"Nonnymus" > wrote in message
...
> TFM® wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Nonnymus" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Brick wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't think you're doing it on purpose, but you're confusing me with
>>>> you terminology of butts, boston butts and shoulders. I read it three
>>>> times
>>>> and I can't figure out what you're talking about. I understand about
>>>> the deboning part. A butt is a butt is a butt. A Boston butt is a butt
>>>> in Boston.
>>>> Sometimes a Boston Butt is just a piece of a butt, like three or four
>>>> pounds.
>>>> A shoulder is the combination of the butt and the picnic. A shoulder
>>>> ALWAYS
>>>> includes a joint. Otherwise it is not a shoulder. The picnic is the
>>>> upper portion
>>>> of the front leg of a hog. The Butt is the part of the shoulder that
>>>> the picnic
>>>> connects to. To put it into better perspective; a shoulder will weigh
>>>> in the
>>>> neighborhood of 14 to 18 pounds. A butt or a picnic will weigh between
>>>> 7 and 9 pounds with the bone in. That assumes that the portion is still
>>>> whole. All bets are off if the butcher kept some for himself or you
>>>> found a
>>>> pygamy hog or a big old hampshire in the 450 lb range.
>>>
>>> OK, what I thought was
>>>
>>> Butt = front shoulder, including humorous and scapula of pit. It's what
>>> I almost always cook and call a butt. It would be equivalent to the
>>> upper arm and shoulder meat of a pig.
>>>
>>> Boston Butt= same thing, less humorous. It's about like a butt, but
>>> less bone.
>>>
>>> Shoulder = butt, without any scapula or humorous = unboned shoulder.
>>>
>>> I'm probably wrong in my terminology. What I got was the upper arm and
>>> shoulder meat of the pig, less any bone. It was labeled as a
>>> "shoulder." Two weighed in at just under 17 or so pounds and looked like
>>> a butt with the bone removed.
>>>
>>> Brick, help me out here. <seriously>
>>
>>
>> I'm not Brick, but I've been to his house and I do know my way around a
>> hog.
>>
>> A butt and a boston butt are the same thing. A boneless butt is
>> obviously different.
>>
>> The butt contains the shoulder blade. (doesn't that make sense?)
>>
>> The picnic ham as it was classically called is the lower foreleg.
>> Otherwise known as a picnic. Same limb, but the picnic has skin, more
>> fat, and a big round bone instead of a shoulder blade.
>>
>> If you leave the picnic attached to the butt, you have a pork shoulder.
>> They weigh about 15 to 18 pounds *each*. They're about 20 inches long
>> and as big around as a normal man's thigh at the butt end. They taper
>> down on the picnic end to about the size of a hamhock. (picture a pig
>> foot just inches below that point)
>>
>>
>> Having cooked a bunch of all 3 (butt, picnic, shoulder) the shoulder is
>> my favorite simply by virtue of price.
>>
>> If a butt is $1.39 at a given store, the picnic will be $1.09. The
>> shoulder will be the same price as the picnic, but you get the butt
>> included.
>>
>>
>> If I can't get a whole shoulder I'll generally go for 2 picnics. The
>> skin and fat, when cooked properly make a great addition chopped into the
>> rest of the meat.
>>
>> Addendum:
>> It appears it matters what part of the country you come from.
>> In Tennessee, the Motherland of BBQ, it is as I've said. Other places
>> may call a butt a shoulder.
>>
>>
>> TFM®
>
> With that excellent explanaton, I don't even know what I bought and
> cooked. It's good, and that's what counts.
>
> From my "autopsy" before cooking, what I thought I had was the upper arm
> and part of the shoulder of the pig, minus what in a human would be the
> upper humorous and scapula.
>
> Thank you for the information.
>
> Nonny


I would assume from your description that you had boneless picnics then. A
rare cut indeed around these parts, but not unheard of.

Whatever they were, if they were good, it was all good.

I like bones. It's kinda like the difference between boneless chicken parts
and chicken parts with bones. I think the bones add flavor during long
cooks. Whether they accelerate the cooking or not is another story.

Added bonus: smoked hog bones make great stock.


TFM® - The *******s probably sold the bones as soup bones for $1.59 a pound!