How to smoke huge Berkshire butts


 
B

Barry Herder

New member
Brand new member to the forum!! I just landed two MONSTER Berkshire pork shoulders over 12lbs each and have never smoked shoulders this big, and have never smoked Berkshire at all. Please advise on proper temp for finishing one for slicing, and the other for pulling. Any specific changes in how to smoke such an expensive and delicate non-commercial mass produced pork like Berkshire is appreciated given it has different cooking characteristics than commodity pork. I have an 18.5" WSM and will be using ozark oak lump and cherry and red oak for smoke. Looking for "estimations" for cooking time in hours, even though I have a probe for internal temp.

Thank you all!!
 
Never heard of it, but I bet it will be awesome. Based on my experience cooking nine pounders, my guess is more than twelve hours. Sounds like a candidate for an over-nighter! :D
 
Barry Herder said:
Brand new member to the forum!! I just landed two MONSTER Berkshire pork shoulders over 12lbs each and have never smoked shoulders this big, and have never smoked Berkshire at all. Please advise on proper temp for finishing one for slicing, and the other for pulling. Any specific changes in how to smoke such an expensive and delicate non-commercial mass produced pork like Berkshire is appreciated given it has different cooking characteristics than commodity pork. I have an 18.5" WSM and will be using ozark oak lump and cherry and red oak for smoke. Looking for "estimations" for cooking time in hours, even though I have a probe for internal temp.

Thank you all!!
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Never heard of a berkshire pork shoulder. I've done regular pork shoulders up to about 5-6 pounds and those take 7-8 hours so I think you're looking at a 14 hour cook minimum.
 
Brian Thomas said:
Never heard of a berkshire pork shoulder. I've done regular pork shoulders up to about 5-6 pounds and those take 7-8 hours so I think you're looking at a 14 hour cook minimum.
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I looked up Berkshire pork , and I guess it's a breed of pig from England . Very old (the breed,that is)......"heirloom" pork, as it were.
 
Google Berkshire pork and your location, and you might find a farm that raises it. At least we do here in TN, and the farms describe is at pastured. So maybe I could even get my factoryfarm-hatin' daughter to eat it! (Then again, that would depend if she was in her "vegan-wannabe" mood or not. :rolleyes:)

Anyhow, it's supposedly very well marbled, but is basically too pricey for the most of us. Shoulders would be nice, but it sure would be cool to get to smoke some Berkshire babybacks!
 
Dave Russell said:
Google Berkshire pork and your location, and you might find a farm that raises it. At least we do here in TN, and the farms describe is at pastured. So maybe I could even get my factoryfarm-hatin' daughter to eat it! (Then again, that would depend if she was in her "vegan-wannabe" mood or not. :rolleyes:)

Anyhow, it's supposedly very well marbled, but is basically too pricey for the most of us. Shoulders would be nice, but it sure would be cool to get to smoke some Berkshire babybacks!
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Thanks for the replies fellas. Sorry I have not responded sooner. So busy lately. I am planning on putting them on at 10pm, cooking all night and through the afternoon if necessary and then holding under heavy duty foil till serving time at 6pm or so. Sound like that's a realistic plan?
 
Barry Herder said:
Thanks for the replies fellas. Sorry I have not responded sooner. So busy lately. I am planning on putting them on at 10pm, cooking all night and through the afternoon if necessary and then holding under heavy duty foil till serving time at 6pm or so. Sound like that's a realistic plan?
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So are they 12lb shoulders or 12lb butts?

If the latter, your plan sounds fine if you are careful to keep temps low. I've only smoked a couple of whole shoulders, but if that's the case, your cook window sounds quite long. The butt portion should have more fat than a typical hog, but a pig is a pig, and I'm thinking that you could dry out the rest of the shoulder if you cooked or held hot too long.
 
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