Stop telling new guys to "just follow the fat seam" on a pork shoulder, that advice cost me 3 whole butts last Saturday
I had two new guys on the block and told them to follow the fat seam like I was taught, and both of them sliced straight through the money muscle into the coppa because nobody ever told them the seam runs different depending on which side of the shoulder you're facing, so now I'm out $60 in product and both of them are scared to touch a picnic, how are you all training new hires on shoulder breakdown without just pointing and saying "there"?
Feel for you on that one, losing three butts stings and scaring off new guys is even worse. What worked for me is having them trace the seam with a boning knife before any cutting, then flipping the shoulder and doing it again so they see how it moves on both sides. Takes an extra five minutes but nobody has wrecked a coppa since.