On 1-Sep-2008, Nonnymus > wrote:

> Brick wrote:
>
> >
> > Well welcome to the club Nonny. I'm surprised that you're surprised.
> > I've been surprised in both directions. I no longer spend any time
> > trying to figure out what happened. It's done when it's done and that's
> > that. Oh yeh, pull them when they reach your target temperature. The
> > meat is just messing with your mind. You haven't made a mistake, (yet).
> >
> Thanks to all for the comments. I normally cook butts, and very
> occasionally cook Boston Buttts. Even at my tender age, this was my
> very first shoulder, and there was no bone in either, of course. I
> finally pulled the shoulders out at 173-175f and let them cool down in
> the house in my normal fashion. They were perfect, except for a little
> bit of overdone crust at the tips and some of the incision area where
> the bones had been removed. I'd tucked the meat all together well, but
> didn't try trussing it. Instead, I was just careful and it worked out
> well. In fact, the incisions let me put in just a little rub. Since
> I'd not cooked a shoulder before, I wanted to be careful and not overdo
> it with seasoning.

<snip a bunch here>

I don't think you're doing it on purpose, but you're confusing me with
you terminology of butts, boston butts and shoulders. I read it three times
and I can't figure out what you're talking about. I understand about the
deboning part. A butt is a butt is a butt. A Boston butt is a butt in Boston.
Sometimes a Boston Butt is just a piece of a butt, like three or four pounds.
A shoulder is the combination of the butt and the picnic. A shoulder ALWAYS
includes a joint. Otherwise it is not a shoulder. The picnic is the upper portion
of the front leg of a hog. The Butt is the part of the shoulder that the picnic
connects to. To put it into better perspective; a shoulder will weigh in the
neighborhood of 14 to 18 pounds. A butt or a picnic will weigh between
7 and 9 pounds with the bone in. That assumes that the portion is still
whole. All bets are off if the butcher kept some for himself or you found a
pygamy hog or a big old hampshire in the 450 lb range.
--
Brick(Youth is wasted on young people)