Pork butt vs pork shoulder vs pork cushion

I am going to be smoking nearly 50 pounds of pork on my traeger 075 tomorrow, and I wanted to know if there was any difference between the 3 cuts of pork I got. I have 5 individual pieces, each roughly 10 pounds. I plan on rubbing them down with my homemade rub consisting of 1/3 dark brown sugar, 1/3 kosher salt, and 1/3 various other spices. They will sit in the fridge for 24 hours, and be smoked with a mix of apple wood, pecan wood, and hickory wood for roughly 18 hours at 225 - 250. I plan on setting them in aluminum half tray pans to make shredding, movement, and serving much easier. This is for a pot luck event meant to feed 50 plus kids and their parents and potentially siblings. It's the main protein for the event.

I plan on applying smoke for the first 6 to 8 hours, then tenting foil over the pans to avoid any stall that might occur, and trap in and collect any moisture to mix in when shredding.

I usually only do a pork butt one at a time, and smoke for only 6 hours and then let it rest in the oven in a Dutch oven overnight at 225. I then transfer to a crock pot and shred it there, and dump any collected liquid in to keep it moist. Doing that I consistently get moist tender meat that falls apart, but there is a lack of bark. Everyone complements the results and wants more.

So as I asked in the title, is there any difference between those 3 cuts of meat of how I need to treat them? The cushion has no bones, and neither does the butt. The shoulder cuts do however.

I'll provide pics of before, during, and after when finished.

Posted Aug 7, 2025, 4:41 PM UTC

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