For The Best Pulled Pork Always Grab This Cut

Pulled pork is one of those things you can make for a crowd (here's how many pounds you need for a barbecue), and as long as you have enough time and patience, it's pretty difficult to mess up. But it all starts with the basics: choosing the right cut of meat. If you want the best results, there's one pork cut you should always reach for. We spoke to Scott Thomas, owner of The Grillin' Fools, for his advice on what cut of pork to grab at the store and why it's the ideal hunk of meat for tender and moist pulled pork.

Thomas says you can never go wrong with pork shoulder. "I can spend 20 minutes digging through the steak case at the club store, but for pork shoulder, they are all really well marbled. I generally just grab and go. They are almost foolproof." If pork shoulder is sold out for some reason, Thomas explains that you can pick up an alternate cut, though it's pretty much the same thing packaged with a slightly different label. "The only other option, really, is the picnic shoulder. Which is still just the shoulder, just cut a little differently and usually comes in some netting to hold it together," he says, adding, "Leave the netting on when smoking it."

If you're going shopping for pork shoulder, keep in mind that it can come under even more aliases, not all of which contain the word "shoulder." Scott Thomas had this to say: "One note: pork shoulder, pork butt, Boston butt, and pork shoulder butt are all the same thing."

Thomas explains that these names exist for a historical reason. "Back in the days of wooden sailing ships, the pork shoulder was one of the most common staples for the sailors," he says. "The shoulders were packed in salt inside of large barrels called butts. At the time, the chief port in the U.S. was Boston, and thus they were called pork butts or Boston butts." So keep that in mind if you're on the hunt. But no matter what you prefer to refer to it as, pork shoulder is the perfect cut of meat for BBQ novices and experts alike. Once you get your hands on some, imagine all the glorious meals — we even have 11 tips for crafting the best pulled pork sandwiches.