My First Picnic Shoulder

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rkobane

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 27, 2012
10
11
Brooklyn, New York
Don't know what took so long, but last night I decided a 9 lbs. picnic shoulder sounded about right for this weekends smoking adventure. Nothing creative, but here is my process:

1) Buy a well marbled, inexpensive picnic shoulder. Mine was 9lbs for less than $10. 

2) Cut skin off the fat cap. 

3) LEAVE ALL THE FAT!

4) Rub with whatever you love on pork. Generously. 

5) 225 degrees with a combo of Pecan and Applewood chips, soaked. 

6) Having an electric allowed me to sleep well, knowing the heat would stay constant.

7) After adding chips when the smoke dies down, it, well, does everything great on it's own.

8) After the stall at about 190 degrees (2-3 hours), the shoulder rose to 200 in about an hour.

9) 16 hours later and it was perfect. I wrapped in two layers of foil, placed it in a cooler and walked away for three hours.

10) The bones pulled out with absolutely no effort and I began the torturous process of hand pulling it. 

11) for the bark that didn't stay attached to the actual meat, I cut it up pretty fine and mixed it in with the meat. It feels like the shoulder yielded about 5-6 lbs of meat. 

12) STUPID GOOD!

I'm pretty excited about the results. I wanted to try and do as little as possible with this so I could learn and make adjustments in the future. But honestly, I think simplicity has shown why it's such a virtue in smoking meat with this one. I didn't trim fat, I didn't inject, I didn't spray, I didn't foil and put back in the smoker, I didn't add a finishing sauce, and it's FANTASTIC. 

As my dad always said, Keep it simple stupid. SUCCESS!




 
Lookin' GOOD! Gotta love a picnic...they have tons of collagen which makes them really nice subjects for pulling. And as you found, the KISS method, with very few exceptions, will yield great results.

Did you save the skin for pork rinds?

Eric
 
I enjoy Picnics now and then ,  Hammier than Butt , but very good and it's cheaper too
biggrin.gif
 .

Thanks for the look , and enjoy your meal...

Have fun and as always ...
 
It was torturous Turnandburn simply because it took every once of self-restraint not to eat the entire thing before our party today.  
 
It was torturous Turnandburn simply because it took every once of self-restraint not to eat the entire thing before our party today.  
WORD OF THE DAY!!! You'll get used to it...I pulled 10 butts, 8 chickens and the points form 3 brisket, plus sliced brisket and 15 slabs of baby backs, all in a 29-day stretch for an event in June. When asked by my youngest son how I could pull it off without having a meal from it, I simply said, "been through this too many times before, and have eaten it enough times before, so this is just another day in the world of smoke, and I'll get my samples when I'm ready for it".

It's pretty amazing what you tell yourself or your family to keep yourself from being tempted, though...LOL!!!

Eric
 
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