TIL a thing about pork shoulder cook times that surprised me

I was watching this old butcher from Tennessee on YouTube last night, not one of the fancy channels, just a guy in his shop. He mentioned that pork shoulder actually cooks faster if you leave the bone in, not slower like I always thought. He said the bone acts like a heat sink and helps conduct the heat through the meat more even. I'd been deboning my shoulders for years thinking it would speed things up for my customers. Then he dropped a stat that blew my mind: a bone-in shoulder at 225 degrees can finish up to 45 minutes sooner than a boneless one of the same weight. I tested it this morning with two similar cuts from my cooler, and I'll be danged, the bone-in was probe tender first. Has anyone else run into this or am I just late to the party?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel_walker16d ago

Hmm, that's wild, did you weigh them both first to make sure they were actually the same size, or were you going off the butcher's listed weight?

taylor.amy16d ago

My friend Sarah bought two “1lb” packs and one was nearly half fat.