Pork butt or shoulder

Pork butt is from the shoulder they are the same. Ham is actually the butt. Most likely why its labeled with both. The butt(shoulder) has a lot of fat and can take a long smoke and remain moist there great for pulled pork. Watch out for sirloin roasts as they aren't good for pulled pork they lack the fat of the butt(shoulder).

I believe ham is made from the picnic WRONG Sorry... below the shoulder.
The butt would have shoulder bone and the picnic would have some of the front leg.
But I'll let the meat experts answer this better.

I could be wrong. First time for everything;)!!!

b-one said:

I could be wrong. First time for everything;)!!!

Click to expand...

No I think you are correct, I am mistaken (Butt meaning back end)

I always thought the picnic was used for ham.

Where the heck are our meat gurus?

I will shut up now

To the hew labeling standards for pork, it is labeled incorrectly.  The term "butt" is no longer allowed.  You have the Pork Arm Shoulder,


and the Pork Shoulder.


Differentiation is the word "Arm".  The pork shoulder is from the fore of the hog, from the spine to mid way.  The pork arm shoulder is from midway to the fore leg.  Other names for the pork arm shoulder is pork picnic, arm butt, fore leg, etc.  The pork shoulder was also known as pork butt.  The way that name was derived, in Colonial times, the Colonists would keep the prime cuts from the hog, i.e. the loins, belly and hams, and would ship out the lesser cuts, the shoulders and arm shoulders, and necks, and would ship them in big barrels, or "butts", to more southern ports.  The names stuck and so they were known as butt roasts.  Now, the Pork Council wanted to normalize the naming more closely with beef cuts, ergo: