Thoughts on smoking a picnic

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

nipster

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2008
9
11
I mostly smoke pork butts, but a few times I have smoked picnics. I have never been pleased with the way they turn out, because the big bone and joint seem to prevent the meat closest to the bone from getting cooked as thoroughly as the rest. Do any of you even bother with picnics? If so, what do you do to mitigate this?
 
What he said, picnics make great PP!
PDT_Armataz_01_34.gif
 
I did an 11 lb one this weekend. I didn't do anything to the skin / fat / etc - just rubbed it down, wrapped in plastic wrap for 10 hours, and then put it on the smoker. I smoked it at 240 from 6p till 2a (when it reached 160 internal), and then wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven at 250 until it reached 205 internal (about 10:30a). I let it rest in foil in the cooler until 1p and then pulled. It came out perfect, done correctly and oh so tasty.
 
should have mentioned, I take the skin off first, I kind of figured finishing it off in the oven was some kind of sacrilidge
 
well...........sometimes, when its a HUGE peice of meat..........it helps..........like brisket.........which i foil at 170 the rest of the way........no sense in burning wood/charchol/gas/power, if its wrapped in foil......smoke can't get to it..........mite as well finish it up in the oven
 
When you guys wrap it in foil to be finished off are you doing it dry or adding some of the mopping sauce in there too? I have done it both ways but I think I prefer it without the extra wet sauce as that seemed to keep down the bark on the meat. Just curious what others are doing.
 
If I wrap, a few spritzes of apple juice to "lubricate" the foil. When done, the meat juices combined with the aj makes a great finishing sauce.
 
I use picnics due to availabilty and cost, I've yet to find a butt (I've yet to look very hard) I follow the sticky and they turn out wonderful every time. The last one I did shot up to 185 really fast and before the plateu so I went ahead and wrapped it. The plateu hit just below 190 and didn't last long. Before that I had one that had no plateu at all. Sometimes they take 10 hours and sometimes they take 4 hours. All 8 to 8.5#. All turned out wonderfull but some were better than others but not so much as you'd notice. Just goes to show it's temp not time thats important.
 
yeah........you got to watch the amount of liquid added...........one time i didn't foil AT all........and the barq was SO hard, hardly could eat it
and thats the best part imho
 
Help me with your definition of "picnic". I know there are different levels of pre-cookedness. The one I smoked was the middle level of cookedness and took about 4 hours to finish off in the smoker, 10 lbs. As it already had been smoked, I was just adding more smoke and the glaze.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky