Picnic Shoulder Question

To the collective -

I always smoke Butts for my pulled pork, but I picked up a Picnic Shoulder, about 7 lbs, recently and am going to smoke it this weekend for my parents.

There is a BBQ place near here, Bob Sykes in Bessemer, that cooks only picnic shoulders. The owner there says that the skin should be left on the shoulder, but I would think that the meat would smoke better if the skin is removed. I ate there last week and the meat was very tender but didn't have much smoke flavor and there wasn't a lot of bark. I could see that leaving the skin on would lessen the effect of the smoke and reduce the amount of the bark on the shoulder.

Have any of you guys done picnic shoulders and if so, what would you recommend as far as the skin on the shoulder?

Thanks for the advice!

Pat

I've done a couple picnics but still prefer a blade-in shoulder. Really there was little difference as far as I could tell in terms of flavor, but definitely skin off if you are pulling or chopping! I love the brownies!

some leave it on and others take it off. i'm going to take it off the next time i do one. so i would say go ahead and take the skin off. no harm will be done for sure.

If you're roasting the picnic - and plan to eat the skin - leave it on. If you're smoking the picnic (or roasting it but don't plan to eat the skn) remove it first.