Picnic shoulder

Wow! Sounds really good. Do you recall how much wood you used? I'm going to do a picnic shoulder pretty soon myself. Did you cut the skin off the shoulder before smoking?

I used four chunks of wood; not to big of chunks.
I did not cut off the skin and cooked it skin side down. When done I pulled out the bone, cut off the skin and removed visible fat.

This is only my fifth shoulder and have always played with the temps during the smoke(from 180 to 225F) and monitored with a temperature probe. This time I did nothing!
No probe, no moppings, no seasonings nothing!
It was an easy smoke and the results were great!

How did you know when it was done?

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:
How did you know when it was done?

you'll notice that the cook temp was 200 so the meat will not overcook but will take a bit longer to get there. Probly didn't need the 18 hours; could still probe the meat to know when it hits temp. But in this case no harm done since the meat won't get hotter than the oven it's cooked in.

You can actually use this method with most any cut of meat; set the cook temp to the finish temp you want the meat.

quote:

Originally posted by SHELLFISH:
I used four chunks of wood; not to big of chunks.
I did not cut off the skin and cooked it skin side down. When done I pulled out the bone, cut off the skin and removed visible fat.

This is only my fifth shoulder and have always played with the temps during the smoke(from 180 to 225F) and monitored with a temperature probe. This time I did nothing!
No probe, no moppings, no seasonings nothing!
It was an easy smoke and the results were great!

Skin side down? Great idea.

QUOTE]you'll notice that the cook temp was 200 so the meat will not overcook but will take a bit longer to get there. Probly didn't need the 18 hours; could still probe the meat to know when it hits temp. But in this case no harm done since the meat won't get hotter than the oven it's cooked in.

You can actually use this method with most any cut of meat; set the cook temp to the finish temp you want the meat.[/QUOTE]

Another great idea!

I've had shoulder's take 3 hrs/lb. Understand the method, but I think an instant read probe would still be a good idea. Also, the probe test to check for resistance.

I'm with you Pags! While I've not done shoulders, my experience with PBs is that when smoked at lower temps they will come done,fall apart, at lower temps, so a person has to have some way of telling doneness besides temp.

When picnics were on sale for .99/lb I picked up three weighing 8.7to 9.4 lbs each as I wanted to get some pulled pork meals in the freezer. I took the time to trim off the skin on the top to get more bark. Dusted with CS Rib Rub and let set for 3 hrs in the refrigerator. Smoked them all at one time with 2.5 oz apple and 3.0 oz pecan. Started out at 220 and 15 hrs later bumped my temp up to 230. Two finished in 16 1/2 hrs and the last one took close to 18 hrs. FTC and let them rest a while before pulling and filling serving sizes for the freezer. Flavor was very good, but considering the net pork after cooking, I will continue to buy bone in butts when I can get them for around $1.16/lb. I don't know that I would ever smoke without having a temp probe to let me know when to start checking for doneness.

Guys, I'm not so sure what he has are really shoulders.

#1 mis-label is people saying they're doing shoulders when in fact they mean Pork Butt.

Calling it a Picnic Shoulder is even more confusing.

Shellfish.

There are three options, but the stores mislabel them all the time.

Do you know for show which it was:

1. Picnic (looks like a big ham hock)
2. Pork Butt (usually very square, if it has a bone it's on one side)
3. Shoulder (combination of the above two together)

It really makes a different.

The texture between the picnic and butt are different. The picnic is very hammy in texture.

I believe it was a shoulder shank cut.

Regarding checking for doneness.
As stated I didn't use a probe this time. I have used a probe all the other times.
I have recorded times and temps from the probe during smoking on all the earlier smokes.
This one was no different and I sure wasn't worried about doneness and when. I knew when it would be done! I wasn't worried about staying in too long either because the temp was not too high.
It was done when I got out of work and could pull it out!