Cuts to make pulled pork

[Jonok]

Bet it makes great cured meat...

 

[chef jimmyj]

Considering the Whole Hog guys smoke until it's falling apart and Pull or Chop, nose to tail...That's your answer. Best choices, Butts, Shoulders, Sirloin Roast ( end of loin over the ham), Fresh Ham and Loin, only if that's all you can get...JJ

 

[Jonok]

When I was in school, I inherited my Dad's 280 gal oil drum rotisserie smoker (just pour burning coals in the base, and be ready to put out the flames with a garden hose all damned day), and we used to get really cheap sub-market weight pigs from the local producers with anatomic anomalies (hernias, prolapsed rectums etc.) that precluded automated slaughter, but didn't affect the quality of the meat. There was a butcher in Sidney, Il that would kill, scald, scrape, and hang the pig for like $7.00 We cooked the heck out of those guys (usually about 100-150# dressed) and, as I recall, the hams pulled and ate just as well as the shoulders. I imagine it probably had something to do with cooking them skin on, but honestly, the only thing we even really used a knife for when serving them was to open up the insides of the legs and cut the head off, and then to cut the loins up (which just lifted out whole by hand) into little steaks for the people that had a problem with graphically dismembered pig being shredded by hand in front of them. I don't see bone-in, skin-on raw hams commonly, but I bet they would smoke pretty well too.

 

[metsfan2152]

I use Picnic shoulders a lot here because they are usually easier to find the pork butts. Still comes out delicious.

 

[Jonok]

My absolute favorite is a Montreal shoulder, (whole shoulder, skinned with fat left on) but even my "butcher hunting buddy" nails me for >$2.00/lb for it, bones and all. (when I can buy butts at Sams by the case for often $1.10/lb) All of that collagen in the picnic is key to just making everything glisten when you pull it. The internal fat from the butt keeps everything moist, and all is right with the world..

 

[Bearcarver]

You can't beat a butt for PP!
Next step would be a picnic, but not as good!
Al

Al has it right, as usual !!!

Bear

 

[crazymoon]

RNH01, The cuts are covered by the folks here and I am just saying ditto on a finishing sauce !

 

[chef jimmyj]

Whole Fresh Hams, in the grocery stores can be a challenge. If you are anywhere never a Mom and Pop Processor/Butcher or an Ethnic Market, Latin or Asian, they will hook you up. I made a Whole Hog for my first born's Christening. While tasty was a lot of work and waste. For the second born, I went to Puerto Rican market on the south side of Lancaster, PA and bought a 25lb Whole Shoulder, skin on, and a 25lb Fresh Ham, skin on, for $.75 per pound, 1992, I smoke roasted them in the same cooker. The meat was just as good as the Whole Hog and other than about a pound of excess fat and the bones, no waste...JJ

 

[Jonok]

It’s almost like somebody designed a pig so that its parts were synergistic from a gustatory standpoint.