longwayfromhome
Full Fledged Farker
Hi there
Done lots of pork butts and a few full shoulders. I have always done with skin on - sometimes scored, sometimes not, injected. The results have been great. Question I have is about taking the skin off. Seems that this may make for more bark and better penetration of rub flavours, but perhaps opens possibility for drying, less unctuous, greasy values which are highly prized in this household. What are people's experiences if you have done both?
Also, I am doing a full shoulder overnight tonight. For dinner tomorrow, I am serving as pulled pork on baps (soft, floury buns) with coleslaw and homemade BBQ sauce on the side. I thought I would also mimic an East Carolina pig pickin' and chop part of it along with the vinegar sauce (so I will have some regular PP and some chopped). For this I wanted to crackle up the skin a bit first, and chop some of that into the chopped pork. I had intended to crackle skin by putting it over direct heat just before dinner on the Smokey Joe, so the smells should be wafting around as they walk in (buncha guests). The WSM will have been long out by that stage, so can't use that. Any other thoughts on crackling up the skin? From looking at a few videos, I see that 'chopped' means the meat in 1/4" to 1/2" sized pieces - is that right? I haven't had chopped pork or crackling chopped through it before - I am thinking the crackling is chopped pretty fine - is that right i.e. even finer than the meat?
TIA
Ralph
[PS: ... am concerned about the phrase "I've done lots of butts...]
Done lots of pork butts and a few full shoulders. I have always done with skin on - sometimes scored, sometimes not, injected. The results have been great. Question I have is about taking the skin off. Seems that this may make for more bark and better penetration of rub flavours, but perhaps opens possibility for drying, less unctuous, greasy values which are highly prized in this household. What are people's experiences if you have done both?
Also, I am doing a full shoulder overnight tonight. For dinner tomorrow, I am serving as pulled pork on baps (soft, floury buns) with coleslaw and homemade BBQ sauce on the side. I thought I would also mimic an East Carolina pig pickin' and chop part of it along with the vinegar sauce (so I will have some regular PP and some chopped). For this I wanted to crackle up the skin a bit first, and chop some of that into the chopped pork. I had intended to crackle skin by putting it over direct heat just before dinner on the Smokey Joe, so the smells should be wafting around as they walk in (buncha guests). The WSM will have been long out by that stage, so can't use that. Any other thoughts on crackling up the skin? From looking at a few videos, I see that 'chopped' means the meat in 1/4" to 1/2" sized pieces - is that right? I haven't had chopped pork or crackling chopped through it before - I am thinking the crackling is chopped pretty fine - is that right i.e. even finer than the meat?
TIA
Ralph
[PS: ... am concerned about the phrase "I've done lots of butts...]
