First picnic

Haggis

My doctor daughter is coming home from NYC next weekend. My spouse has invited her and her whatever-he-is for dinner and tells me that I am to Egg an 8 pound pork picnic cut. Obviously this means low and slow followed by pulling. Now I hasten to note that my spouse is Chinese and regularly cooks the picnic cut as what is known as "red cooked pork" - a Shanghai style where the pork is slow cooked in soy, sugar, anise, and other stuff until its falling apart like pulled pork except with this heavy/sweet sauce that my kids all love. So I'm basically up against this image of what pork "should be" except that my kids also love North Carolina pulled pork (per Bullock's in Durham) and will be expecting only perfection from me. I've never tried a pulled pork before![p]So I told my spouse that I'd be removing the skin and she nearly hit the roof, proclaiming that that is where ALL the flavor is (I won't mention her cholesterol count!) And now I have to figure out how to do this to satisfy everyone (to make everything worse, the "whatever-he-is" is also from North Carolina!) I need your help here . . .[p]Everyone says the Boston butt is what I should be cooking but I have a picnic so I'm stuck. Wessb's website suggests deep-scoring the skin and fat down to the meat. The Naked Whiz site only discusses the butt without the skin (if I remember it right.) Dr. BBQ's book is sort of non-committal - talks about a fat cap but seems to be discussing the Boston butt. [p]What do I do with this picnic cut? [p]Oh yeah, I forgot . . . [p]Go Steelers! (and for a Redskins fan, that's a tough one!) [p]

AZRP

Haggis,
The picnic should be just fine for pulled pork. I would remove the skin and most of the fat before cooking in order to get a nice bark. -RP

AZRP

Haggis,
Rub it with whatever you like, if nothing else salt and pepper works just fine. Cook it indirectly with a dome temp of 250 and take it out when it reaches 190-200 internal. Wrap it up in foil and pack it into a cooler with towels below and above it. That will hold it until eating time, shred it up just before serving. -RP

thirdeye

Haggis,[p]Go back to TNW site and review Elder Wards recipe, both parts. It is a Eastern NC classic and very detailed. One of my favorite pig pickin' techniques. For some pictures and a general PP summary, click on the link to my site below. Look under Pork.[p]Don't sweat this cook. Picnic's turn out great!! Now for the snag. The Carolinas are the crossroads for pulled pork. Eastern NC sauce is the mother of pork barbecue sauces and is a vinegar based sauce with salt & cayenne. In Western NC (Lexington) tomato & wooster are added. In South Carolina, mustard is the primary flavor. Check with "whatever-he-is" so you can zero in on what was served up in his back yard.[p]
~thirdeye~

[ul][li]Click Here[/ul]

wdan

Haggis,
I have a feeling you're going to get a lot of encouragement on this, so I'll be proud to be the first.[p]I have always used the Elder Ward method to do pork lo 'n slo's. He says butt and I've dutifully complied with wonderful results. Enter one "Sundown" about 2 years ago offering an opinion that picnics contain some fantastic meat that butts don't have (kind of a dark meat, if you will). I've since tried 3 or 4 picnics and I am an absolute believer. So far, here is what I've learned:
Butts slow-cooked to 200 internal make great pulled pork.
Picnics can be pulled too but I prefer them to be in "pulled chunks" that could still be served as pulled pork but also can stand alone in the form of luau, sparnfarkle or any other name you associate with a pig roast.[p]My experience curve with picnics is still in the exponential phase, but it seems like the "chunk" presentation is better facilitated by cooking the picnic to about 185 and then wrapping it and resting it in a cooler for an hour or so. This is all predicated on the dome temp of a large BGE being maintained at 230-250. My latest one (New Years'Eve) took almost 20 hours when I was expecting 16-18 tops. Sure enough, it was a little dry, but nothing a bunch of mojo criollo couldn't handle (this presentation is called "Lechon Asado")! Anyway, I think mine went too long because I maintained a dome temp closer to 220 for most of the time. The inside was good but the bark was like, well, bark. I'm also wishy washy about liquid in the drip pan. I'm an old water smoker by training, and sometimes I still revert to using some in the drip pan. Oh yeah, I score the fat, up to, but not into the meat of the picnic. This is especially important if you use a marinade or rub.[p]These are just my ramblings and I have more work to do. Now, wait for the rest of the story from some of our other compatriates!

