St. Louis-style barbecue

Pork steaks cooking

St. Louis-style barbecue refers to various pork dishes prepared in and around the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Although St. Louis is typically not included on the list of major styles of barbecue in the United States, the city was recognized by Kingsford as "America’s Top Grilling City" in its second annual list of Top 10 Grilling Cities. In fact, many of the foods characteristic of this style are grilled rather than cooked over the indirect heat and smoke that is typically associated with the term "barbecue" in the United States.

These foods are often heavily sauced; St. Louis is said to consume more barbecue sauce per capita than any other city in the nation. St. Louis-style barbecue sauce is described by author Steven Raichlen as a "very sweet, slightly acidic, sticky, tomato-based barbecue sauce (usually made without liquid smoke)". The Louis Maull Company, which is based in St. Louis, manufactures several types of barbecue sauce under the Maull's brand; the manufacturer describes the sauce as having a "distinctive tangy flavor."

A staple of grilling in St. Louis is the pork steak, which is sliced from the shoulder of the pig. Pork steaks are typically started and/or finished on the direct heat of a grill, and simmered in or basted with barbecue sauce that is often mixed with beer. The process of cooking pork steaks in barbecue sauce helps tenderize the meat, which can otherwise be quite tough due to the high amount of collagen in the shoulder muscle.

Another item unique to the St. Louis area is crispy snoots,[6] which are cut from the nose and cheek area of the pig. This cut is prepared by removing the pig's nostrils and cooking the remaining meat until crispy. Snoots, which have a flavor similar to pork rinds, can be served in several ways, including slathered with barbecue sauce and placed on a sandwich or broken into pieces and dipped in sauce. They are considered to be soul food.

As with much of the Midwest, bratwurst, the German style sausage -- often simmered in beer before being placed on the grill -- is another popular choice for grilling in the region, as St. Louis has had large German-American populations over the years. Italian sausage, often referred to by its Italian name salsiccia, is another commonly grilled item possibly owing to the influence of St. Louis's Italian population.

Pork ribs, particularly spare ribs, are frequently cooked in the area. The city provides the name of St. Louis-style ribs, which are spare ribs with the sternum bone, cartilage and rib tips removed to create a rectangular-shaped rack. This cut of ribs, formalized by the USDA as "Pork Ribs, St. Louis Style", allegedly originated with numerous meat-packing plants located in the region in the mid 20th century.

Various restaurants in the metropolitan area describe their barbecue as St. Louis-style or offer St. Louis staples such as pork steaks and crispy snoots.