NICE I want to try that. I would die to see you guys do a write up of sorts of how you break a butt down. I want a big roast from coppa, a few strips like these, and the rest for sausage. Is that doable?
YES!
I'll toss some ideas out, and hope others chime in too.
First is a roadmap of a pork butt. Once you know where everything is, it's easier to locate each muscle you want to isolate. I like to use the blade bone to navigate (either raw or cooked), so the bone is the last thing on my cutting board, instead of the first thing that gets (cut) or pulled out. The money muscle, tubes and horn muscles are all excellent choices. The middle labeled "loin" is a little lower in quality, so I always grind or cube that.
Here is the maximum size of a Coppa roast, the minimum size would be inside of my index finger. I rarely trim out only the money muscle, because it's about the size of a pork tenderloin.
These are some larger Coppa roasts. You can see the natural seams that will guide you to make smaller roasts.
Here is an average Coppa, I cut them with a flat side, so the tiger stripes are dead top, and I don't rotate. I take them to 175°ish, then wrap for an hour or until probe tender. I slice them, not pull them... although they make excellent pulled pork.
Here are some typical slices. You have to judge the thickness based on tenderness so they don't fall apart, but they truly are fork tender.
All the remaining meat, I either grind (for sausage or just pork burger), or cut into ~3/4" cubes for stew or green chili.
For the blade bones, I either smoke or oven roast, and use them for pork broth or a big batch of beans.
Once I figured out the Coppa roast, I would buy two butts when making small batches of sausage. Now that the bacon comes into play I could see buying three butts at a time.
chopsaw
uses. There are photos from both of us. https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/chopsaws-boston-bacon.333239/
