Picnic Shoulder


 
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Michael Vrobel

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I've volunteered to cook for a company barbecue next week, and I told everyone I was going to bring in some pork BBQ. Last night, I went to a couple of local grocery stores looking for cheap pork butts. The cheapest I could find was $1.79/lb (!). Since I need to buy enough to feed fifty people (25lb of meat or so), this seemed pretty high. However, one of the stores was selling picnic shoulders for $.79/lb.

I cooked a picnic shoulder once before, just like I would cook a butt, and I couldn't pull it to save my life. It just seemed like tough meat. From what I've read, the butt has more fat, which makes it much easier to pull. Since I'm trying to introduce some of my co-workers to 'real' barbecue, I was really hoping to get something I could pull instead of slice.

This is a long winded way of getting to the following questions:

What is the best way to cook a picnic shoulder?

Is there anything I can do to make it more 'pullable'?

Or should I just pay extra for the butt? Is it really going to turn out twice as good, to justify the extra cost?

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!
 
I would pay the extra but if you are going to cook picnic I would inject because they don't have the fat content in the meat like a Butt.
If you over cook them they will dry out quicker than a butt would.
Jim
 
Michael,

You need to ensure you are using a meat thermometer and pay attention to the temperature. If the shoulder was not pullable then you did not reach proper internal temp. There should be enough fat in it to tenderize when cooked.

Try the marinade method that Mr. Minion suggests but what I also like to do with Picnic Shoulders is this:

1) I take the skin off (I like bark)
2) I take the bone out (sacreligous I know)
3) I slice off excess fat and retain it
4) I wrap the shoulder with twine into a nice round roast. Use surgeon's knots on your twine to secure it.
5) I then rub it with French's Sweet Onion Mustard and then coat it with a dry rub.
6) I place the cut off fat I removed on step 3 on the top of the picnic as I smoke it and let the fat render out onto the picnic.
7) I take the shoulder off the smoker when the internal temperature is:
180 F - sliceable pork
190 F - Nicely pullable pork
8) When I pull it I cut off all the bark and "burnt ends" and use a cuisinart to chop this up finely and put it back into the pulled pork...it really adds a ton of flavor back into the pork...

I have cooked picnics for a day and a half and I never had a problem with drying out...are you using a real high temperature?...try lower temps but longer cooking time...

PrestonD
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I went to Sam's club last night (my last hope for inexpensive pork butt), and they didn't have any in stock.

So...I'm going with the picnic shoulders. My current plan is to trim the skin and excess fat off, then follow the Pork Butt - Quick Cook method. I'm hoping that wrapping the shoulders in foil for the last part of the cooking will help to keep them from drying out. I'm going to cook them to 195*F, and we'll see how they pull. I'll post later to let everyone know how it turns out.
 
Michael,

I had the same dilemna a few weeks ago and couldn't find any butts. I smoked a shoulder picnic and it came out fabulous. I took the skin off as well. I did however make sure I wasn't buying one in 10% solution. There's still enough fat in the picnic to not need any type of brine. IMO.
 
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