removing an element from a jQuery type object

So I've got a nested object that has this structure:

{"big_s":
      {"s1":{"params":{"p1":"stuff","p2":stuff2"","p3":"stuff3"}},
      "s2":{"params":{"p1":"stuff","p2":"stuff2","p3":"stuff3"}}
      }
}

how would I go about removing one of the inner objects - s1 or s2?

I've tried all sorts of ways but can't seem to get anything to remove an item from a jQuery object.