instead of the grill for a couple of reasons. Mainly trying to duplicate the ones I had at the Branding Iron. But also we are fulltime RVrs, I have a MES30 and a portable Smoke Hollow Grill/smoker that has a chip tray with separate burner for it. I might would be able to get 3 of these on my grill, it is definitely for meals for the two of us, and not for larger gathers. I did pull off 4 racks of St. Louis Cut ribs in it once but that was with a level of ingenuity that would have made McGuyver proud, and there wasn't 10 minutes the entire smoke that I wasn't adjusting temps/smoke.

I know long winded answer to a short question.