Shoulder/picnic help.

[Okiejoebronco25]

Hi crew, ready for my next cook tomorrow. Pork shoulder/picnic. Do I treat it like a whole shoulder? I was thinking 275? It’s listed as a pork shoulder, but also picnic haven’t smoked any pork other than a rack of baby back so far not very huge. How much time and temp are you guys thinking? Going to use it for pulled pork trying to judge what time I need to get it on the smoker, again this is going to be in My Oklahoma Joe bronco 2.0 thank you for any input.

 

[Fueling Around]

It is a 5# chunk of a pork shoulder. It will need to go to 200° or a little more to render out the connective tissue.
No experience with a Bronco.
I often do smaller piece pork on my Jumbo Joe with a bit of lump charcoal and not a care the temp until the smoke tube burns out. Foil pan wrap and move to the oven to finish until it turns to pulled pork

 

[chilerelleno]

You could do it low-n-slow at 225° or go a little hotter at 250°. Could even split the difference and get good smoke for the first 3-4 hours at 225°, then up the temp to 250°-275° to speed things up.

There are no set times, it has to come up to temp to render all that fat, collagen and connective tissues into juicy. tender deliciousness.
And that is marked by becoming probe tender.

You could also speed it up by crutching or panning in the latter half of the cook.

There are rough estimates, e.g. at lower temps 1.5 hours per pound or longer, and at higher as quick as 1.25 hours per pound.

So going low-n-slow at 225° allow a minimum of 8 hours. I'd allow for 10 hours, every time you open that door, baste it or whatnot you slow the cook.

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

You could do it low-n-slow at 225° or go a little hotter at 250°. Could even split the difference and get good smoke for the first 3-4 hours at 225°, then up the temp to 250°-275° to speed things up.

There are no set times, it has to come up to temp to render all that fat, collagen and connective tissues into juicy tender deliciousness.
And that is marked by becoming probe tender.

You could also speed it up by crutching or panning in the latter half of the cook.

There are rough estimates, e.g. at lower temps 1.5 hours per pound or longer, and at higher as quick as 1.25 hours per pound.

So going low-n-slow at 225° allow a minimum of 8 hours. I'd allow for 10 hours, every time you open that door, baste it or whatnot you slow the cook.

Thanks. Just what I was looking for. Some basic guidelines. I’m up at 5:15. Hopefully done for dinner lol. If per # “ guideline” holds at 5lb maybe 8 ish. Thank you

 

[chopsaw]

If that is a deboned picnic end of a shoulder , it will be leaner and less intermuscular fat .
Shredded strands will be longer than a butt due to less connective tissue / larger muscle groups .
Still works for PP , just a heads up .

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

If that is a deboned picnic end of a shoulder , it will be leaner and less intermuscular fat .
Shredded strands will be longer than a butt due to less connective tissue / larger muscle groups .
Still works for PP , just a heads up .

It is thank you for the heads up.

 

[chopsaw]

These are hams I cured , just for reference ,
Boned and roll butt ,

Boned and rolled picnic ,

Just to show the difference in muscle grouping .
You've got good advice above . Just an example . Enjoy .

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

So got the 6 pounder on at 7 am. Let go 2 hours untouched at 275 ish and a 2 hours was already 159. Let go till 170 bark was good. Wrapped in butcher paper, which I think I put too many layers on too many wraps around it made it up to 193 and stalled. After reading about moisture escaping, causing it to cool. I removed a couple layers of butcher paper returned to the smoker and let cook at 300 pushed right past the stall. Now at 2:04 I’m going to probe for tenderness hopefully done nice learning today struggled a little keeping the temperature down below two 280 to 290° with the B&B or maybe it wasn’t the B&B

Coals after 6 hours. Protein finished. Feels wasteful

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

End result very acceptable. Wouldn’t be mad being served this in a restaurant. And about $1/ sandwich vs $14 in my area. I like it lean so I was very surprised at yield. Thank you all for awesome pointers. If we could only share the bounty lol.

 

[chilerelleno]

End results look delicious, nice cook.

 

[chopsaw]

Looks great . Nice choice on sauce also . Love anything from Lillie's .

 

[Okiejoebronco25]

Memorial Day weekend done right. Tomorrow Polynesian pork tenderloin kebabs with pineapple on the Blackstone per daughter’s request.