OK, so here's where it starts.
Went to our fabulous local butcher and tried to explain what I wanted from a pork shoulder, ie a butt. Told them that I wanted a shoulder with the blade bone in and the hock cut off. This is what he gave me
Looks like I got a whole shoulder. Not knowing how to butcher this to just get the butt out, I looked on here and it was suggested that cooking the whole shoulder is a good alternative. So I sharpened up my knife and had my first go at butchery, trying to take the skin off while leaving as much fat as possible.
I think I managed to butcher it in every sense
.
However I do now have the skin in a single piece which I hope to turn into some lovely crackling by rubbing with EVOO, salt and pepper and cooking on hot coals when the rest of the shoulder is done.
I've given it a slather with some EVOO and then rubbed it with Ray Lampe's #67 BBQ rub which I made a tub of this afternoon.
It's now sitting in the fridge until the morning when I'll give it another rub and leave it out for half an hour while I set up the kettle with a snake of lumpwood charcoal and hopefully have it on the heat by 8am.
UNLESS, there are suggestions here to try and butcher it down into smaller sections to just get the butt out, though I'm not sure I'd know how to do that well.
I should add that I was amazed at how cheap this was. The shoulder weighs 17lb and cost me £35 (about $50) This is prime local pork, raised on an open farm less than a mile from my house. In London, where I used to live, this would cost double that
Tune in tomorrow for the next episode in 'The Mad Englishman Attempts Some American BBQ'