Is this picture a Boston Butt or Picnic?

[rotuts]

leg

 

you got taken for a ride.

 

take the bone back and demand a refund

 

if you tossed the leg, find it or take some pics w you

 

Id not go there again.

Edited November 28, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[weinoo]

And also, I don't mean to harp on this, don't cook pork to 200°F!

[weinoo]

That cut is from the leg.  Not sure from the photo whether it is the ham (rear) or picnic (front ) cut but looks like the ham. I'm pretty sure the pig is a commercial breed due to the lack of fat cap directly beneath the skin.  Google Boston butt and the difference will be evident.  If the butcher passes off the leg as a shoulder cut it's time to find a new butcher.

Good job, Steve!

[weinoo]

I've dealt with enough prosciutto to know that what you have there is from a leg

Good job, BKYLN.

[Anna N]

What a fascinating discussion. As soon as I saw that first photograph I thought that's a leg but I knew I had so little background in pork anatomy that I ought to just stay quiet. Then someone else suggested it was a leg. Then there were very cogent arguments put forth that it was indeed a shoulder by people that I trusted to know. So I congratulated myself on being quiet. But it turns out it was indeed a leg--confirmed at autopsy? Perhaps we all learned something even if it was only how little we knew about pork anatomy!

[Baron d'Apcher]

 

I paid $6 a pound for this Boston Butt at a famous high-end Butcher shop and he said it's from a Heritage Pig.  I thought it should have more marbling?

 

Heritage pork means nothing, and at that price I doubt it was a valuable pure breed, particularly if the butcher is deceitful enough to sell a top sirloin, or worse, thinks BB is the same as a top sirloin.  Probably a mix at best or a breed that is not highly prized.  There is little to no fatcap on the ham/sirloin.  Even if it is a heritage breed it needs to be raised and fed properly. I've had a Large Black hog that was lean enough to pass a large summer lamb.  A heritage breed could be anything and does not guarantee marbling.  Many heritage breeds have died off because they are not practical for our times.  We live in an era of non-stick pans, refrigerators and readily available cheap calories so the heritage breeds such as lard pigs (Mangalica, Ossabaw, Old Spot) are sold as novelties.  Duroc and Berkshire are the most studied and therefor easiest to raise.  Their meat is more consistent than others and the meat/fat ratio falls in line with what we deem to be useful.  Putting meat and fat on a hog requires different diets.  It is generally more expensive to put fat on a hog.  Stick with Berkshire, preferably 100% (black hair).  Most of the pork out there is white Yorkshires that are raised on concrete and have never seem the light of day.  Best is to ask where the pork comes from and then do some research to corroborate the provenance.   There are plenty of restaurants and stores that sell commodity as pure bred or organic. 

 

This is a picture of a "heritage breed" Old Spot Gloucestershire that I was delivered a couple years ago.  Had it been an orange it would have been 70% pith.  I suggested the farmer to raise a pig that suited my needs rather than the novelty gimmick name.  He acquiesced and now raises a cross with Duroc that has a less fat and is more efficient for him to raise since the feed that puts on fat is more expensive.  Marbling on a hog is not common and after conversations with the director of animal science at the Dept of Animal Science at Iowa State University, any pigs that have the highest marbling (8-10 on a marbling scale) go straight to Japan.

 

"Heritage Breed" might get you more (or less) than you bargained for.

 

 

The best hog I have ever gotten was a 250lb 100% Berkshire from Highview Farm in Berryville, VA which was pastured with 7 other hogs and fed an organic diet.  It was firm, #6 on a marbling and color scale,  At $5/lb wholesale, it was not cheap.  It was fantastic and I won't see another one like that anytime soon.

[Anna N]

Baron,

I once naïvely ordered a heritage pork loin from a high-end butcher here in my hometown. I wanted a loin with the skin on and I wanted something that wasn't so lean that it would be tasteless. What I received was the most expensive piece of pork fat I have ever wasted my money on. It would be easy to blame the butcher but in fact I received exactly what I insisted I wanted. I would seek expert advice before I would ever do such a thing again. My loin looked remarkably like your photograph except it was a different cut.

[MSRadell]

And also, I don't mean to harp on this, don't cook pork to 200°F!

Actually, 195° - 200° is a very appropriate temperature for cooking a butt or picnic to to make pulled pork!

 

Of course this wasn't an appropriate cut and it certainly didn't have the appropriate amount of fat for making pulled pork.

Edited November 28, 2014 by MSRadell (log)

[torolover]

 I brought the bone back to the butcher and he said the bone looks like it's from the ham.   He apologized and gave me a full refund and said he will make sure next time I order something it will be correct. He said they were slammed the day before Thanksgiving so they must have been careless when they gave it to me.

 

I paid $80 for this cut! ($6 a pound and it was 13 pounds)

 

Thanks so much for everyone's input and now I learned a lot more about pig.  Next time I'll take a picture of the next Boston Butt I get from them.  In the past it had tons of marbling.

 

Do you think Bone In Boston Butt is better then Boneless Boston Butt?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

With the bone in you can tell what cut it is.

[djyee100]

Heritage pork means nothing...

 

I was visiting a farm, buying something else, and one of the owners asked if I was interested in buying some of their pork. They normally don't sell their pork, keep it for themselves, but they recently butchered a pig and had plenty to spare.

 

I asked, Is it heritage pork? The answer was Yes. Well, I asked, what's the heritage? The owner said the mom was mostly berkshire, and the dad was a wandering pig, probably of mixed breeds, that hangs around in the woods near their farm. The owner said that the dad probably had some native wild pig in him.

 

Wild pig. Very heritage. I bought some pork (it wasn't that expensive), and it was good. Mostly because, I think, of where and how it was grown.

[rotuts]

""   the dad was a wandering pig, probably of mixed breeds, that hangs around in the woods near their farm.  ""

 

smart pig.  know where the ladies are .

[jayt90]

I still think it is a pork shoulder, after seeing the complicated muscle structure in post #10, and the appearance of the flat blade bone.

It is a rip at $6/lb, and you can get the same quality at an Asian store for under $2/lb. . I agree it does not need to roast to 200 F. More succulent at 170 F, and if it won't shred, slice it thinly, for a juicy pull.. 

 

[Okanagancook]

I am voting for leg. Take a look on Utube for Boston butt. Lots of videos of the muscle structure and boning. The cooked bone looks like a hip joint and not flat enough for a shoulder blade.

[Kerry Beal]

 

I still think it is a pork shoulder, after seeing the complicated muscle structure in post #10, and the appearance of the flat blade bone.

It is a rip at $6/lb, and you can get the same quality at an Asian store for under $2/lb. . I agree it does not need to roast to 200 F. More succulent at 170 F, and if it won't shred, slice it thinly, for a juicy pull.. 

 

 

I think that the hole in the flat bone gives it away as pelvis - shoulder blades don't have a hole, pelvises do.  It's the obturator canal and various nerves and blood vessels pass through it.  The shoulder blade (scapula) bone is solid.  

[Okanagancook]

Thanks, Doc!