Dr. Pepper Pork Steaks

 

 

Pork steaks are kind of a St. Louis thing. I grew up with the aroma of these cooking on neighborhood grills, always wafting through the air. Recently they have expanded throughout the Midwest, so that more people can enjoy this taste sensation. Sometimes it is referred to as a Boston butt steak or pork blade steak being that it is cut from the shoulder of the pig. It is a tough piece of meat, so it requires a decent amount of cooking, but the rewards are great. I recently came across a rib recipe, wherein the ribs were simmered in Dr. Pepper before being grilled, and I wondered how well this would translate to pork steaks. It translated beautifully! This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to throw these on the grill during the summer, but I guarantee I’m going to simmer them in Dr. Pepper before I do.

Dr. Pepper Pork Steaks

2-4 pork steaks

1 2-litre bottle Dr Pepper (NOT DIET!)*

5 cloves garlic, smashed

3 Melissa’s shallots, halved

1 T. liquid smoke

1 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. Smokehouse Maple Seasoning

Barbecue Sauce**

 Place pork steaks into a large stockpot and pour Dr. Pepper over to cover.

Add garlic, shallots, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, and smokehouse maple seasoning. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook until tender. (I put mine in frozen and let them simmer for two hours, and that turned out to be perfect.)

 Using a spatula, lift pork steaks out of the pot and place into a baking pan. Pour barbecue sauce over the pork steaks to thickly cover. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.

 These reheat and freeze beautifully.

 *I cannot emphasize this enough. Diet soda contains chemicals that you do not want concentrated and infused into your food.

 **You can use your favorite barbecue sauce, but I would suggest using one that is more to the vinegary side rather than sweet. The Dr. Pepper is going to impart a bit of a sweetness to the meat. I used my own version of a local favorite from SugarFire Smokehouse, coffee barbecue sauce. The dark specks that you see on the meat are coffee grounds. So good. You can make a copycat here.

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