Jim Elbrecht > writes:

>I'm not satisfied with the wikipedia entry on why it is called Boston
>Butt.
>
>"In pre-revolutionary New England and into the Revolutionary War, some
>pork cuts (not those highly valued, or "high on the hog," like loin
>and ham) were packed into casks or barrels (also known as "butts") for
>storage and shipment. The way the hog shoulder was cut in the Boston
>area became known in other regions as "Boston Butt."
>
>Can anyone give me some references other than a website that refers to
>"How to Cook Meat" by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. [anyone
>familiar with them?]

Chris Schlesinger is a Massachusetts restaurateur, with at least
one restaurant in Boston, and one in my town; the latter,
inexplicably to me, is much esteemed by some. The acoustics
are awful, and the food (the only time I've eaten there) was
nothing special, despite his high repute as a chef. Well,
it was specially expensive. But that's undoubtedly as much
for the view as the food or the auditory ambience.

>I've found the exact verbiage on a gazillion other sites -- some
>referring to the National Pork Board- which is no longer there.

Have you tried the Internet Archive, http://wayback.archive.org ?
If you have an actual URL for the purported NPB page in question,
it's very likely you can find it in the archive.

>I
>don't know who plagiarized who, but I find the explanation
>implausible.
>
>It seems odd to me that a cut that is more popular in the south
>[though I grew up on it in rural NY] is named [without some irony
>being involved] for a New England city.

Why? Consider "Boston cooler", "California cheeseburger", etc.,
and maybe "New York sirloin" (a common descriptive for a cut of
meat in New England...do New Yorkers, rural or urban, use the
term?); no irony in any of them, that I know of.

>I'm also suspect of the common use of the term 'butt' for a cask in
>Revolutionary America.

The Oxford English dictionary has a definition for _butt_ (second
noun of that spelling, def. 1c) as (now obsolete) "A cask for fish,
fruit, etc., of a capacity varying according to the contents and
locality", including citations

1649 F. Thorpe Charge York Assizes 28 In a Butt of Salmon
four~score and four gallons.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word), A Butt of Currants,
is from fifteen to twenty two hundred Weight.
1753 W. Maitland Hist. Edinb. v. 327 For ilk Bale of Madder
or Butt of Prunes, 1/-.

(nothing from the colonies--but it *is* the O*E*D). It also has
a definition for _butt_ (third noun of that spelling, 3):

3. A buttock. Chiefly dial. and colloq. in U.S.
....
c1450 Bk. Cookery in Holkham Coll. (1882) 58 Tak Buttes
of pork and smyt them to peces.
1486 Bk. St. Albans A v, The marow of hogges that is
in the bone of the butte of porke.
....
1884 Harper's Mag. July 299/1 Rump butts, strips, rounds,
and canning beef.

> I've read a lot of period papers and don't
>remember seeing that term used.
>
>I just searched Washington's papers online for "pork and butt" -zero
>hits.
>http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mgwquery.html
>
>Same results for Thomas Jefferson-
>http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collecti.../mtjquery.html
>
>Any other theories on why it is 'Boston Butt'? [or sources that prove
>Wikipedia is right?]

I could tell you, butt then...oh, never mind.

Lee Rudolph