Saturday Q-View: Whole Shoulder and Pork Barrel BBQ Rub

[splendorlex]

This is my first time smoking a whole shoulder. I've smoked countless butts, just never the whole shoulder. With the meat situation, I could either get a boneless pork butt, or a bone in full shoulder. What's the point of boneless Q, right? It's a 10.5 lb shoulder, so I have no idea how long it will take at 250, we'll find out.

I'm also using a new rub for the first time, Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning and Rub. You can find it on Amazon. I will say I've made my own rub quite a few times early on, but I prefer the convenience of just grabbing the bottle out of the spice rack. And the rubs I made tended to clump up in storage. So commercial it is. The reviews on Amazon look good overall, but there are quite a few complaints about too much salt, and no sugar. No sugar is one of the reasons I decided to try it out. I'm diabetic, and I need to control the sugar wherever I can. (Thank you Stubbs for providing a good, low sugar sauce too!)

Here's a couple of early picks, I'll post more with results tonight or tomorrow.

 

[fivetricks]

Harold Import Terracotta Brown Sugar Bear - Ace Hardware

www.acehardware.com

These little devils are great for preventing clumping in brown sugar and rubs. You can get them several places

 

[cornman]

Looks like you’ve got a picnic shoulder there...a little further down the shoulder than a pork butt but just as delicious and generally cheaper too. Be sure to show some finished pictures!

 

[splendorlex]

Oh, that makes more sense now. The bone on the end did look just like the bone from the butt I ordinarily use. I've seen these picnics before but never bought one, I assumed it was the whole shoulder.

 

[D.W.]

Harold Import Terracotta Brown Sugar Bear - Ace Hardware

www.acehardware.com

These little devils are great for preventing clumping in brown sugar and rubs. You can get them several places

I need to check these out!

splendorlex looking forward to some pictures! I've never done a picnic but have always wanted to. Just don't see them around often.

 

[thirdeye]

For future reference here are whole shoulders on the top row, picnic lower left and butts lower right. The picnic has some muscle groups around the arm bone that will get a little darker in color, but they are some of the best meat. You will see some bone pull back after 8 or 9 hours, and the roast will plateau just like a butt or brisket. You can cook them until they shred (actually some muscles just flake into chunks) or you can slice it once the internal approaches 200°. It looks like you left the skin on the outer face, which is fine.... you get less bark but the skin protects the meat on that side and will give it a softer kind of sticky texture.

 

[kruizer]

I will be following.

 

[splendorlex]

That helps a lot third eye. I just treated it like I would a butt, and since I usually wrap a lack of bark doesn't bother me.

 

[splendorlex]

Trying to decide whether to wrap now that it's at 160. I usually do, but I haven't cooked this before.

 

[chopsaw]

Let it ride if you're not in a hurry . That skin gets crispy , good stuff .

 

[splendorlex]

It turned out fantastic. I put it on about 7:30 am today, ran the WSM at about 250-260. I did wrap it at 160, just because I was hoping I could make dinner time. It hit 200 around 5:30 pm, so about 10 hours total for a 10.5 pound picnic, not bad at all. I let it rest for a half hour or so and it pulled apart wonderfully. I will not hesitate to go with a picnic in the future, especially since they are a little less expensive than the butts. I might see if I can take the skin and fry it up into chicharonns, I'm not sure. Here's some final pics!

 

[jaxgatorz]

Looks awesome from here !!!

 

[D.W.]

That looks fantastic to me. I love my pork butts coming off black, and with how you describe the picnic, I imagine that is perfect bark with it. Thanks for posting.

 

[splendorlex]

Ok, one last pic - behold the smoked picnic skin chicharron.

 

[SmokinAl]

Wow, looks absolutely delicious!
I bet that skin was killer!!
Al