Let's Talk BBQ

Recipes => Recipes => Pork Recipes => Topic started by: smokeasaurus on February 01, 2015, 01:41:37 PM

Title: Butt why?
Post by: smokeasaurus on February 01, 2015, 01:41:37 PM
Ever wonder why a Pork Butt is called a Butt? I sure did, here is something from The National Pork Board that just might clear up the mystery.....

People often wonder why the pork shoulder is called a butt. This cut of meat has nothing to do with the pig’s rump. The name has everything to do with the storage method colonial Americans used to keep pork fresh over time. The early colonists packaged and stored the pork in casks or barrels called butts for shipping. According to the National Pork board   

"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’. This name stuck and today, Boston butt is called that almost everywhere in the US, except in Boston.”
Title: Re: Butt why?
Post by: drholly on February 01, 2015, 01:46:08 PM
As Joe Souchery (radio host of Garage Logic) would say - "You learn more here by accident, than anywhere else by design..."

Thanks Smoke!
Title: Re: Butt why?
Post by: ACW3 on February 01, 2015, 02:01:37 PM
I'll sleep better now.  Thanks, Smoke!!

Art
Title: Re: Butt why?
Post by: Ka Honu on February 01, 2015, 02:18:19 PM
That's a good story; stick to it. There are other versions (from an old English/German word for the widest part of the pig, because it butts up against the shoulder, etc.) but yours is the most common explanation.
Title: Re: Butt why?
Post by: Las Vegan Cajun on February 01, 2015, 04:17:13 PM
I'll sleep better now.  Thanks, Smoke!!

Art

I had a hard time sleeping last night I should have read this before going to bed.   :P

Thanks Smoke for the history of the butt.  ;)