Picnic Time


 
T

Tony Weisse

TVWBB Super Fan
Doing my first-ever picnic tonight, mainly 'cause the local Wally world was out of pork butt.
Cool night, light breeze, Ezra Brooks, and pork smokin'. Does life get any better?
 
I see these all the time at my Giant Eagle...I'll be interested in what you think about the tatse...the skin throws me a little!!
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I like picnics just fine. I trim the skin and all the extierior fat off and prep 'em like a butt. They seem to take a bit longer. They taste about the same as a butt.
 
Originally posted by Brian L.:
They seem to take a bit longer. They taste about the same as a butt.
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Don't know about the taste yet, but it certainly took longer. The shoulder was about 10 lbs. before I trimmed skin and fat. I started at 8 last night and just took the meat off at 5. 21 hours of cook time; average temp at the the dome about 235.

It's resting in a cooler right now and I will pull later tonight.
 
Just pulled the picnic and, well, I wish I had found a butt instead. It tastes fine, but yield was pretty low. Payed for 10 lbs. and got about 3.75 lbs. of finished product. I'd be interested to hear if others find that a picnic yields less than a pork butt.
 
I do Picnics all the time. I don't know what happened to yours, but I have never had a yield that low. 21 hours for a 10 pounder is not out of the norm for that pit temp. I start to check mine to see if it is done at 190. When the "test" is a go, I wrap it and put it in the cooler for 3, sometimes 4 hours to rest/render some more. For the $.89-.99 a pound I can get 'em at, I love 'em
I have done both trimmed and non trimmed. Anymore, I just leave the skin on, put it on skin side down.
 
Originally posted by Bob T.:
I do Picnics all the time. I don't know what happened to yours, but I have never had a yield that low. 21 hours for a 10 pounder is not out of the norm for that pit temp. I start to check mine to see if it is done at 190. When the "test" is a go, I wrap it and put it in the cooler for 3, sometimes 4 hours to rest/render some more. For the $.89-.99 a pound I can get 'em at, I love 'em
I have done both trimmed and non trimmed. Anymore, I just leave the skin on, put it on skin side down.
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I agree with Bob. I prefer to do picnics anyways, cause they are normally 1/2 the cost of a butt and IMHO taste, pull and cook no different than a butt. I don't know what the cause was for your low yield of finished meat? Butts and picnics will normally lose about a 1/3 of the raw weight.
 
I agree with Larry and Bob. I do picnics more than butts. For two reasons. First, it's really hard for me to find butts in my neck of the woods. But they always have picnics. Second, the price is much, much better. Usually 2.5 times cheaper. While the yield isn't as high as butts (mostly because the bone is so much bigger) you still get a big price benefit with picnics.

It's true - you do have to take a bit of extra time getting the skin off, but once you get the hang of it, it only takes a minute. (Plus, the excess skin and fat are the perfect trimmings for rendering your own lard and making chicharron).

Anyhow, hope the picnics turn out a little better for you next time.

- Adam
 
My one experience with a picnic was a "picnic shoulder", I think. It didn't have the skin on it but it was definitely from the lower part of the shoulder. My memory was that it seemed to have almost all light colored meat after cooking as opposed to some light and some "red" colored as with the butts. I also recall it seemed drier.

Butts are plentiful down here - all kinds. I paid $1.36 / lb at Sams on Sat. but sometimes find them on sale at regular stores for 99 cents/lb.

Paul
 
Ive cooked both and definately prefer the butt. Also, I can tell a distinct difference between the two. The picnic is drier, finer strings when pulled and I dont think its as sweet. And the time factor is a big plus with butts. Adam, almost every supermarket and definately every butcher in CT should have butts. At S&S just ask the meat guys and they will pull cryos out from the back freezer.
 
From my experience I prefer butts to picnics, but only marginally.

I can on rare occassion find picnics at 1/2 price of bone in butts, but they have the skin on and I do trim and tie the picnics A portion of the picnic ends up dry/overcooked. But, I love the picnic bones for soup stock.

From my perspective and given local costs, picnics are probably a better value, but I still prefer butts.
 
Originally posted by Jim Babek:
Adam, almost every supermarket and definately every butcher in CT should have butts. At S&S just ask the meat guys and they will pull cryos out from the back freezer.
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Jim - you forget that I live in the lame part of connecticut.
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My local markets stink. I actually went to the two Stop and Shops here in Stamford. One claimed they dind't know what a "boston butt" was. Yeah, right. They either didn't carry them or were too lazy. This has happened on 2 different occasions. At the other S&S I found butts once, but they were $2.89 per pound and they only had 3.5 pound butts. And I haven't seen it since.

So, picnics are the only ones I can find regularly around here.

As for local butchers, there really aren't any outside of groceries.
 
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