A shoulder is a picnic and a butt together. The butt is the upper part of the shoulder and the picnic is going down the leg.

To me they cook the same and taste the same. I cut that skin off just 'cause it is ugly as heck... but there is not that much meat under it so it doesn't really matter either way, and cook it just like a butt.
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YEs...this.


And on a side note, my temperature took a dive last night sometime down to 150* :-)

Sneaking back up on 205 now. :-)
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Well, it's ON THERE now so no going back. I am cooking up the skin for the doggies to chew on and think
they got some kind of great scraps. They are so grill-spoiled. If I am cooking 5 burgers, they always get one
crumbled up and hand fed. If I cook ribs, 2-3 racks, I will end up feeding them about half a rack. The best is
the rib trimmings from st.louisizing. They feast.

Anyway, I'll know if I like em in about 5 hours. I just know they were cheap, about 5 bucks each.
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brad, thats awesome
I bet those dogs love the smell of the grill firing up more than you do!
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I always defer to Brent, as he is the pro and all around pitmaster.


Here are a couple decent diagram of pork cuts:

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Nice diagrams...I had always seen the beef ones but never went looking for the hog.
I wonder why they call it a "picnic"? Interesting term. Not as interesting is I put three
racks worth of St.Louis-ize trimmings on the smoker with the picnic and pulled it all off
the grill and divvied it up already. Meaning without pics. Dangit. I WILL shoot the roast.
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OK, let there be meat. The picnic has an hour at least to go, don't know, I have no thermometer.
But I do know meat, lol. It comes off when it's ready. :-) We got a picnic and some Rib Trimmins
from three racks o ribs I trimmed up last weekend.

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The trimmins were VERY good, even having to go around bones and cartilage, just exccellent flavor and smoke.
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THAT looks delishus.

2 Boston Butts went on last night at 11pm (Central) 15 hours later, they are hanging out at 178*. Dome temp of 210.

COME ON DAMMIT.....I am hungry.
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Going on the smoker right now!!!

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Looks good Brad!
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A great looking start Earl!
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I just lined up a small cook for early June, a couple hundred punds of pork butt, a couple of cases of ribs, and probably a couple of packers. Hopefully it wont heat up to uch by then!
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Sounds like fun.
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Let it cook on the grill for another 45 minutes, then finished it in foil in the oven while I took a lil nap,
slathered it with Sweet Baby Ray's and broiled it for another few minutes. Pulled it with a couple forks
and promptly froze it, lol.
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My old cook team partner and I did our first competition in a long while this weekend. It was in the town where I live so there was no excuse for not doing it!!

Finished third in pork, fifth in both chicken and brisket, fifteen in ribs and 6th overall (I think) out of 36 pro teams. I have no idea what happened to the ribs... they were so over done it wasn't funny. If we would have done what we usually do in ribs (usually a strength) we could have easily gotten our first Grand Championship.

Oh... and we won People's Choice for the first time ever. That was pretty cool as we never really pay much attention to that butt. We just season it, cook it, pull it, and pour whatever half empty bottles of sauce are in the trailer over it.

I sure wish I had the time to do more comps... This weekend really made me miss it!!!
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I guess you are just going to have to practice more on your ribs...I'm sure about 300 of your closest friends would volunteer to critique them for you :-)
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I know I would.
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Nice looking picnic and rib trimmins Brad:-) Now, where exactly in TN do you live:-)


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Right where you'd think for being a BBQ guy, lol. I had a good time this weekend. I don't mess with butts much,
not a fan of having a lot of pulled pork in the fridge. I cook for practice and fun and take most of it to work to share.
Otherwise I'd be 400 lbs. So mostly I cook ribs cause that's what I like. But this time I decided to put some of this
thread into practice. I used to only eat butt roast out of the oven, and then only in winter for the free heat and
wonderful aroma. Then I started smoking them, but never getting it all that spectacularly done, pulling it out
early, slicing instead of pulling. Put while I would NEVER foil ribs, it sure did a number on that picnic. Man, talk about an
easy pull and great flavor. Used no liquids in the foil, but it worked out great.
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3 racks of spare ribs and 24 ABT's are on the fire. Can't wait to try out these ABT's since this will be a first. .
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