Picnic Ham vs Boston Butt

MtnBlue

I just finished my first butt on my new BGE and like everyone says here, it was very forgiving of newbie mistakes. Other than a little temperature fluctuation, which was easily corrected, my biggest mistake was poor timing. It finally hit 200 degrees at 2 AM last night during a driving rainstorm. :S I will definitely plan better in the future. After a rest in the cooler it pulled beautifully and made a delicious breakfast. And yes, I have photos which will be posted soon.

When I was growing up my Dad would always BBQ a picnic ham on his rotisserie grill every Thanksgiving. It was the tradition in our home. He is no longer up to the task and I would like to take a shot at doing one for him this year on my BGE. I've looked around at the usual recipe sites and haven't found any distinction between cooking methods of the two cuts (picnic and Boston Butt) other than dealing with the skin on the picnic. Do you cook them the same way on the BGE? I thought maybe I could make one of each. Of course I know you have to watch the final temperature of the two pieces separately, but are there any other differences?

Thanks!

Celtic Wolf

The fresh hams are leaner. They can be cooked the same way, but they will take a bit less to cook.

If you are looking to slice instead of pulling let it reach 170 internal.

MtnBlue

Thanks for the info! Yes, my Dad always sliced the hams he cooked, so I should probably shoot for the same on the picnic ham.

Celtic Wolf

Other question I should ask. Is this Ham Fresh or Cured?

The cut coming from the rump of a pig is called a Ham. Problem is that often gets confused with the cured version.. If it is the later we are talking about a whole different cook

fishlessman

you need to watch what your buying, ive seen picnic hams and they are sold here as a smoked shoulder or smoked picnic and are not really hams, they are shoulder sections. now in other parts of the country they may be real hams from the rear leg. a picnic shoulder cooks very similar to a butt and its usually what i make pull out of when im making it for myself. if your making it from a fresh ham, foiling helps toward the end of the cook, but note thats a different piece of meat

fishlessman

this has confusing terminoligy and it might be a regional thing. up here a picnic ham used to be a smoked shoulder for a newengland boiled sunday dinner similar to a boiled corned beef dinner. they were not cured and they were from the shoulder section. not sure how it applies elsewhere.

MtnBlue

I'll double check with my Dad to see what he bought in the past but from looking at the photos on Thirdeye's website here:

http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/2002/02/pork-pork-shoulder-butt-picnic.html

I'm talking about the two parts of the shoulder. It really is confusing isn't it?

fishlessman

thats a shoulder cut and the butt and picnic cook the same i havent seen the term picnic ham in a while, usually it just says picnic shoulder or just picnic around here. thats why i pointed it out, when i used to see picnic ham it was presmoked shoulder. just dont confuse it with ham, its not a ham cut from the rear leg. its got more fat than the butt section, a little darker meat, and a little different flavor (stronger), but its usally cheaper than the butt section, i actually prefer it to the butt section.

MtnBlue

Thanks for the education. I've got a lot to learn now that I have such a cool new way to cook on the BGE!