Some 8 or 9 hours before you want to eat, take the pork in its bag of spices from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature while you fire up the smoker. Once the coals are glowing and you've added smoking wood to the fire pan and hot water to the water pan, transfer the picnic shoulder to the grill.

Smoke, covered, at 200 to 220 degrees F. for 3 to 4 hours, replenishing the cooker's wood and water supplies as needed. Then prepare to start mopping. Pour the vinegar, corn oil, and Tabasco® or other hot red pepper sauce into a medium-size stainless steel or flameproof ceramic saucepan and whisk until well mixed. Baste the shoulder with the mop, using a long-handled barbecue brush or a mop. If you're cooking a bone-in shoulder, be sure to work the mop in around the bone where the meat has begun to separate from it. Continue to smoke the picnic for another 4 to 5 hours, mopping the crusty black surface every 30 minutes or so. A meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the shoulder will have long since registered the 160 to 170 degrees F recommended for pork, and by now, you'll find, the meat can be pulled apart into luscious, incredibly tender strands all peppery around the edges.