Porkplexing! Fine Cooking's Recipe for Mac & Cheese

I was all excited to make this recipe for Mac & Cheese when I realized they were asking for a smoked pork shoulder to be roasted 5 to 6 hours. In the Fine Cooking forum, they suggest it means ham, which then doesn't need to be cooked that long. Others suggest it means a roast that was not smoked, but when they used it, the dish was bland. Thoughts?

Since the title of the recipe says "Pulled-Pork" I'm guessing that the roasting step is a half-ass for people without a smoker. I'd smoke a butt, eat some delicious pulled pork sandwiches, and then use a pound of the leftover pork for the mac & cheese. Unless they mean to smoke a butt for a while & then foil it and finish it in the oven, but I don't think you'd need 6 hours for a 4 lb. butt that had been in the smoker previously.