Memorial Day is one of the great American cookout holidays. Aside from July 4, perhaps no other holiday has us firing up our grills, throwing some meat on, and letting it cook.
Many of us will opt for good cuts of beef this year: Ribeye strip, sirloin, hanger. All of that is fine. You can't go wrong with a well-seasoned, flame-kissed piece of beef.
This year, however, consider expanding your grilling repertoire a bit with one of the all-time great cuts of grilling meat: a pork steak.
Note that we're not referring to a pork chop, which looks like this:
Chops, of course, are great. Nothing wrong with them. But the pork steak is (quite literally) a cut above:
Taken most commonly from the shoulder of the pig, the pork steak is larger and thicker. It requires a decent bit more time to cook, but the results are well worth it. With considerably more intramuscular fat than the average chop, when cooked properly they become meltingly tender and juicy.
YouTube's most famous griller, Malcolm Reed, has a fantastic recipe to get you started:
As Malcolm observes, you barely have to cut this thing with a knife, you can almost just use a fork:
Here are two tips to ensure you get the best out of any pork steak you toss onto the coals:
- Season well in advance. These are thick cuts of meat. You want any salt and seasoning to penetrate far down into the muscle. Apply kosher salt and any spices/rubs generously the night before you cook. Leave them in the fridge on a wire rack to encourage surface drying, ensuring better browning and caramelization.
- Use an instant-read thermometer. Nothing ensures grilling success like an instant read. Plug the probe into the meat and it can tell you if you're done in a second's time. You'll want to take your steaks up to 180º before pulling them. (Let them rest for several seconds.)
