It is also readily available at most grocery stores, butcher shops, and artisanal meat shops. At grocery chains, pork shoulder is generally sold in two cuts: pork butt and pork shoulder. At your local butcher, you can request a whole shoulder which can weigh between 12 and 16 pounds or a custom cut if you like.
If you accidentally overcook it, you can still serve it and enjoy it with your favorite sauce. So long as you maintain within safe temperatures, you can even get away with under-cooking it a bit.
Also, the amount of collagen and fat in pork shoulder help a lot. The collagen breaks down into simple sugars during the smoking process, making the meat sweet and delicate. And the amount of fat that melts away gives the meat a tender and juicy consistency that builds a flavor without using any rubs are sauces. Place meat back on the smoker, and cook for two hours more. Using an instant-read meat thermometer, check the internal temperature of the thickest part of the meat, being careful not to touch bone with the tip of the thermometer.
Remove the meat from the smoker, and let it cool for 15 to 30 minutes. Remove foil after it has cooled enough to handle. Remove the bones, which will easily pull away. Begin pulling, or shredding, the meat with two large forks, and place in a large baking dish or pan. Remove and discard any remaining fat. Add the vinegar-based sauce of your choice to pulled pork, and toss. This is a popular way to serve pulled pork in most regions.
If you prefer, serve with additional sauce. That's how it's done at my house. Pulled Pork. By Troy Black. Save FB Tweet More.
All rights reserved. Close Sign in. None of your guests will want to see a bone in their pulled pork, and it is much more likely with a pork shoulder than within a boston butt. It is from the pork shoulder that a lot of the movement that propels a pig originates from. While pigs are moving around, that means that the pork shoulder is getting worked frequently. This results in much more connective tissue, which means that there is more collagen to melt into the meat.
That said, too fast of a cooking process can cause that moisture to evaporate, resulting in an incredibly dry cut of meat. As such, barbequing and smoking are ideal ways to cook a pork shoulder.
That said, those extra bones and bountiful connective tissue can play to the advantage of the experienced smoker. The pork shoulder can be much less forgiving to variations in temperature and time than a boston butt, but the final result can be significantly more flavorful and more moist.
Reading about the differences between pork shoulder and boston butt is one thing, but is quite another to try smoking them side by side to see which is better. The two cuts of meat are pretty economical for their size, and it can be a great excuse to have a few friends over.
Best of all, most smokers have enough room for multiple cuts of meat, so there is really no excuse not to try and see which route you prefer. The first steps to making great barbeque, whether you decide to use pork shoulder or boston butt, is to make sure that you are buying top quality meat. Examine the marbling of the meat, as well as the completeness of the cut. By completeness, I mean if the piece of pork has been cut into loading Also, avoid any meat where the fat cap is overly pronounced.
Once you get home, it is time to prep the meat. A number of barbeque pros swear by injections , but it is really a matter of personal taste. Others will suggest brining or even dry brining the pork. While that is up for debate, you should absolutely give the meat a dry rub. This can be bought through a vendor, or you can make your own.
This is a great opportunity to play with flavors to find out what works well, though be advised that something built for the fattiness of a boston butt may not match the texture of a pork shoulder, and vice versa. Almost as important as the rub is how heat is applied.
For starters, none of us what our pork to taste like lighter fluid, so it is best to find another way to light the charcoal. Speaking of charcoal, make sure that you are using natural charcoal; that meat is going to be exposed to the wood and fumes for hours, so while briquettes may work well for a hamburger, they could negatively affect your pork. Some purists will claim that the smoke from the charcoal alone is enough to flavor the meat, but an industry of smoke wood providers would beg to differ.
Like your dry rub, experiment with what is out there to find a great wood, or even a combination of woods.
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