Pork Butt

[nickdel]

Hi all,

This might sound like a bit of a daft and stupid question, but..............
What on earth is a pork butt? What is the actual cut of meat?
Pulled pork looks and sounds absolutely fantastic and I'm bustin' to try it.
Any help and tips would abe very much appreciated.

In eager anticipation

Nick

[ozza]

shoulder of pork

[philnewts]

Hi
You will find all your answers here.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/porkbuttselect.html

Sorry if posting external links is frowned upon.

[ozza]

BTW i saw a picnic roast for sale all ready rubbed up in waitrose the other day, very shocked, maybe showing the change of our slow cooking / bbq habits in the uk?

[British BBQ Society]

No problem with posting external links, all information is helpful

[Steve]

I have an American butchery manual, I'm going to scan the pork butt page in tomorrow and post it here.

It's basically the top part of the shoulder or neck end, but this diagram I have is a gem.

Watch this space.

[philnewts]

A scan would be great. I can take it down to my local Pork Butcher and ask for exactly the right cut.

[Steve]

As promised, hope this helps - click to expand image in another window.

The book is Basic Butchering Of Livestock & Game by John J Mettler Jr., DVM

ISBN 978-0-88266-391-3

I recommend buying the book as it's quite a handy book to have around and quite an interesting read if you want to learn about how to slaughter and butcher animals

[ozza]

BTW i saw a picnic roast for sale all ready rubbed up in waitrose the other day, very shocked, maybe showing the change of our slow cooking / bbq habits in the uk?

missus is buggering off with her sister in a couple of weeks, im gonna give one of these a go, just for me, only 3.50

[Chris__M]

Hi All

Brand new member here, been cooking burgers and sausages for a few years, but recently started experimenting with larger bits of meat, including beer-can chickens and pork joints. Working on a 22.5" Weber Kettle at the moment.

From talking to my local butcher, a reasonable British translation of a what I have seen described on US BBQ forums as Boston Butt is a "bone-in blade shoulder of pork". As it happens I was having this conversation today, enquiring if (a) they could do these for me and (b) how much notice they needed. Their answer was (a) most certainly (the butchery is owned by the local pork farm) and (b) approximately 5 working days, to be safe.

However, as my experiments are being consumed only by me at the moment, I don't wish to cook 6 lbs of meat or more. As a result, I have been trying out my techniques with Cooperative boned shoulders of pork, with reasonable results - the joints are a reasonable size - 1-1.5kg - not too small to be decent practice in the techniques, while not too big for me not to be able to finish as cold cuts in a few days.

The last one I tried wouldn't pull, but still sliced nicely and tasted sweet with a nice hint of hickory. I am pretty certain I cooked it too quickly and just a little too much, and have just picked up a probe thermometer to help my next effort.

I am hoping to have the technique perfected to try on a real Butt when I next have people round for a BBQ at the end of August.