First Pork Shoulder

Well, I already completed one of my New Year's resolution (cooks)- I bit the bullet and did my first whole pork shoulder picnic.

Fired up the drum at 10:00 this morning and let it heat up while I trimmed off the skin and excess fat. The picnic was 8.67 pounds at the start, but I figure I trimmed 1-1.5 lbs of skin and fat off.

I purposely went with a medium/small sized shoulder to cut down on the cooking time. Being my first one, I figured if it was no good or I over cooked it or something, at least I didn't spend 16hrs cooking the darn thing.

I rubbed it down with a batch of my "Dynamite" rib rub I had lying around. It's a little sweet, super savory with a tiny little punch of cayenne.

Temps were up to almost 300* when I put the shoulder into the drum. I adjusted the inlet and the temp evened out at 255* for the rest of the cook once I got it dialed in. The smell of sweet cherry smoke and that shoulder actually woke my wife up.

The smoker stayed closed for the next 5 hrs. I checked the external thermo about every hour or so. By just about 8pm, the internal temp hit 190* ( i checked several different locations, they were all within a few degrees) I took it out and let it rest for an hour, then pulled it. I would have rested it longer but I have to work early tomorrow.

The results are awesome. The wife can't stop eating it! Gonna have to do this again real soon.

I do have some pics, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow- i have to be up in 4 hours for work.

Thanks for lookin!

Lake Dogs said:

Congrats, and good morning! Always fun to get to eat on the success!!!

Small point of note going forward, and will really be helpful it you ever compete in this:

a whole pork shoulder is the combination of the picnic (aka. shoulder, or shoulder picnic) and the butt (aka. boston butt) and usually runs between 15 to 22 lbs, still attached to one another.

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Thanks! and thanks for the info.

I did freeze 1 bag of it- was looking for an excuse to try out my new Food Saver anyway! I plan on putting it to good use, especially if this mild weather keeps up!