Rant: Batching pork shoulder deboning took me 6 hours longer than it should have

Last weekend I had 8 bone-in pork shoulders to debone for a big catering order. I figured it would take maybe 3 hours max, but I kept fighting with the blade catch on the shoulder blade, and my knife kept slipping on the fat cap. After the first 4 shoulders I realized I wasn't breaking down the connective tissue around the knuckle joint first, so I was literally sawing through muscle instead of separating it cleanly. Ended up taking me almost 9 hours total to get all 8 done and trimmed. Any of you guys got a faster method for working the blade out of the shoulder joint without tearing up the meat?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.henry2d ago

Were you using a stiff boning knife or something with a little flex? Sounds like the blade catch kept grabbing you, which usually happens when you're not matching the curve of the bone right. I've had that exact same problem, took me a while to learn that a semi-stiff 6 inch blade works way better for that shoulder joint. You gotta get in there and scrape the bone, not slice at it.

gavin802d agoTop Commenter

So you're saying I should've been scraping like a caveman with a rib bone instead of actually trying to cut? I'll take that advice, @coleman.henry - next time I'll just pretend I'm Flintstones butchery.