How does one cook skin to mix in with pulled / chopped pork Sam Jones style?

[Briley337]

Having lived in NC my whole life, I grew up on Western style chopped pork. While there's nothing wrong with it, I made a visit to Sam Jones BBQ a couple weeks ago, and my mind was blown. The incredible oak flavor he gets is amazing, but what caught my attention the most was the bits of skin chopped in. I need to do that.

I'm not about to cook a whole hog like this guy, but I would absolutely love to mix in some crispy skin next time I pull a butt off the smoker. Has anyone done just skin? I have Sam's book, and he details his process, but I figure it's probably different if one is not cooking skin ATTACHED to a hog.

Any advice is appreciated.

[Donw]

I’m originally from Eastern NC, and I know what you mean about the difference between whole hog and just shoulder pork. I have taken a skin on pork belly and smoked it along side the butt, chopped the belly and added it to the shoulder meat. Close but still not entirely there since it isn’t a mixture of all the various cuts of hog.

[RonB]

I'm wonderin' if adding chopped pork rinds might work??

[Briley337]

Close but still not entirely there since it isn’t a mixture of all the various cuts of hog.

Great point.I guess it'll be impossible to really replicate without cooking a whole hog. I am in no way ready for that.

[Dan Deter]

You've hit on what's always been my main complaint with places that cook shoulders (or any individual cuts) is that I grew up with whole hog (usually in someone's backyard) and having all of the different sections of meat mixed together just gives a whole other level to the taste. In fact when I was a kid I very often didn't use any sauce at all. For reference I was in central NC, but my area was all "Eastern" style until recently.

[HawkerXP]

The picnic cut usually has skin on it. I would imagine you could cook it with skin on after scoring or cut off, cook then chop.

Pork Cuts Explained (amazingribs.com)

[HawkerXP]

http://www.askthemeatman.com/pork_picnic_shoulder_cuts.htm

https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/07/what-is-pork-shoulder-boston-butt-picnic-shoulder.html

[Bkhuna]

Yup.