Shoulder or Butt Which Cut is Best For Pulled Pork? My Conclusion

[tom c]

Being that I'm from Missouri I needed to see for myself.

 

[roller]

 

[SmokinAl]

Good start Tom. I think you'll find you prefer the butt.

 

[frosty]

What Al said!

 

[tom c]

Looking good @ 2 hours.

 

[tom c]

@ 3 hours

Lunch

 

[SmokinAl]

Lunch looks good! It's nice that both pieces of meat are cooking at the same speed. I love it when that happens.

 

[raptor700]

Looking good Tom

I prefer the butt for pulled pork also.

 

[tom c]

 It's nice that both pieces of meat are cooking at the same speed. I love it when that happens.

They are staying within 2 degrees so far.

@ 6 hours 150.

 

[mballi3011]

I pefer the butts but I have smoked a butt load of shoulders too.

 

[tom c]

@ 7 hours IT156

 

[tom c]

@9 hours IT 165

 

[raptor700]

Interesting to see how they do when they hit the stall

Looking good

 

[ellymae]

We like shoulders - used to cut the skin off, now we leave it on and put it in the Egg skin down - .

 

[tom c]

Both are in the cooler, they hit 200 within 20 mins of each other.

 

[tom c]

My conclusions are they are both delicious.

 

They both took the almost same time to cook, both were just over 8 pounds, the IT stay within 2 degrees until I foiled then. I foiled the shoulder first and it finished 20 mins faster. 

 

After pulling and removing the remaining fat they were both moist and tender.

 

Shoulder, the meat is leaner, with multiple bones with cartilage.

 

Butt, heavily fat marbled, with one bone. Needed to spend more time removing extra fat when pulling.

 

If I was doing a blind taste test I couldn't tell the difference.

 

 

 

Shoulder

 

Butt

Shoulder

Butt

Shoulder

Butt

Without Sauce

With Sauce

 

[owlcreeksmoker4]

both look delicious

 

[tom c]

 

Shoulder, the meat is leaner,   



Butt, heavily fat marbled,

Those are the only real different there is. Because the shoulder is leaner if you try to cook it fast you are going dry it out. The butt because it is heavily fat marbled is very forgiving. I have cook them with high heat and have them cook in 4 hour for slicing and low and slow for 12 hour for pulling either way they are both delicious.

 

[bigcase]

That is some great looking pp, nice work and excellent experiment.

 

[scarbelly]

I like them both and you just proved that there is no a lot of difference. I do like the butt having less bones to deal with but both mighty tasty.