British BBQ Society Forums

Hi, bit of a forum lurker here, looking for some advice!

I normally order my boston butts and baby back ribs online, but I wanted to try a local-ish butcher. Many emails, photos and explanations went between us as he wasn't familiar with either cut (which is fair enough) but he seemed keen to give it a go.

When I went to pick it up the first thing I noticed was the skin was still on the butt despite me asking him to take it off, but he was happy to do that. I should have been more fussy at the time but I was keen to try and keep him on side for future orders. Now that I'm home, I'm not sure what I'm dealing with!

I've ended up with large, triangular cut. It looks like he's given me a section of spine (with small bit of rib still attached). The concern is mostly the cook time - it's thick, which would ordinarily mean longer, but as it's a lot of bone, might that actually help with cooking? I don't think I have the tools or knowledge to remove the spine but leave the shoulder bone inside. Honestly I'm just not sure what I'm looking at, and what (if any) of this is part of a normal boston butt.

Any thoughts? Links to images below.

https://s4.postimg.org/5l3lqc04d/butt1.jpg
https://s4.postimg.org/hbhj7pswt/butt2.jpg
https://s4.postimg.org/z2t5m68bh/butt3.jpg
https://s4.postimg.org/98nya4xp9/butt4.jpg

You can remove the spine bone easy enough and then you'll have a decent pork butt or just leave it in if you don't feel confident enough to do it. Try searching for Scott Rea on YouTube and he has a couple of videos on butchering pork and even one just purely on pork shoulder.

That looks fine, they come like that sometimes. You have two choices really - leave the bone on and cook it bone side down (assuming heat source below) and use it to protect the meat a bit OR what I would do is cut it off so you can get more rub on the meat and more bark. Could always braise the bones down with some cider or something and make the beginnings of a great sauce.