Tried scoring the fat cap in a crosshatch pattern on my pork shoulders last weekend

I've been butchering for about 6 years now and I always just trimmed the fat cap flat on my pork shoulders before sending them out. Last Saturday I was prepping a batch of 8 shoulders for a local BBQ joint here in Grand Rapids and decided to try something different. I scored the fat cap about a quarter inch deep in a crosshatch pattern, rows about an inch apart. What I noticed was the fat rendered way more evenly during the smoke and the bark set up deeper into the meat. Nobody told me to try this, I just saw a picture from an old timer on a forum and figured why not. The BBQ guy called me back and said the shoulders pulled apart cleaner than usual and he wants all of them done that way from now on. Has anyone else messed around with scoring patterns on different cuts?

3 comments

3 Comments

mileslane3d ago

My buddy tried that on a brisket and said the bark came out perfect.

olivia_white934d ago

Heard a guy on a radio show once talk about how scoring helps the smoke penetrate deeper into the meat. Made sense to me, but your results kind of back that up.

paul_ramirez3d ago

Have you ever looked up that old barbecue science book "Meathead" by Meathead Goldwyn? I read somewhere that scoring only helps a little with smoke penetration, but it really helps with getting a better bark and crust. Just something to chew on, but your results seem to line up with what I've seen in my own experiments too.