SMOKING A SHOULDER

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Well lets start out on ground zero here. Whut is a Pork Shoulder in your dicitonary? Do it include both the Boston Butt and Picnic fully connected or is it perhaps one or the other? Do it have skin? How much do it weigh etc?

bigwheel
 
That's a great cooker. You're a lucky man.

I favor cooking butts at a slightly higher temperature than 225, and certainly wouldn't go below 215 for any length of time. In fact, there's not much benefit to cooking butt, picnic or shoulder below a target temp of 250 and the time penalties are enormous. Given the tight nature of a Stumps, you don't run much risk of drying the pork out anyway.

I favor an injection of apple juice and white grape juice mixed 50/50 or Liebfraumilch, Gewurz traminer, or a Johannesburg Riesling. That is, a wine that combines floral, sweet and spicy qualities. A little onion powder would not be amiss. Pork and onion are wonderful compliments.

You might find the following rub interesting:

8 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs (mild) paprika
3 tbs Morton kosher salt
2 tbs fresh cracked black pepper
1 tbs ground ginger
2 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp granulated onion
2 tsp five spice powder.

You can kick this up nicely by toasting 4 tbs of fennel seeds and 2 tbs of coriander seeds, grinding them and adding the powder to the rub. Without the addition the rub is pretty straightforward, the fennel/coriander raises the whole project to a pretty sophisticated level. Definitely not for competitive barbecuing.

If you're going to use my sauce (see below), slather with 50/50 dijon mustard/mayo. Otherwise slather with plain yellow mustard or mayonnaise, and rub generously.

Prep the smoker to run at 250. Most woods work well with pork. I find oak, peach, hickory, apple, citrus, pecan or cherry work best -- singly or in blends. If you're using the fennel rub, pure oak is the way to go. Very Euro. Figure about 1-1/4 hours/lb for pork to a pull temp of 195. During the last hour or so of cooking glaze the pork with a 50/50 mix of bourbon and maple syrup.

If you don't have a probe or instant read thermometer, the pork is probably ready to pull from your cooker when the bone wiggles so easily you sense it's ready to fall out. When the pork is done, wrap it in saran wrap (better than aluminum foil) and let it rest in a properly prepped dry cooler for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile prepare your barbecue sauce. Most folks like Carolina, vinegar-based sauces. Red is the most popular, but I like a sophisticated twist on a mustard sauce made by combining the following ingredients in the blender.

1 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 tbs bourbon or sour mash whiskey
2 tbs chipotle hot sauce
A few turns of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup oil

Mix everything but the oil. Remove the top, and with the blender running add the oil in a thin stream until the sauce starts to emulsify. Stop pouring when the sauce sets up. You'll see it, it's not subtle.

I'm sure you know there's a very good forum on the Stumps site. You may not know that there are a lot of Stumps owners, a Spicewine owner or two and at least one Backwoods owner participating on the National Barbeque News Forum site. You may be able to get more general cabinet and Stump specific information over there.

You'll probably get a lot of recipes besides mine over here. So you'll have a lot to choose from. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

Rich
 
MSURRATT said:
Hi,
I am new to the forum loooking foward to all the expert info.
I have been building a house for the past year but I had bought a stumps gf223 before I started building sad to say but I have just now started cooking on it 1 year later. I would like to cook a shoulder on it , if anyone can offer any advise such as rubs,injecting etc. I plan on cooking between 200 to 225. I ready for any suggestons.
Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum!

You say you're cooking a "shoulder", which can be misleading to alot of people. There is a whole shoulder that will weigh around 15-20lbs which consists of the Boston Butt and the Picnic. And then there are shoulder portions, the Boston Butt and the Picnic. Out of the three the boston butt is the most commonly used and most forgiving piece. The whold shoulder will be easy to identify, but to the unfamiliar the butt and picnic won't. The butts is shaped like a rectangle and the picnice will be more of a triangle shape with a thick layer of skin on it. Each piece whether it be the full shoulder or a should section will make excellent BBQ but require a little different approach and preparation in my opinion.

Now as far as rubs, sauce and injections go, there are tons to use that are very very good. My suggestion would be to do a Google search on each and find a recipe that catches your eye and sounds good. Then either use that recipe as is or tweak it more to suit your taste and the people you are feeding. Most of all BBQ should be kept simple. BBQ is what it is..........., it's simple, cheap, good food. So it should be kept that way.

