Recipe: Smoked Tasso Pork Steak for Mardi Gras

Our Fat Tuesday celebration was pushed all the way back to Saturday due to a devastating winter storm. After the snow (almost) cleared we fired the smokers back up, washed our dishes with borrowed boiled water, and were happy to serve up a little bit of happiness and Mardi Gras spirit to a massive crowd of hungry guests at Cosmic after the difficult and damaging few days. The pork steak, Andouille sausage, and smoked crawfish etouffe were all delicious, but the King Cake from Little Ola’s Pastry Chef, Jules Stoddart, was the star of the show. Her and the Olamaie team led by Michael Fotjasek headed a group of restaurants and chefs in Austin to rally for the people of the city and the first responders and feed them hot meals in the face of a diverse crisis. We love seeing our community come together the way it did this past week in the face of such a disastrous event.

Smoked Tasso Pork Steak

60g Kohser salt

60g White sugar

6g pink curing salt

40g Granulated garlic

30 g Granulated onion

30 g Dried oregano

30 g Dried thyme

20g Red pepper flakes

20g Cayenne pepper

5 g allspice

30g course black pepper

We isolated the coppa or ‘money muscle’ grouping of muscles from a boneless pork shoulder. The rest of the meat got ground up for Andouille sausage with the same spice rub as above. Both got cured overnight and cold smoked the next day. Day of service we smoked the sausage on the indirect at 250 and the tasso pork steaks on the direct Chudbox at 300 unitl they were both about 160 internal.