boston butt , pork shoulder mix up at sams

[cal1956]

friday we bought 131 lbs of what we thought were Boston Butts . we got them home and had a bunch of other things to do so we were in a hurry , this morning when i took a closer look at the box before throwing them away , i noticed it said
pork shoulder / boston butts so i looked at the meat in the freezer and not one of them were boston butts !! they were all pork shoulders , so i reboxed them in the case boxes they came in , and took them back to sams they refunded our money and we had to go back to the meat dept . the meat manager tried to tell me that a pork shoulder and a boston butt was the same thing , well i was having none of that !!!!! and i looked down at the meat case and low and behold there was a boston butt , i grabbed it and told him to go and get a pork shoulder and i would SHOW him the difference !!!
he stopped arguing real quick !!! and sent a guy to bring us two replacement cases of meat , i made him open the case's and one of the cases had mixed pork shoulders with boston butts , i picked out the boston butts and ended up with 102 lbs of boston butts , more is due in tomarrow
the sad truth is the people working in the meat dept at sams don't know one cut of meat from th next

 

[mosparky]

OK, I'll bite. Explain to me the difference between a pork shoulder and a boston butt in your opinion.
I've always known them to be the same thing. In my store they cut the end (coppa, money muscle end ) off and slice it into boneless pork steaks. The other half gets de-boned and stuffed into netting and sold as a boston butt.
There is also a picnic. It is the portion of the arm just below the shoulder butt (has a round bone). Most often they have a good bit of skin still on them. The shoulder butt has the top of the shoulder blade (Y-bone).
All work very well for pulled pork, with the picnic having a bit more waste in skinn, extra fat and more bone.

 

[DougE]

 

[TNJAKE]

View attachment 636677

Crazy im wearing the same suit and glasses as you.....pass the popcorn

 

[cal1956]

some people DO use them for making sausage i DON"T , they have different fat contents and the bone's are diffedrent
the boston but is much easier to debone plus the boston butt is usually cheaper per lb.

 

[mosparky]

I'm not trying to antagonize anyone here just trying to understand which cut you consider a shoulder and which a Boston.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Whichever one ends up as pulled pork works for me! However, if you have different uses for each I can understand the frustration. Good on them for making it right also

 

[cal1956]

the Boston Butt is the one with a flat blade bone , and a higher fat content , it works really well for making both sausage and pulled pork, when we 1st started making sausage a few years ago it was hard to debone the boston butts but now we have it down to an art ( almost takes longer to get it out of the plastic than it does to debone it now )

 

[indaswamp]

IMO, it all depends on how the front leg of pig is cut by the butcher. If the coppa is removed and cut for chops, then the 'butt' portion will naturally be farther down on the leg...
IMO, the butt should include the coppa.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/1214-the-difference-between-pork-butt-and-pork-shoulder

 

[mosparky]

Ok, got'cha. I've never seen butts and shoulders packed in the same box. But Sam's is Walmart, so who knows where they get their meat from. They don't cut meat in house therefore the "manager" needs to have little knowledge of meat.

 

[cal1956]

i have been shopping at that same "Sam's" for over 15 years and never had any problems , thats why i didn't check the meat before bringing it home ( i know it was my fault for not checking it ) but thats no excuse for a meat dept manager not knowing a pork shoulder from a boston butt, plus its kinda strange that they had them seperated in the meat case

 

[WaterRat]

Here in the Northeast I always see the portion with the blade bone and coppa always labeled with “Butt” sometimes “Pork shoulder Butt portion” sometimes “Boston Butt”. The other cut with the leg bone and usually skin on it often is labeled “Pork shoulder picnic portion” or just “Pork shoulder”. Butt, here, is considered the better cut and commands a larger price.

As far as Sam’s Club, I bought 2 Butts last week and both were properly labeled. I haven’t had any troubles in the past either. Screwups happen but it seems they corrected theirs.

 

[cal1956]

i don't think i would have been as upset had the manager not tried to argue with me plus the fact that its a 30 mile drive one way to Sams

 

[daniels]

Unbelievable!!! Pork shoulders are erroneously called Boston Butts. Butts are barrels, e.g., water butts are water barrels. Pork shoulders, many years ago, were packed in barrels for shipping thus the name Boston Butts. If you bought a Boston Butt it contained pork shoulders.

