Smoking a Pork Shoulder with the skin attached


 
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SteveM.

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Hello Friends, can anyone tell me if you can smoke a Pork Shoulder with the skin still intact? The reason I ask is, at my local Kroger Supermarket they have very good deals all the time on shoulders with the skin on. About $9 bucks for a 8lb shoulder. But I don't know if I could use the WSM to cook it. In my part of Carolina cooking shoulders are a Religion in itself. So I don't want to go wrong on this cook. Thanks in advance for your input. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
 
Hay Steve,
If it has skin on it you probably have a picnic. The lower portion of the shoulder with the shank bone. The upper or butt section has a blade type bone. Anyway I have cooked both and I generally remove the skin from the picnic while leaving a thin layer of fat. That way the rub can make more contact with the meat. However I'm sure they will cook just fine if you where to leave the skin on. Just personal preference.
 
I agree with Mike. I've cooked them both ways. I prefer to remove the skin before cooking. Removing the skin give you more smoke flavor and bark.
rj
 
Is there any benefit to removing the skin in as close to one piece as possible, applying rub, and then, a little later in the cook, replacing the skin back onto the meat from whence it came to help moisture levels in the meat? Never having done a picnic, I've been curious about that. Or is the picnic like a butt and have plenty of fat to go around with worrying about moisture supplied by an "artificial" fat cap?

Keri C
 
Hey Keri,
I have never tried that, sounds intresting. I have never had a problem with a picnic as far as being moist. I would think that if you put the fat cap back you wouldn't get any bark on that side. But who knows that might make for more moist meat inside, might be worth a try.
 
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