I agree with Rich about your planned cooking temps, I would suggest you cook it between 225-250* any lower will indeed extend you cooking times drastically and do not benefit the meat whatsoever. Keep the temps in that range, don't shoot for an exact temp cause it'll drive you nuts farting with the pit. If it goes a little higher, don't worry about it, just don't let it get too far below 225*.

Please don't put wine of any kind in your sauce or inection for BBQ! That's just out right wrong! Sorry Rich I just had to say it!! :LOL:
 
Larry Wolfe said:
Please don't put wine of any kind in your sauce or inection for BBQ! That's just out right wrong! Sorry Rich I just had to say it!! :LOL:

Larry -- you mean that wine isn't in the tradition of a certain kind of ethnic/regional barbecue, right? You certainly can't be saying it doesn't taste good. Because that would be a lie. A damned lie.

Musrarrat -- the more you can tell us about that shoulder, the more specific we can be about amounts and techniques. If it's a full shoulder, I might have been a little light on amounts. And my times are off. Full shoulders cook a bit quicker per pound than butts or picnics. So it's a different value. Around 50 min/lb at 250, IIRC.

Another issue is skin. SWMBO makes me take the skin off, rub, then tie the skin because I was stupid enough to show off my butchering "skills," such as they are, once. If you want to know how, I'll tell you. PITA is what it is.

Beers make a good injection base, as well as juices or wines. But keep the colors as close to light and clear as possible. A dark colored injection will stain pork in a most unattractive way.

Rich
 
He's from near Greensboro, so I'm guessing he could have
the whole pork shoulder. However, being a Tar Heel, I'm
guessing he ain't gonna inject no dadgum wine in there!
[smilie=nonono.gif] [smilie=rlp_smilie_312.gif] [smilie=a_takethatfoo.gif] :welcome
 
boar_d_laze said:
[quote="Larry Wolfe":3iz63mkn]

Please don't put wine of any kind in your sauce or inection for BBQ! That's just out right wrong! Sorry Rich I just had to say it!! :LOL:

Larry -- you mean that wine isn't in the tradition of a certain kind of ethnic/regional barbecue, right? You certainly can't be saying it doesn't taste good. Because that would be a lie. A damned lie.


Rich[/quote:3iz63mkn]

No, I don't mean it isn't a tradition, ethic, regional etc! I mean what I said, wine has no place in BBQ PERIOD!!! But that is my opinion..........

I just can't imagine sitting down to a nice pulled pork sammich and talking about the nice wine reduction flavor that's coming through the hickory smoke flavor with a glob of cole slaw on top! :cry: Next thing you know you'll say you don't put slaw on your pulled pork sammich. If so you are the anti-christ!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Now if you want to add wine to a nice pork roast or beef roast, cooked in the oven, hell yeah that would be fantastic. But BBQ??? NO WAY! That's as wrong as adding fennel to your BBQ rubs!! :shock:

BTW Rich, my Competition Team mate Finney puts fennel in his rub.......... :roll: (I hate to admit I like it too)
 
Hey I got some mop sop and sauce recipes from a famous dead guy that put wine in all his stuff. I made it a few times. It tastes purty good. I know he deceased because he died next door to me at a bbq cookoff at Hoot's one time. I know it prob just a coincidence but his untimely demise come shortly after sampling my ribs about 3 AM.

bigwheel
 
Msurrat,

Where did you go? I only see one post.

These guys and gals give great advice.

BTW I live just a little south of you in Asheboro.

Captain...I agree he is probably smoking the whole shoulder...but he hasn't come back to answer.
 
We have a weight?

Cooking time is determined more by thickness more than length. Compared to butts and picnics, shoulders don't get thicker they get longer. It's almost (not quite) as though you were cooking the separated picnic and butt. Cooking charts don't reflect the importance of thickness over weight because they're written for home cooks who typically use smaller cuts of meats where thickness is a function of weight -- and the cut comes from the supermarket with the weight printed on it.

The biggest difference between medium and large roasts is the heat loss and time it takes a cooker to come back to temp after the roast first goes in.

It's been forever since I've done one, and I don't have notes. IIRC, for a whole shoulder I'd estimate 14 hours or less at a steady 250.

In any case allow plenty of resting time so if the meat goes slow, you can steal the extra time out of that. You can rest a big cut for quite a long time -- 6 hours NP. After 8 you're going to start loosing a bit of texture.

Let us know,
Rich
 
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