Grilling Pork Steaks with Allegro Marinade

I love to hear different perspectives on grilling, dutch oven, camp and cooking outdoor cooking from all of my friends. Everyone has a different take on the how-to and why of cooking outdoors. This article is from Jerry Daschofsky, a friend of mine that I know through Camp Chef and Twitter. He was nice enough to take the time and review Allegro's Original Marinade that I was unable to get to but I knew it was a good one.

The following is Jerry's article but with my photo's. Jerry's photo's where deleted by the time he sent the article to me, turning out a loss of photos into a big win for me. I prepared the same meal, based on Jerry’s recommendations, using my Camp Chef Big Gas Grill with the BB-90L barbecue box attachment.

My pork steak are cut from a pork loin, which if not cooked correctly will become tough and dried out on the grill. IMHO, those marinated pork steaks were juicy and tender just like Jerry said they would be. Thank you Jerry, Allegro and Camp Chef for delivering a great grilled meal for the family and I.

 Cooking with Allegro Marinade.

I use marinades very rarely. I'm very big on using  dry rubs on everything. I raise my own pigs, so have plenty of pork to use it on. Which is where the lightbulb went off.

Have some pork steaks that are pretty tough. I keep thinking the butcher gave us the wrong steaks, since the rest of our pigs texture and flavor are TOTALLY different. Needless to say, I haven't been eating many of them (though I do love a good pork steak cooked on the grill). After seeing that Allegro is “The FLAVORIZER that TENDERIZES” I figured I'd give it a shot on these pork steaks.

I followed the instructions on the bottle. Grabbed a ziplock, tossed the pork steaks in, and poured just enough Allegro in to cover the steaks and removed all air from the bag. Tossed it into the refrigerator to marinate for a few hours. Every half an hour I went back to the fridge to turn the bag to make sure they steaks were given a good coverage (per instructions). Per the bottle, since these were a ‘less tender cut”, I let them marinate for a good 7 hours.

Now, this is where the proof was in the pudding. Pulled the steaks out and shaked off excess marinade. I tossed them on my preheated grill. The marinade put a nice sear on the steaks. Sugars in it worked well adding that nice char. Let it cook for a few minutes, then flipped to finish the cooking process. Pulled them off the grill to rest before serving.

Myself (and my family) were in utter shock as we ate dinner. Not only was the flavor fantastic, but the meat was very tender. Thankfully, I did set one steak aside “un-marinated” so as to have a comparison. They were all off the same cut. The one with simple seasoning was still super tough under same cooking conditions. Could cut without a knife, where the marinated steaks were almost fork tender (I say almost). Easy to chew, and flavor was wonderful.

I'd highly recommend this product for any tough meats. I'm thinking of picking up another bottle or two to try out a few other beef and pork products that are a “tad tough” to eat or have to be so slow cooked at a low temp to make it edible.

Jerry