I've done both, skin on and skin off.

I prefer skin off because then all the blackened bits get shredded (pulled, chopped, whatever) into the pork. I don't much care for the skin unless it is presented as Pork Rinds. With a beer.

If you leave all the fat some of it won't melt away, you will have to remove it during the pulling process. But you do want fat on there.

So...what I'd do it remove the skin and trim the fat to about 1/4 inch. I score the fat (like you do on a ham) as well only to get the rub right into the meat.

Leave the bone in, it transfers heat to the interior.

And, remember, long, low and slow. I run my smoker at 215-220* and put in room temp pork butts and cook them for 12-14 hours with smoke running for only the first three or so hours. I bring them out at an interior temp of 190-200*. Tent and let sit for a beer or two. Yank the bone out and begin. It will tell you where to go.

Decide if you want to chop it or really pull it. Chopped behaves better in the bun, stays stuck together better. Pulled is messy but better for me as its more toothsome, although very tender.

Have fun.

Remember the single most important thing is beer. You can't smoke a pork butt without beer.

I'd leave it on, smoked pork isn't diet food. It'll taste better with the crispy fat.

I was going to suggest the patch but you want the other kind of smoker. ;)

I've never had to deal with the skin. I'm thinking I would take that off and leave some of the fat. Mine have always been trimmed up for the most part.

I had never had fried pork rinds until I moved farther south. A good munchie for sure. So, BB could be on to something too.

A couple of cold ones is great for sure...I'm thinking Crown and Grey Goose might work too. LOL Guessing there is a party at the cottage this weekend?

David

I'd leave it on, smoked pork isn't diet food. It'll taste better with the crispy fat.

Trouble is, in a smoker, the skin doesn't crisp up.
The temperature is so low, the environment so moist and the time so long that you get cooked, darkened but slippery and fatty skin.

Done right all the fat and all the collagen (the white stuff that isn't fat) melt into the meat and denature the protein strands. That is what makes smoked and pulled pork what it is. Anything else is just a pork roast that has been shredded. Not even close, one to the other.

I don't want to sound bossy or pompous but don't fall into the trap of cooking things in your smoker. You smoke stuff in there. Cooking in the oven, on the range or in a crockpot.

I know it doesn't get crispy- poor choice of words- but it does melt into the meat and help baste it. And, it keep the outside meat from getting too leathery if the mop isn't applied enough.
It can always be removed later at the chopping stage. Btw, I prefer the meat shredded and chopped, the texture is so much better to me.

Elery says he'd take the skin off and trim the fat, leave a layer, but not too much. Cook it low and slow for several hours and don't smoke it too much. He says he sometimes covers it with foil for the last couple of hours so it doesn't taste too smokey.

Annie

I bought one like that and I removed the skin but left the fat and then applied the rub. It was delicious. I shredded the whole thing. Yummy!

Do what Ellery says.

Except several hours needs be lots of hours.

Long, low and slow.

Like 16 hours.

Most things I have read indicate that meat absorbs as much smoke flavor as it's going to in the first 3 - 4 hours in the smoker, after that you're just using the heat to cook the meat. You can do it in the oven much more efficiently, and with better control. My experience has proven this true.

Steve

Well I did remove the skin. It was so thick and leathery I just can't imagine that the smoke could do it's thing. I did leave a small piece of the skin right near the joint cut, maybe 2X4 inches, just curious as to how that smokes
There wasn't as much fat on the meat as I would have thought, maybe just bad butchering by me, so I left it all on, scored it and seasoned it.

Metaxa, you may be interested to know that my DH wasn't at all interested in the smoker until I told him you said it required beer!

Just praying that the black bears aren't curious!!!!

elery said the last one he did was about 7 pounds and went for about 11 hours at somewhere between 210 and 220F, but the first one he did tasted too much like smoke, so he covered the others and thought it was better.

I'll have to ask him about the beer requirement.....

Annie

I did leave a small piece of the skin right near the joint cut,...

Joint?

Are you sure you got a pork butt, pork shoulder?
Sounds like you might have got a ham. An uncured, fresh ham but a butt doesn't have a joint.

Not to worry, it will smoke fine but as you mentioned, not as much fat on a ham as there is on and in a butt.

Just use a mopping sauce to keep moisture on it and opening the smoker to mop will extend your cooking time.

