How to cube pork shoulder
How to Trim a Boston Butt Pork Shoulder | Tips & Techniques
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hey everybody I'm chef Tom with a tbq
calm and today I want to show you how to
trim a Boston butt pork shoulder for me
one of the most approachable BBQ meats
is the Boston butt pork shoulder or the
pork butt this is something that's
really easy to jump into as a beginner
but even the pros are still perfecting
their pulled pork their sliced pork
their pork but in general today we're
gonna talk about the anatomy of the pork
but how to trim it to really help
yourself out when you're cooking it and
the tools you need to get there so let's
start off by taking a tour of the pork
butt here we have the pork butt with the
fat cap on top there's a big piece of
fat here a thin piece of meat right here
another piece of fat here and then most
of the meat underneath so when it comes
to trimming I typically take off the fat
cap because this can be used for other
purposes and it exposes the meat so that
we can get as much smoke and seasoning
on the meat itself as we flip this over
we see there's a crease here on the
bottom side of this butt and we're gonna
open that all the way up and cut out all
of this connective tissue this extra
stringy stuff this is the stuff that
doesn't necessarily cook all the way
down when you're smoking your pork butt
so it's best to get rid of it now so
you're not chewing on it later and you
once again you can get that seasoning
underneath the tissue then here on the
end you can see the end of the blade
bone now this sits pretty close to the
inside of this crevice here so we'll
kind of be trimming along that as we
take this stuff out down that crevice
we're not going to separate it fully but
we are going to open it up a bit the
opposite end from the blade bone we have
what it's known as the money muscle and
that's this tubular muscle right here on
the end that's the one that's known for
winning big money at barbecue
competitions because of its luscious
texture great muscle right there now for
me I prefer a six inch curved boning
knife and you've got two options here
this is the wust off this is the shewn
this is the one that feels most
comfortable in my hand so that's what I
prefer to use but some people would
prefer to have a straight boning knife
totally a matter of preference now
before we dig into the fat cap or into
the crevasse the first thing I like to
do is just run my hands over the surface
of the pork but to feel for anything
that's out of place for example right
here
the butcher left a little bone behind so
we're gonna take that off now you won't
always find this it could be different
on any pork butt here but the important
thing is to notice you don't ever want
to chew on that nobody wants to bite
into it and that's why we go around the
outside of the pork but before we start
trimming anything else oftentimes we'll
catch a bit of cartilage right here next
to the crevice and we've got a little
bit right here today so we're gonna take
off that tiny bit of cartilage there
it's a little bit more right here and
sometimes you won't catch this visually
which is why we use our hands like this
little piece right here I wouldn't have
seen that but later on when you go to
bite into your pulled pork and you bite
into that it can be a big turn-off now
this side is looking pretty clean
got a little bit of excess fat here
that's just gonna pretty much burn up
while it's cooking so I'll go ahead and
take that off also exposes just a little
bit more of that money muscle there's
not much else that you need to do here
unless you're going for a competition
trim which we're not today so let's go
ahead and flip this over and trim off
the fat cap now we talked a little bit
about that false cap so you've got the
fat the meat and then the fat we need to
go underneath that first layer and meat
and take that off and a super sharp
knife is really important when you get
to this point because it does all of the
heavy lifting for you really gentle soft
cuts and we're just peeling this whole
thing back pretty much any time that
you're trimming meat like this the idea
is to stay in the white stay in the fat
if you start to hit some red meat that
means you need to make an adjustment so
we're just gonna work our way back to
the other end now again just staying in
the fat there's gonna be a bone right
here and that fat gets pretty thin
they're typically not going to find any
meat on top of that part so now we've
essentially removed to the false cap and
we can go ahead and just trim off the
rest of this fat on top trimming the fat
cap off the pork butt is not a necessary
step you could totally smoke it with the
fat cap on there but there's a couple
things that happen when you do that
first of all none of the seasoning gets
through the
fat cap and down into the meat and when
you're done smoking that you're gonna
pull that fat cap off and maybe you're
gonna chop it up and maybe you're gonna
incorporate it into your pulled pork or
whatever you're making but you have to
understand that now none of the
seasoning and none of the smoke has
penetrated into the meat and that's why
we choose to take it off now you might
be wondering if I trim the fat off
is it gonna dry the pork butt out not at
all it's actually the intramuscular fat
that adds all that juiciness to the pork
in the end so if you take that fat off
the surface now you've exposed the meat
to smoke you've exposed the meat to
seasoning and you've still got the
intramuscular fat that's gonna give you
a really nice juicy pork butt and that's
the reason I really feel comfortable
taking all of the fat off the surface
here I'm trying to add as much flavor to
this pork butt as possible and the best
way to do that is to expose the meat to
the smoke into the seasoning so in
addition to the fat you will find that
there's some sort of membranes you can
see right on top of the knife there this
doesn't break down super easy so it's
easiest to just take it off now and if
you can slide your knife right
underneath it and take as little meat
with you that's ideal now even more
important than getting this thing
trimmed up right is being safe while
you're doing it so that's why I'm always
cutting out a tab for me to hold on to
that way I can get my fingers out of the
way as I slide the knife right
underneath the surface of the fat there
all right so fat cap is cleaned up
pretty nicely here keep in mind when
you're trimming off the fat and the meat
a lot of this is good to use in other
projects I mean this will make for some
great sausage you could render this out
for lard you don't need to throw this
away throw it in the freezer and save it
for something else
some of these scrappy pieces have a bit
of cartilage or something on them throw
those away so now we flip and we go to
work on the crevice so you can really
start to just open this up by hand
there's a real separation here these
muscles come together with some stuff
glued in between but you can use their
hands to really find where you're
working and now that I've got that
opened up I'm gonna head in there with
my knife and start to take out that
really stringy tissue so I'll start on
the bone side once again we talked about
that
a bone is right underneath the surface
there we're gonna take this membrane off
again cut a tab work your knife right
underneath the surface that way you
don't take any meat with you
and then once you've got that side
cleaned up hard bone there don't worry
about taking anything off that we're
gonna move to the other side and do the
exact same thing this is where a super
sharp knife is going to be your best
friend we want to get this thing cleaned
up with as little loss as possible and a
lot of that is really just letting the
pork tell you where to make your cuts
there's a lot of muscles in a pork but
they have these very natural places
where they come together so don't fight
it go with the flow now most of the trim
that comes out of here not stuff that
you want to save I just don't typically
save this stringy tissue and now we've
exposed all of this meat again to the
seasoning and smoke when we lay this out
on the grill so let's roll this back a
little bit but just make sure that we
didn't miss anything for example this
little bit on the in there there's a
little vein that's just gonna burn up
nobody wants to eat that
make sure that we don't have any more
cartilage any more bones sticking out
this butts ready to season and go on the
pit we've got plenty of pork butt
recipes out there for you guys to check
out and most of them start with this
trim right here I'll throw some links to
some of my favorites in the video
description down below thank you guys so
much for watching be sure to check out
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