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Earlier this year I bought a whole, butchered, pastured pig. It's really great meat however I am in need of some recipes to help me use it up. I've visited what feels like a million blogs today and haven't seen many recipes for pork and none for pork steak. The "steaks" are about 1/2 an inch thick, have lots of fat on them and an odd shaped bone. What would you do with them? Any suggestions or places/blogs that might be a good place to look? The lack of pork recipes makes me wonder why. Is there something I should know but don't know about pork?

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5 Answers

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Down here in Louisiana Pork Steak is a staple of a lot of BBQs. We grill them. Most people baste them with BBQ sauce while cooking and again after. Well I used a tip from a old country guy who told me to "make my own baste because that store bought isht has sugar in it and you don't want that" He didn't know I eat Paleo thought it was awesome. Anyway. Here is what I do.

Take 1 part olive oil, 2 parts water in a cup or bowl. Then add Black Pepper, Red Pepper, Garlic Powder, Paprika, and a little Sea Salt. (or what ever else you want, Play around)

That is your baste and marinade. I let my steaks marinade overnight or two nights in the fridge.

Grill and baste until thoroughly cooked and serve. Lot of the fat drips off but leaves enough to keep them tender. Be careful though and watch your flare ups. Medium-high heat.

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Butterfly thick ones and grill em dry. S&P only, unless you have some smoke. – thhq Jul 23 2011 at 18:33
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I periodically get pork steaks from my favorite farmer's-market-family. I think they'd be great on a grill, but since we can't grill where we live, I make them in a cast iron skillet.

What I do:

Grease up the cast iron skillet with bacon fat (usually I don't have to grease it up- I just leave a layer when I pour the grease into my save jar).

Sprinkle the pork steaks with sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Let sit on the counter for 20-40 minutes to warm up.

Get the skillet nice and hot, plop the pork steaks in and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. Flip the steaks again, put a lid over the skillet and turn off the heat. About 15 minutes later, take the lid off and serve.

I also do pork chops and beef steaks the same way, just with different cook times (3-4 minutes per side for steak, plus searing any outer fat, 4-5 minutes on each side for pork chops depending on thickness). I find that pork steak takes a little longer to cook than a pork chop.

It's an odd flavor- kind of a sweet cross between pork chop and cheap cut steak. Hubs and I like it, but my mom hates it.

BTW, if you need a recipe to use up your pork shoulder (I think it has another name- picnic something), try making Pernil. There are a lot of variations out there, but my sister in law makes it with mainly Adobo, Sazon, parsley, and Hunt's white vinegar (she says it HAS to be Hunt's). No measurements, but make sure you make deep slices in the pork and rub the seasonings deep in there. Not sure the Adobo and Sazon are quite Paleo, but it's so worth it.

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I'd be careful with Sazon. It's full of MSG, but I bet you could recreate the flavor by matching the spices. "One packet contains mono sodium glutamate, salt, garlic, and coriander and color boosters. this seasoning is also very much used in Puerto Rico where it has as ingredients dried cilantro, paprika, saffron, garlic powder, ground cumin and salt." Article Source: EzineArticles.com/1753891 – katesonskates Aug 6 2011 at 19:40
Thanks Kate! I have a couple of packets from years ago (back when I actually made pernil- but hubs always complains about the smell of cooking vinegar, and I'm too lazy to do what it takes to make it well). Hubs also complains about my chicken soup since I stopped adding 1 can of conventional broth to it, so I'm trying to mimic the flavor by using kombu. Haven't pulled it off yet, but I will get there! – WordVixen Aug 7 2011 at 0:50
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Literally anything you do with chicken you can do with pork, and some beef recipes.

So, don't just limit yourself to searching pork recipes!!!

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I'm with Kelly - pork is amazingly versatile. Brined, rubbed with spices and seared or grilled, grill and then thinly sliced and rolled in lettuce leaves or topping a salad, stew, baked, etc. I really can't think of anything you could do to these steaks to make them bad outside of just over cooking them. Have fun, sounds like some tasty meat! Yum. – jesuisjuba - paleorepublic.com Jul 23 2011 at 21:39
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We just bought a pork package with lots of pork steaks. Being from the south, these are pretty common around here. Pork steaks will take all kinds of seasoning and I do a variety of things. I cook them on a gas grill 90% of the time. Here are some of the seasonings I've used.

  1. Pumpkin Pie spice (really good)
  2. Garam Masala
  3. Green Chili spice
  4. Garlic salt or powder

Etc.

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I just sprinkle some paprika on them and grill them. The fat keeps them from getting dry. I like them much better than loin chops.

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