Recipe: The Perfect Picnic Pork Shoulder (Smoked) for Florida/No,La

Hi Florida :-) We have made a Smoked Boston Butt in our smoker but I thought this recipe that I found on the internet, sounded detailed enough to post, as well as sounding delicious! Let us know how it turns out.

The Perfect Picnic Pork Shoulder

This recipe is from Where There's Smoke There's Flavor by Richard Langer, 2001, Little Brown. This book teaches you everything you need to know to turn your backyard grill into a smoker cooker, including lots of delicious recipes.

"Picnic pork shoulder comes "as is," referring to the bone-in cut, or boneless, skinless, rolled, and tied. Either of the above can be used in this recipe. Myself, I prefer a bone-in picnic. If the meat nearest the bone is the sweetest, as the old saying goes, then surely it's sweetest of all when cooked while the bone is still there. This recipe makes finger-licking, falling-off-the-bone-tender pulled pork perfect for serving either on the traditional soft buns or plain. Dish up plenty of extra vinegar sauce."

6- to 7-pound picnic pork shoulder, preferably bone-in

The Rub
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons ground white pepper
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons ground sage
2 teaspoons ground thyme
1 teaspoon ground allspice

The Mop & Sauce
2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup corn oil
1 tablespoon Tabasco or similar hot red pepper sauce

The Accompaniment
fluffy white hamburger buns

Serves 8 to 10

The day before you want to serve this dish, set out a Ziploc-type plastic bag large enough to hold the pork shoulder. Measure into the bag the rub ingredients: brown sugar; garlic powder; paprika; white, black, and cayenne peppers; dry mustard; sage; thyme; and allspice. Close the bag and shake the contents to mix the spices well, pressing out any clumps of brown sugar between your fingers. Pat the pork shoulder dry with a paper towel and place it in the bag. Seal the bag, then shake and turn it until the meat is well covered with the rub. Refrigerate, tightly closed, overnight.

Some 8 or 9 hours before you want to eat, take the pork in its bag of spices from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature while you fire up the smoker. Once the coals are glowing and you've added smoking wood to the fire pan and hot water to the water pan, transfer the picnic shoulder to the grill.

Smoke, covered, at 200 to 220 degrees F. for 3 to 4 hours, replenishing the cooker's wood and water supplies as needed. Then prepare to start mopping. Pour the vinegar, corn oil, and Tabasco or other hot red pepper sauce into a medium-size stainless steel or flameproof ceramic saucepan and whisk until well mixed. Baste the shoulder with the mop, using a long-handled barbecue brush or a mop. If you're cooking a bone-in shoulder, be sure to work the mop in around the bone where the meat has begun to separate from it. Continue to smoke the picnic for another 4 to 5 hours, mopping the crusty black surface every 30 minutes or so. A meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the shoulder will have long since registered the 160 to 170 degrees F. recommended for pork, and by now, you'll find, the meat can be pulled apart into luscious, incredibly tender strands all peppery around the edges.

Just before taking the shoulder from the grill, bring the liquid remaining from the mop to a boil in its pan, simmer briefly, and pour into a pitcher to pass around the table. Some folks like their pulled pork really vinegary. Have soft buns handy for purists.

If you don't have a smoker, use the Indirect Method for smoking the pork shoulder.

Famous Dave's Indirect Method of Slow Cooking/Smoking

"Did you believe, like so many, that smoking meat took special (and often expensive) equipment? Not so. Here's the scoop, from the barbecue master himself, Famous Dave Anderson of Famous Dave's' Blues N' Ribs, on how you can smoke meats right on your own barbecue grill."

Using a chimney charcoal starter get 15 briquettes red hot. Place coals on one end of grill and place 1 pound of green hickory around the coals. Use water-soaked hickory chunks if you can't get fresh hickory. Keep the internal temperature of the covered grill at 200 - 225 F. Add more charcoal and hickory chunks every hour as needed. Cook meat on grill, but not directly over the coals, hence "indirect smoking method."