Tried a new way to break down a pork shoulder that saved me a ton of time

Had a huge order for carnitas last Friday and was dreading breaking down six whole shoulders. My buddy from the shop in Portland told me to try cutting along the seam of the shoulder blade first before anything else. I did it and the whole thing just fell apart clean, took maybe two minutes per shoulder instead of five. Has anyone else used this trick on bigger cuts like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elizabeth5d ago

That's actually the seam for the blade ROAST, not the shoulder blade itself.

jamesf415d agoTop Commenter

So the blade roast is a totally different cut from the shoulder blade?

the_christopher5d ago

Yeah, exactly, that's where it gets confusing. The shoulder blade is the actual bone inside. The blade roast is a specific roast cut from that whole shoulder area, usually from the top part. It's like how a chuck roast comes from the shoulder too, but from a different section. So they're related but butchers treat them as separate cuts.