Eggecutioner

WDAN,[p]I think you bring up a good point. The Lechon Asado. It seems that Haggis has multiple taste buds he is trying to accomodate. So why not do a Mojo(Lechon Asado)? It is truley a wonderfully flavorful mexican inspired cook. That way nobody has a "Bullock's", or some Carolina flavor comparison, while still getting some really good eats. I would recommend that! I am a big fan of the Mojo. I have never done one with a picnic, but I am sure it would be great![p]E

grillnut at Norcross Ace Hardware

Haggis, Sunday l did my first picnic, usually do butts. Removed the fat and rubbed it the night before, cooked it the next day at 250 dome indirect for 9-10 hours, pulled it at 195, wrapped it, and coolered it for 2 hours. Ate it watching the Panthers kick butt!
lt was a bit dry, especially on the small end. Next time l'll leave the fat on, or score it.
l'm in the middle of North Carolina, and love the Lexington style BBQ (20 mins away).

BlueSmoke

Haggis,
If it were me, I'd remove the skin and use five-spice for the rub. I'd baste regularly with the "red cooked pork" sauce mixture, and I'd reduce that (if need be) for a finishing/table sauce. Finally, I'd post the red cooked pork sauce here, so people like Ken Stone would shut up.[p]grinnie thingie
Ken

WooDoggies

Haggis,[p]If you want to make a NC style bbq, you'll need some bark mixed in with the pulled pork and in order to get bark, you'll have to remove the skin and a good bit of the fat layer under the skin. Once the skin and fat are removed, coat the meat with a rub as described in Elder Ward's treatise found on Naked Whiz's site. The rub will carmelize on the meat during the cook to create the bark.
Accompany the finished bbq with Elder Ward's eastern nc sauce and your finished pork will be much like the bbq you find in Durham.[p]Good Luck with your decision!
John[p]

stike

Haggis,
there's nop reason to spend the time and effort to remove the skin... you're not a butcher, it will take you some time, and you'll take off a bunch off fat with it unless you are a practiced skinner.[p]just score it. rub it all over, and smoke as you would a butt. [p]when it comes time to pull, you'll have a few small crispy skin pieces you can probably crack through with your teeth, but mostly you'll have tough chunks of skin which come right off, the fat having melted away.[p]there must be a reason they leave the skin on in the first place, i bet it is because with the koint still present, and all the folds, it's a pain for a butcherer to skin, especially considering the (relatively) low price.[p]i've done them skin on, skin off, scored, unscored, skin up, skin down.... unless you are feeding seasoned barbecue judges, i doubt anyone can tell the difference.[p](though there is a difference between the taste of a butt and picnic)

Haggis

BlueSmoke,[p]I will consult with my wife regarding the red cooked pork ingredients. My recollection is she took it from the chinese cookbook in the old Time Life series some 30 years ago and modified it to resemble what she had it as a kid. The cooking technique resembles a pot roast - throw the pork in with the sauce and simmer for 8 to 10 hours. I should add that her family's cook in Bangkok did this and all other cooking over charcoal on a ceramic unit that closely resembled the firebox on a BGE -- wouldn't use the fully equipped western style kitchen and turned out some fantastic stuff.

AZRP

grill nut,
Where are you located, I used to live in Salisbury? -RP

Sundown

Haggis,
My familiy will not eat any thing except bone in shoulder! I didn't believe any of them so one of the last times I did a shoulder in the summer I snuck in some pulled butt meat in a seperate bown. Damned if they didn't know the difference! My vote will be for the shoulder for the best flavor. I can sit and eat pounds of plain pulled pork because the flavor alone if great. I really don't use any of the sauces.

grillnut at Norcross Ace Hardware

AZRP, I'm in High Point, you?