Pork :)

[gardenfish]

I have cooked 6 shoulders so far. I have only found about 4-5# boston buttes and 10-13# picnics. Yesterday was a sale day and the wife came home with an 11# boston and an 11# picnic. Great sale price too so tomorrow she is going to get me 2 more picnics. The rest of the bostons were smaller and I know it is supposed to be the better cut but I really like the flavor of the picniic better so far. So looks like saturday will be shoulder day . I am going to cook the 11# boston and 1 picnic and freeze the other two picnics for later. Then sunday the second run on pork ribs.

Going to be a smokey forecast for Phoenix this weekend.

Rick

[smarkley]

so.... you are going to contribute to the wild fire situation??? LOL!!!

Sounds like a good plan for the weekend though... I will be joining you with some butt-erific fun too.

[_John_]

Sweet, haven't tried a picnic yet, haven't even seen one for sale.

[Jerod Broussard]

Picnic is good. I'm going to debone and roll the next one with some goodies, then sous vide the ever-living crap out of it before searing with plenty clarified butter.

[gardenfish]

Picnic I think is pretty common. All the grocery stores here have them. Boston butts also but mostly small 4-5# pieces. This is the first one I have seen at 11#'s.

Seems like deboning would be quite a task on the picnic. I think I will save my deboning for after the cook where a good little shake is all you need for it to debone itself . What kind of goodies will you roll with it?

[smarkley]

I think I will do my picnic on the SnS... no deboning, just straight ahead smoking with MMD rub.

[Danjohnston949]

I started doing one Boston Butt at a time using dry rub I had made. I think the rub is close to being O-Kay, 24hrs in a freezer bag in fridge , on the smoker for +- 6hrs at 250 degrees, Apple wood for smoke some times I add hickory chips. I only smoke the first 2 hrs of the cook. After a few practice runs and enough lubricant I have cooked up to a case of Butts at the same time. So far they have eaten all of them, Dan

[gardenfish]

Here is my first picnic and boston fron back in june. With of course Meatheads Memphis Dust and an overnight dry brine. Actually this was about the fourth time. You can see the boston baked beans underneath the pork.

[fzxdoc]

When you smoke a picnic ham, do you remove the skin? Excuse me if that happens to be blasphemy, but I was wondering about the smoke getting through the skin to the meat below. I've only ever cooked a picnic ham in the oven back in the day, and I scored the skin.

Kathryn

[gardenfish]

I did not the first couple times but I have on all since. I remove the whole skin section and trim the fat a bit. Then I do an over night or 24 hr dry brine then coat with Memphis dust.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks, Steve ( smarkley ) and gardenfish for the additional information.

I'm also curious to learn how the flavor of the picnic ham differs from that of the pork butt, smoked without wrapping.

Kathryn

[gardenfish]

You will just have to smoke them and see. I have only cooked 6 of each, I cook one of each each time. I mix them together when all is done but I taste them separately before I mix them and If I could only pick one I would pick the picnic. I think its just a personal preference but to me I like the flavor better than the butt.

On the previous post about the skin, when I did leave the skin on the first times I did peel it all the way back and then brined and seasoned under it then cooked with it on the bottom.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the additional info, gardenfish . What's the time difference between doing the picnic and the Boston butt, on the average?

Kathryn

[gardenfish]

fzxdoc Well so far its been 1/2 the time because the butts were 4-5# and thin and all the picnics 10-12# and round. This next this weekend they are both 11#'s so I expect them to be closer but The butt will still probably be a little quicker because it is thinner so I expect 203° to reach the center faster than the round picnic.

I am going to dry brine tomorrow(thurs) to give 48hrs for the salt to penetrate Then Memphis dust on fri and let that sit over night. Saturday morn I work 430am-7am then home to smoke.

[fzxdoc]

I'm really going to enjoy following along with your weekend cook, gardenfish . Thanks for all the great info so far!

Kathryn