First Butt!

[chewpac]

Final results:
Butt went on the smoker Thursday night at 11:00 pm with about 5.5 oz of cherry and peach.  Hit 195 IT at 5:30 pm Friday night, double wrap and into cooler for 1 hour.
Best pulled pork ever!! Family and friends agreed it doesn't get any better than this. 
Thank you guys for the great brine recipe, and the advice on the timing.  Without your help I would have been pulling it off the smoker at 10:30 at night

[DivotMaker]

Nice!  Great job, Chris!

[BedouinBob]

Nicely done Chris! I see that you cross cut the roast to get more area exposed. Nice idea.  Did you find that they were more dry or did they turn out moist as well?

[DivotMaker]

That would be my concern about deep scoring like that too, Bob.  Seems like you'd lose a lot of moisture.  Chris?  Any word on that?

[JSRFrench]

Thanks for the advice guys, doing a 10lb Boston Butt for tomorrow.
Already brining, I will allow 1 3/4 hours smoke time per lb. & if early the 140* temp hold warm.
Use a #3 & my only complaint so far is it does not fit in any of the storage on the Motor Coach.
Fortunately for longer duration trips, I pull a box trailer with the Spyder inside so there is room.

Y'all would not believe the comments I receive doing a smoke sitting back on a beach watching TV drinking several beers & creating fantastic cooked meat. Generally the envy of the Campers because the rest are fighting cheap travel grills.

[chewpac]

That would be my concern about deep scoring like that too, Bob.  Seems like you'd lose a lot of moisture.  Chris?  Any word on that?

I called this a pork butt when I started, but it was actually a pork picnic...I don't know enough about different meats to know if that makes a difference or not...I told the butcher I wanted to do a butt and this is what he gave me.  I bought 2 so I looked at the one in the freezer and noticed it says "pork picnic"
I am going to find another one just like it so that next time I will do 2 at a time.

Now with that being said, that was the fat cap that I scored down to the meat.  I did that to get some of the rub down.  I smoked it fat cap up.  When it was done the fat just pulled right off. The meat was amazing and juicy!  If I could duplicate this exactly I would...I can't imagine it being any better than how this turned out

[NDKoze]

Going forward, you are really going to want to smoke Boston Butts instead of the Picnics. If you think the Picnic was good, wait until you smoke a Boston Butt. The Picnics are the lower portion of the pork shoulder and the Boston is the upper part of the shoulder. The upper (Boston) has more internal marbling and in general will be more moist and better for pulled pork.

The picnics are good for slicers.

[chewpac]

Going forward, you are really going to want to smoke Boston Butts instead of the Picnics. If you think the Picnic was good, wait until you smoke a Boston Butt. The Picnics are the lower portion of the pork shoulder and the Boston is the upper part of the shoulder. The upper (Boston) has more internal marbling and in general will be more moist and better for pulled pork.

The picnics are good for slicers.

Awesome!! Thx for the info Gregg.  I can't imagine it getting much better, but now I can't wait to try a Boston... I was going to do pulled for New Year's Eve and use the picnic, but now I will definitely find a Boston and give it a shot.
Do the Boston's have the thick fat cap on them like the picnics?

[NDKoze]

From the looks of your picnic picture, I would say that most don't have that thick of a fat cap on them. I usually don't trim very much if any off of my Boston Butts. What is left pretty much dissolves and converts to bark candy that is everyone's favorite part of the butt.

I would save your picnic as a slicer. Brine and prep it just like you would for pulled pork, but only smoke to 175 degrees. Pull and slice with a slicing knife or an electric. Throw on a little barbecue sauce and maybe some coleslaw and it makes for some incredible pork sandwiches.

[DivotMaker]

That explains the really thick fat cap, Chris!  While the picnic cut is tasty, it doesn't match the bone-in Boston butt cut, imo.  If I get a Boston butt with a thick fat cap (which is only on one side), I actually trim it to about 1/4" thick.  There is enough internal fat and connective tissue in the shoulder cut to keep it plenty tender and moist.  Boston butts are the choice of just about every competition team, and restaurants, for pulled pork.