Pork purchase question

[Dave/G]

I just bought two 4.5 pound pieces of pork labeled "Fresh Boneless Shoulder Picnic".They are netted, not enhanced, labeled as "all natural". I eat pork, but my wife does not, which is why I haven't done butts, etc yet. I had to give these a shot. My question is as follows: Are these the type of pork pieces that will yield pulled pork if cooked according to all the info I've gotten from this site over the past 6 months? I think I've got the procedure down from the cooking pork section and numerous posts.
Dave

 

[Nick H]

If I remember correctly a pork shoulder is split into two portions, the picnic and the butt. The picnic is the bottom half and the butt is the top half.

If you do a search for "pork picnic" using the "find" function I am sure you will see that many people around here have used picnics for pulled pork.

 

[Phil R.]

Dave,

I think you'll find that the majority of people here prefer to cook butts bone in. Many think it adds flavor to cook meat on the bone(I agree). Also, whenever I've purchased a boned butt it's all hacked up and sort of flappy, like a skirt steak that's been rolled up or something. Give both a try, see what you think.

 

[Tom Raveret]

picnics often have the skin covering a fat cap you may wnat to trim

Ive done both but had better luck with butts. It shouldnt be too difficult to get a buutcher to cut a butt in half giving youabout a 3-5 lb piece of meat. I've done this before to increase bark and had good results.

The picnics will work fine too but I'd be sure to trim the skin/fell off to get you to a 1/4 inch trim of fat if you can.
then cook them like any other pork butt or shoulder you've read about here!!


you can always freeze leftovers since your wife osent eat meat

 

[Mike H.]

Dave
Thats what mine was labeled. Mine was 9lbs and came in cryovac. Smoked it last night . Trimmed the skin off and rubbed it. Than it was low and slow for 13 hrs. Pulled nice.
Not much left over.
Mike

 

[Dave/G]

Here's a beauty for you. These are in nets, like a boneless turkey breast. Are you guys recommending that I take the net off, trim where I think it's needed and tie it up if necessary? You can stop laughing now.

 

[Jason Pedu]

These netted shoulders is pretty much all I can get around here. I've made tons of them. Don't take the net off! Your asking for trouble. Just take it out of the package put the rub on it and cook it. The last 4.5 pounder I did took 17 hrs.

 

[K Kruger]

Well, you can easily tie the leg back up with kitchen string. Just tie as you would a rib roast.

If the picnic (which is the upper part of the foreleg) has skin still on it, it is worth removing unless you have a taste for the skin. Boned picnics usually don't have skin but might. Some people prefer them over butts (I am not one of them); they cook they cook the same but are texturally a bit different.

 

[Dave/G]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jason Pedu:
The last 4.5 pounder I did took 17 hrs. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jason,
I got 4.5 lbs not 45 lbs. 17 hours, OMG. I'll have to take a vacation day. On second thought, sounds like an idea