Hot take: whole hog vs pulled pork shoulders for competition

I cooked at a local competition near Raleigh last month and went with a whole hog approach while my buddy did two Boston butts. The whole hog took 16 hours and the skin came out amazing but the meat from different parts was uneven. His shoulders were super consistent and he scored higher on taste. Is the extra work with a whole hog really worth it for the presentation or should I just stick with shoulders next time?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.tyler21d ago

Expand on what your buddy found out - I've seen that same thing play out at dozens of comps over the years. The judges are looking for consistency across all six boxes, and a whole hog gives you one or two killer spots (the shoulder and maybe some cheek meat) but then you're left with dry loin or fatty belly that's hard to make into perfect little cubes. Shoulders let you control every single bite because you're working with one muscle group that's designed for low and slow cooking. If you're doing whole hog, you basically have to treat each section like its own cook and pull it at different times, which is a nightmare when you're already running on no sleep. Plus with shoulders you can focus all your energy on nailing the bark and the texture instead of worrying about whether the ham is going to come out stringy versus the shoulder being perfect.

the_nathan20d ago

Got a buddy who tried whole hog at a local comp last year. Dude was up at 2am trying to figure out why his loin was already hitting 170 while the shoulder was barely at 140. Ended up wrapping half the pig in foil just to slow down the hot spots. Then when he turned in his turn in box, the judges absolutely hammered him on the belly pieces being way too greasy compared to the shoulder cubes. He told me after that night he swore off whole hog forever and just buys two shoulders now. @thompson.tyler you hit the nail on the head about treating each section like its own cook, it's basically running five different cooks at once with one fire.