Pork shoulders come either with or without the shoulder blade.

So many people erroneously call pork shoulders pork butts that butchers know what they really mean. If you look at the label on a package of pork shoulders from Walmart you'll see both names.

They sold you pork shoulders because that's what you really asked for. Think how upset you would have been if they had sold you barrels. :D

 

[Gonna Smoke]

The following is gleaned from Wikipedia and somewhat paraphrased...

Generally the pork shoulder is considered a primal cut with the picnic and butt sections being sub-primal cuts however, some sources do refer to the butt as a primary cut. Once separated they become the pork shoulder picnic and the pork shoulder butt, or Boston butt. Either way, the picnic and butt are both part of the shoulder. The term "butt" is old English for “wide end” like the butt of a gun and the Boston butt gets its name simply from the fact that it is the wider end of the front shoulder.

Here is an article that questions the validity of barrel theory you speak about. In a nutshell, they are skeptical of that story and ask, "Can you think of any other food named for its shipping container name?" Oftentimes through the course of history, a story is repeated enough that it then becomes "fact", whether it actually is or not...

 

[daniels]

"Can you think of any other food named for its shipping container name?"

No, and that's exactly my point. That's why the butcher's union tried (unsuccessfully) to get rid of the name pork butt but customers won't give in. I assume that's why Walmart puts both names on the pork shoulder package label.

 

[daniels]

the Boston Butt is the one with a flat blade bone , and a higher fat content , it works really well for making both sausage and pulled pork, when we 1st started making sausage a few years ago it was hard to debone the boston butts but now we have it down to an art ( almost takes longer to get it out of the plastic than it does to debone it now )

So you're saying the shoulder blade is in the butt and not in the shoulder?!?!?!

If I was a betting man I'd bet on the Sam's Club meat department manager.

I'm going to gracefully back out of this conversation now. :D

 

[fxsales1959]

friday we bought 131 lbs of what we thought were Boston Butts . we got them home and had a bunch of other things to do so we were in a hurry , this morning when i took a closer look at the box before throwing them away , i noticed it said
pork shoulder / boston butts so i looked at the meat in the freezer and not one of them were boston butts !! they were all pork shoulders , so i reboxed them in the case boxes they came in , and took them back to sams they refunded our money and we had to go back to the meat dept . the meat manager tried to tell me that a pork shoulder and a boston butt was the same thing , well i was having none of that !!!!! and i looked down at the meat case and low and behold there was a boston butt , i grabbed it and told him to go and get a pork shoulder and i would SHOW him the difference !!!
he stopped arguing real quick !!! and sent a guy to bring us two replacement cases of meat , i made him open the case's and one of the cases had mixed pork shoulders with boston butts , i picked out the boston butts and ended up with 102 lbs of boston butts , more is due in tomarrow
the sad truth is the people working in the meat dept at sams don't know one cut of meat from th next

i had the same "discussion" with a young meat cutter at publix. "they're the same" he said. same store that won't sell beef rib roast until they remove the bones and tie them back on . welcome to south Florida

 

[1MoreFord]

Poor pigs and cows and sheeps too.

Nobody seems to know where what cut comes from. Go look at some meat cuts charts if you don't believe me.

I, and others, call a pork shoulder to be comprised of two sub cuts. The (Boston) Butt is the top portion and the picnic(ham) is the lower portion. Of course not all folks agree and from what I see you might as well call them briskets if it suits your fancy.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

No, and that's exactly my point. That's why the butcher's union tried (unsuccessfully) to get rid of the name pork butt but customers won't give in. I assume that's why Walmart puts both names on the pork shoulder package label.

The pork shoulder has 2 basic parts...the picnic and the butt. Back in the day when I was a meat cutter, or butcher as some would say, we got them in as whole shoulders and then broke them down into the 2 parts and removed the hock. Once the shoulder is separated into its 2 parts, they then become the pork shoulder picnic and the pork shoulder Boston butt. Walmart puts "both" names, or rather its full name, on the package because it is exactly that, the pork shoulder Boston butt. Other stores will shorten that name to Boston butt or pork butt or shoulder butt...