21 lb pork shoulder, best recipe???

[trophyhunt]

For the 4th I’m cooking a 21 lb pork shoulder, I have a treager, grill and our stove. I’ve done pulled pork before and it’s usually good but everything is good smothered in bbq sauce.  Do you guys have an awesome recipe I could try, haven’t tried much with big pork shoulders, more a prime rib guy. 

[carlyoungs]

Check out HowtoBBQright he has lots of good different recipes

[carlyoungs]

On YouTube

[Woodchuck]

I suggest Bad Byron's Butt Rub. 

[trophyhunt]

Umm, yeah, friggin hungry now!  Easy recipes, thanks guys!  That guys knows his bbq! 

[Crunchy]

A chunk of meat that big I would either marinate or inject or both.  Maybe inject, season and let it sit in the frig overnight.  Little heat, little sweet, salt and cumin.@225 on the smoker I would guess a 36 hr cook.

[h20hunter]

Make a ham, country bacon, out of it.

[kenzmad]

Chris Lilly’s recipe has been my go to. Throw some garlic jalapeño slaw on top....

May have a weekend project now.

[hollymaster]

Chris Lilly’s recipe has been my go to. Throw some garlic jalapeño slaw on top....

May have a weekend project now.

Never thought about jalapeño in the slaw

[j_h_nimrod]

I’m a fan of apple cider brines. A gallon of cider, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups kosher salt, hand full of pepper corns. Mix it in a trash bag in a 5-gallon bucket then put in the pork. Pull the bag up carefully (so as not to rip the bag on a bone in shoulder) and get out all the air possible to completely submerse the pork, with practice you can get all the air out and have chunk of meat 100% in contact with the brine and saves a significant amount of brine compared to just using a bucket.

I brine for at least 24 hours and then set out to drip and dry a bit. Rub with straight yellow mustard (a lot of it!) and then your spice rub of choice. Smoke for a couple hours (6-8)  then leave at 225-250 until internal temp reaches ~205. Pull out n wrap in foil for another hour. You can leave the mustard out if you desire and just rub with spices, but the mustard works well  and does not leave a noticeable taste in the final product and keeps it a bit more moist with a good crust.

[lamrith]

Sorry for any typo's rushed this before work.  You sure it is an actual 21# and not a pair of 10.5's?  I have never seen one that big as a single.  All the Cryo-paks I have seen have had 2 in them....

If it is really one I might consider cutting it in half to be honest.  Otherwise it will literally take forever to cook and chances are you really overcook the outside?

I always use Meatheads Memphis dust for a rub.  Mix it yourself and that way you can tweak as you like.  Honestly though his std rub is really good without any tweaks, deep and sweet with just enough pepper to know it is there without being too hot for anyone I have made it for yet.  I apply rub the at least 8hrs before cook start, no binder, as it sits it will pull moisture and turn into it's own binder.

I always cook to 203-205* internal now.  Over the years I have done fully open and panned/foiled. 

Can't beat fully open for sheer simplicity, throw it on, put temp probe in and walk away.  Any edges/corners can get overdone though and bark tends to be on hard side.  Great flavor from it, but you may have some hard pieces almost not chewable in the end product.

Panned/foiled makes for noticeably juicier result as well as speeding up cook time.  You get a little less bark but some do not like crunchy/hard bark so....  Foil also lets you retain more juices which aids in preserving leftovers.couple tablespoons to 1/4cup of juices in bottom of a vac-seal bag before you add meat does wonders for when reheated.  I use disposable lasagna pans,  let cook open in the pan until it hits the stall (170ish usually for me) then add cup of apple juice and foil it.

I am not sure how many people you are cooking for, but with that much meat, and depending on your time available to work on the meal you may want to think about making burnt ends as well.  Same cut of meat (I usually use one for pulled and one for burnt ends since they come 2 to a package) 

• Cook both the same way to start. 
• Once one of the hits 170, pull it off and let it sit for a little bit to cool just a hair so you can handle it.  I tried cooler a few times but found that it didn't work and the cubed meat filled the pan with liquid which messed up stage 2 of the cook. 
• Cube it up, i like smaller .5 - 1" cubes as they are bite sized or a hair smaller.  Put them in a lasagna pan.  Coat with bbq sauce (I use Sweet baby rays original) just enough to make them sticky (not swimming in it)  coat with rub, little more sauce till sticky again, then more rub.  Then throw back in the smoker with the other shoulder.  timing of next part is tough, larger the pils of cubes the longer it takes.
• Let it cook an hour, go out and stir then another hour, stir again, maybe try one and see what it is like.  A done one will melt in your mouth and break apart in your hand just like finished pulled pork. I usually have 8-10# butts and that makes a 1-2 cube thick layer in the pan and after 2.5-3 hrs they are done.  After 2hrs I usually start checking every 30min, then 15min.  When you want to take the pan and go hide to keep them all to yourself, you know they are done. 
• Foil them and pull off the heat, foil and put in a cambrio.  These work great as hor dourves, but then people will be full for dinner and you are stuck with lots of only pulled pork. :-p

[trophyhunt]

I'll have to check to make sure there is not two in the package, thawed it out yesterday and it felt like one big one.  Your recipe sounds great Larry.

[nwwanderer]

Low and slow as stated, bunch of fat in a shoulder to render out, great choice!!

[Stein]

I would bet you have two.  To get to 21 pounds, it would have to be an absolute beast of a pig.  They are routinely packaged two to a pack and should be closer to 10 pounds than 20.

[buckcanyonlodge]

A butt that big had to come from a big old smelly boar. Maybe it is a whole pork shoulder picnic?? Bone it out..grind it.. make sausage with it..then buy a butt from a nice butcher hog. Never saw a 21 pound butt in my 35 years in the meat industry..but since I got out of the biz things may have changed.

[bigdub257]

I would bet you have two.  To get to 21 pounds, it would have to be an absolute beast of a pig.  They are routinely packaged two to a pack and should be closer to 10 pounds than 20.

 

[nwwanderer]

Hog weights are up, 270+, for several reasons.  If the shoulder is whole, not cut for a butt and picnic, 21# would be normal.  It will be great!

[WSU]

I'll bet you a beer next we meet up that it's 2.

[Bigshooter]

If it's a pork shoulder primal it could be 21 lbs or more.  If it's just the butt or the picnic it will be 2.  But usually butts and picnics are labeled as such.  A lot of times the picnic is labeled picnic shoulder.  But I don't know if I have ever saw a butt just labeled shoulder.  My bet is 2 picnics.  If it is the entire primal I would break it down.  And do the butt as pulled pork or carnitas and the picnic do a Cuban marinate and rub.

[trophyhunt]

Ended up being two pieces, which was better. Cooking them now, been on since 8am at 275, I have two meat thermometers and one says 110 the other says 170!  WTH, so going w 170 and wrapping now in foil.  Stupid meat thermometers!!!  Even bought a brand new one and right out of the package it doesn’t work, what a joke. Anyway, the meat is tasting amazing!!!!

[wadu1]

Post a few photos please

[trophyhunt]

OH MY!!   Sooooo damn good! I think I’m going to puke though, ate way too many trimmings.  Thanks for the pointers guys.

[trophyhunt]

.

[wadu1]

Looks great, thanks for the photos

[hunthard]

Oh my

[Fl0und3rz]

Smoked two butts (one was picnic shoulder, IIRC) today with salt, pepper, and garlic granules.  Yum. I cannot wait for sammys tomorrow.  It was hard to stop sampling.  Yours look good.

[Blacktail135]

 Looks great! Did you go with Lamrith's method?

[trophyhunt]

I just put it on the treager without foil, had to empty the drip pan once because it was going to over flow.  I think next time I’ll do the tin foil pan to save the juices, but the bark was amazing!  After it hit 170, I wrapped completely in foil with about two cups of apple juice in each.  Pulled off around 205 I think, stupid meat thermometers suck.  But, it worked out.  I shredded, added a little more rub, Apple juice, sweet baby rays and mixed it all up.  It in a foil pan, I’ll re-heat on the treager tonight.

[Blacktail135]

 Looks and sounds great!

[Timberstalker]

How long did it take, Jerry?

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

It's so good he ain't sharing!

[Buck Rub Jr]

I was going to do a 4th of July brisket again this year but you swayed me to go pork butt..seasoned with Meat Church Honey Hog and Holy Voodoo, Spritzed with Dr. Pepper Cream Soda every 45 min- hour, wrapped tight around 165 with foil, pulled at 205, wrap tight with another layer of foil then stuck them in the cooler to rest for two hours. Lightly brown some corn tortillas in a pan with a little butter, take some coleslaw mix and throw in some mayo, sriracha, lime juice, cilantro, salt and jalapeño juice and you got a dandy street taco 😛

[Crunchy]

I did two 6 pounders yesterday.  Been trading sweet for heat, and barely use any brown sugar.  Just salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder.  Marinate for 8 hrs, tossed on the grill at midnight and done at 2 the next afternoon.  Pull/chop and made enough tacos for 10 people to eat all day.  Someone else made the salsa, but it was MONEY!

[Fl0und3rz]

Did two butts for Independence Day. Just used salt, pepper, and garlic powder, smoked about 4 hours at 250, finished in 300F oven for about 2 hours.  With low spice, leftovers are going for carnitas, and people can season as they like.