The Absolute Best Cuts Of Pork To Smoke

While the never-ending debate about what constitutes barbecue vs. merely grilling takes many sides (and sauces), there's a central point that everyone can agree on: qualified barbecue is smoked meat, cooked low and slow. And it's hard to think of a meat that takes to a hot smoke at a low temperature better than pork, which is abundant with fat and strong connective tissue — although as with any animal, some cuts benefit from the process more than others.

So while there may be more than one way to skin a cat, there are even more styles of butchering a hog, and they pay dividends when subjected to a slow smoke, provided you cook each cut correctly for its needs. Let's break down those breakdowns and dig into why each cut of pork is such a prime candidate to grill on the almighty altar of smoke. 

While many might make the case that pork collar is simply the far end of the shoulder, the lack of distinction (or rather, the co-existence of nearly every possible overlap) just illustrates how many ways there are to break down a beast. Look no further for an example than the primal cut of the shoulder — which encapsulates the front leg from spine to elbow, including the shoulder blade — into two similar stretches of pig known as butt and shoulder (via Amazing Ribs).

So what's in a name? It's all quite literally in how you slice it. Smoked BBQ Source distinguishes the portion from shoulder socket to spine as the butt, a.k.a. numerous combinations of "Boston" and "butt," with "shoulder," "blade," and "roast." What would be properly called "pork shoulder" out of the all-encompassing "shoulder" is the triangular cut lower down on the leg.

Now for the good news: the simplest thing about the Boston butt is the cooking. Blogger She-Smoke emphasizes the ease of tossing this cut on the grill for 10 or more hours and letting the smoke ring slowly penetrate the meat while you clean up the yard for a spring BBQ. The butt is a terrific piece of meat for cookouts because once it's done, it benefits from a long rest, guaranteeing the chef time to relax and savor a mission accomplished with their beverage of choice.

As the shoulder contains the pork picnic shoulder, so does the picnic contain the hock. Amazing Ribs explains that hocks can be from the front or rear leg, with the latter referred to as ham hocks and the former shoulder hocks; Foreleg hocks are more likely to be the cut you get when you buy pork knuckle, per Professional Secrets. But no matter which side of the animal the meat is coming from, a skinned hock is called a shank. While these cuts are popular for frying or stewing, they are splendid in a smoker, especially if you have a rotisserie function, says Weber Grill.

While hock contains less meat than most cuts, it's resplendent in connective tissue, which Taste of Home shares turns into collagen and gelatin when cooked, so it's a fine candidate for a long cook with abundant smoke. (You may wish to follow the outlet's suggestion to cook the iconic Oktoberfest dish schweinshaxen.) After an easy and relatively quick night helming the grill (it's basically set and forget for a couple of hours), toss the deliciously smoky remains into a pot of beans or serve alongside potato salad for a truly Bavarian meal.

No less an authority than Steven Raichlen's Barbecue Bible calls this barbecue's best-kept secret. Also known by the equally descriptive presa de paleta, this cut originated in Spain but is now available from many U.S. butchers and purveyors. So what makes this thin cut where shoulder meets pork loin both a secret and a prize? The outlet cites the beneficial and well-distributed fat, and compares it to skirt steak. Incredibly tender, secreto is able to cook at medium temperatures — that makes it quite an outlier to this list full of low and slow tough cuts. When cooked flat, secreto is thin enough to benefit from a quick grilling on higher heat than barbecue prefers but contains enough fat to prevent it from drying out.

We feel secreto's similarity to skirt or flank steak nominates it for braciole treatment; roll the meat around a stuffing of herbs, cheese, veggies, and/or another protein for added flavor and affix the whole thing with twine or toothpicks before throwing it on the grill. Since the cut's so thin, you're not looking for a smoke ring, just the right amount of Maillard crust. If you take  Barbecue Bible's advice for seasoning with smoked paprika, olive oil, and a little lemon juice, the smoke will perfectly complement those Iberian flavors.

Perhaps the most stridently defined cut on this list, ham is famous for its pink hue. That hue is thanks to the curing salts used in its production, BBQ Host says, specifically sodium nitrate. Taken from the top hind leg of the pig, it's worth noting the USDA's distinction that all ham is cured but "fresh ham" is a term for uncured pork. (Yeah, it's confusing, but what else is new in this tour of pig parts?) And while it's not a required step as part of the legal ham-definition process, do you know what else can turn meat pink and preserve it? Smoke, friend. So we say smoke ham if you got ham ... or at least if you want ham.

The USDA gets deep into the details of what makes a ham a ham, and what features are fun and tasty but optional, so while you could cold-smoke a cured ham, why not save time and effort, and smoke that cured ham while you cook it down to BBQ Host's recommendation of an excellent pulled pork?

If you're of a classical appetite, "Meathead" Goldwyn of Amazing Ribs explains that salt denatures meat proteins, which means that curing makes ham an excellent slicing roast.