Bull 20 lbs. Pork Shoulder

[mgoodling44]

Good morning everyone. I made my first full, bone in pork shoulder this weekend, and I wanted to share my process and results.

I picked up a full 20 lb'er from a local wholesaler. After thawing out for a few days, I was ready to get started. I trimmed the hog skin off the shoulder, and tried to leave about a 1/8 - 1/4 of fat on the "top" (under the skin). More on this later. I rubbed in some plain mustard over the entire shoulder, then applied my house dry rub...nothing fancy (brown sugar, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, cheyenne, mustard powder, and a few others). Wrapped in plastic and placed in the frig for 8 hours.
Got the Bull fired up to 225 and got started. Started the smoking process at 6p. At 11pm, I wrapped in butchers paper, then foil, placed back into the smoker.
The next morning, around 6am, it was up to 195 internal temp. At 10am, it was at 205. Opened it up, and pull the pork into a large bowl for 'picking and cleaning" It was fall apart done, and super moist. Outstanding.
Now, here's where I need to ask for some advise.
One: Should I have trimmed off all of the fat? Since this is already a pretty fatty cut, I probably could have done that. Since I left a layer of fat on, the seasoning/rub fell off when the fat pulled off. Thoughts?
Two: Should I have pulled the foil/wrap off to help with getting a much better bark? I think the moisture was the issue. If so, how long would you suggest to let it unwrapped during the last leg of the cooking time? 2 hours? 4 hours? Thoughts?

All in all, it was a good piece of meat, and with my wife homemade pork bbq sauce, these sandwiches are going to be off the charts. The total cook time was about 16 hours. I'm assuming that it was a 16-18 lbs smoke (20 lb less the skin and trim fat)....give or take. 225 from start to finish.

Thanks everyone. Appreciate any feedback that you have. I love experimenting with the Bull.

 

[Pacman]

Congrats on the first cook. 20 lbs is a big one. I don't do a lot of trimming on pork shoulders other than the pieces that I don't expect will ever render or will likely burn.

I rarely wrap my pork shoulders at all, mainly out of laziness and the fact that I do these long cooks overnight. A lot of people do wrap their pork and claim it preserves moisture.

One thing I did start doing is cooking the shoulders on a rack over a pan to collect the juices that I reincorporate after removing the fat when I shred.

 

[Beach Bum]

That is a quite a pork shoulder. I imagine the finished product looked pretty impressive. @Pacman gave some good advice. It sounds like the trimming was about the same amount I would have done. I will also leave these ones unwrapped. Either approach can be successful.

 

[C. Keeper]

That is a quite a pork shoulder. I imagine the finished product looked pretty impressive. @Pacman gave some good advice. It sounds like the trimming was about the same amount I would have done. I will also leave these ones unwrapped. Either approach can be successful.

This is the before pic: