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I seen one of the Food Network shows over the weekend they were doing whole shoulders.

They looked fantastic all mahogany colored and juicy looking.

How big are these things and no chance they would fit in my smokette? I wold imagine I would have to go to the butcher shop to get something like this.

When they say shoulder they are talking about the front of the hog, correct?
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The pork shoulder is the entire front leg and shoulder of a hog. It consists of two portions, the boston butt (upper part of the front shoulder) and the picnic. The picnic section has the bone left in, usually. The whole thing will typically weigh about 14 to 16 pounds.

That would fit in my smoker (Americue) just fine. I'm not sure of the inside dimensions of a smokette though, the length of the shelf in particular. I'd estimate that the last whole shoulder I bought weighed 16 pounds and was about 16 or 17 inches long.
In this area (Toronto/Hamilton) shoulders are very common, more common than butts. Its mostly because of the Italian and other immigrants who make sausage from them, thankfully. They usually are trimmed in a certain way that they call "New York Shoulder".
Anyway, because of the demand, they usually can be bought for .99 lb to 1.30
I think smoking the whole shoulder makes for the tastiest pulled pork, but of course that may be a biased opinion.
There is nothing better coming from a smoker than a done-correctly 18 lb. shoulder
Many areas of the country,folks are concerned about what to do with 16-20 lb of meat,not understanding 50% cook loss,and the fact that pulled pork freezes well.

They also don't have a pan to cook them in their oven.

Also,The supermarkets can promote picnics for $0.89/lb,and sell the butts for $1.59.

Thus, the grocery price average of $1.30/lb is easier to achieve,and they have no loss from running the bone saw thru the shoulder,or labor.

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