A simple mop is apple juice. You can use apple cider.

More elaborate ones have a recipe that looks like a barbecue sauce without any of the ketchup or sugars.

(I can feel this post getting long...sorry)
You know that pulled pork goes onto the softest, squishiest white buns you can find, right?

And that you toss the pulled pork in a vinegar sauce, pile it on the bun, squirt your favourite BBQ sauce on top, dollop a healthy serving of cole slaw on top of that and to top it all off you lay two slices of dill pickle on top of all that?
Then you close up the bun and admire it for a minute or two?
That is how you are supposed to do it.

And, when you think you are full...that is your signal to make one more.

Metaxa , I called it a joint but it isn't really. It's just the way it's cut. The skin is wide all the way around except at one end where it's kinda bent and wrinkled and you can see the bone end. For sure it's butt.

As for the buns, I always make my own using the hamburger bun recipe from King Arthurs, sweet and soft and yummy! Also made two different BBQ sauces. I like it vinegry others like it tomatoey.

Let you know tonight how it went but it's looking good!

PS: I do have a ham in the freezer for another time. Picked up on sale so I'll head your advice, especially about the mop when it's turn comes.

If you have leftovers I would highly recommend pulled pork pizza. We loved it, the BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce was a big hit. I may go out and buy a butt today now that I am remembering that pizza.

We almost always have leftovers of anything we do.

So the freezer gets an accumulation of poor man's vac bags (fill zip lock, straw, suck, zip) of pulled pork, brisket, wings, bacon explosions slices, etc.

Then, every now and then, it is clear out the freezer day and the meal is all thse assorted bits of bbq/smoker product with slaw, potato salad and (hopefully) corn on the cob.

Like Chase, there is generally a couple or three of different sauces.
We heat the sauces up and serve in bowls, you just take a chunk of whatever Q is on the platter, swipe it through the sauce of choice and go from there.

We call it the BBQ Buffet and if I mention we are having it all the kids, their friends and a couple of our adult friends start angling to be there.

You'd think that butt (pork) of Chase's would be done by now?

Cute, metaxa ; )

Thanks to all for your advice and interest.

The pork was delicious! Best yet, very moist and tender and just about right on the smoke. I did end up finishing it in a low oven, more out of timing than anything else. The kids really loved it, thank goodness I had made extra buns!

The bacon I did was not quite as successful. My husband liked it but I thought it wasn't salty enough and I also was disappointed in the texture after cooking. It was chewier than I would have liked, I like crisp bacon.

Not sure if that is just the way home smoked bacon is? Any opinions?
.

Chase, my bacon is the opposite, it shatters when I bite it if I cook it just a tiny bit too long.

Maybe it's the fat content of the belly? I don't know, really....

Annie

Not sure if that is just the way home smoked bacon is? Any opinions?

Its somewhere in the cure...ingredients, time or method.

I use an injector and pump brine into the belly, quite a bit really and then use a paste rub of the brine ingredients, sort of a dry brine, if you will, on the outside.

I cure for a lot longer than most recipes seem to indicate and then I hang the belly, wipe it off and let it drip and dry out. I also hang to smoke, rather than lay it on a rack.

Then I smoke and as I use alder and pin cherry (both pretty mild) I really let the smoke go to it.

But...it is different than commercial bacon. Also, commercial bacon is sliced pretty thing, was yours?

Metaxa, mine was pretty:

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So was the pancetta:

Annie

That sure is pretty!

So, tell Chase how to get there!

Above, I wrote: "Also, commercial bacon is sliced pretty thing, was yours?"

That should read "pretty thin"
I plead beer.

Min looked pretty much like that too. Maybe it's becasue we used the same recipe! LOL

I'm sure the slice wasn't too thick but I'm wondering if I sliced it with the grain instead of against it?

So much to learn!

Chase, everything we've done with the smoker is a "learning experience", but we do get to eat our mistakes!

Mine was sliced about as thin as grocery store "regular" bacon, we used the electric slicer and so got thin, uniform slices.

The problem I'm having with it is that it burns more quickly, it goes from just getting brown to really hard and crunchy in just a flash.

Annie

I'm still learning, every time I fire up the smoker is an adventure.

The only things I have down pat, could do them in my sleep are pork butt, ribs and salmon.

Everything else, sausage, jerky, pemmican, brisket...whatever, is still a work in progress.