I’m going to quote HorseDoctor who addressed this years ago:He knows his stuff.
”In most instances, if you buy a "butt" it will usually be cut above the location of the superficial cervical lymph node (aka prescapular node), so you won't find it. If not already trimmed out at slaughter, it may be found in the "picnic" or if you get an entire shoulder. It usually looks like a discrete nodule of pinkish/grey tissue with a consistency not unlike that of fat. If present it should be easy enough to find while trimming fat. On the other hand, if you miss it, it will do no harm to your cook and you will certainly find it while pulling the pork. Just discard it at that time. It won't hurt the surrounding tissue at all. Regardless of the FDA rules, lots of smaller lymph nodes get ground up into burger &/or sausage rather routinely and do no appreciable damage to either the taste or health safety of the end result.”
Looking thru my photos I see I had stolen some photos awhile back from somewhere. It is usually in the picnic area.
The fingers point to the gland. You can get the orientation from the bone located at about 2 o’clock.
You won't have that gland in an 8# bone in OR boneless butt. It's only present in the WHOLE shoulder (aka picnic ham), which usually weighs in around 15 pounds or more.
Also, as others said, not sure what tomatoes have to do with pulled pork. We don't use much tomato based BBQ sauce here, and I use the pulled pork in many ways.
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It is not like the gland from a feral boar hog. Pretty sure it does not affect taste. Take a raw chicken one day and inspect and dissect it carefully. You will see all sorts of nodes and anatomical things that will make you question eating it.
The gland is not a big deal! Examine all your meat before you cook it. If something doesn't look right, cut it out. Bigger pork butts are easier to cook in my opinion. I've started cooking smaller pieces at contests (hotter and faster) and the results are not as pleasing as a big ole butt cooked low and slow.
The gland is not a big deal! Examine all your meat before you cook it. If something doesn't look right, cut it out. Bigger pork butts are easier to cook in my opinion. I've started cooking smaller pieces at contests (hotter and faster) and the results are not as pleasing as a big ole butt cooked low and slow.
Make a mustard sauce for your wife!
Thanks Sue.
OK, stupid question:
How do you look for these god-awful things without chopping up the pork butt?
I still can't find a picture that gives me a good reference as to where these are located.
(and I have done a lot of looking. Most are pictures taken at random angles that do me no good)
I have been looking around to find my wife a sauce she can use.
This tomato thing just surfaced in the last 4 months or so.
The picture you saw in a prior post was not of a Boston butt, but of an entire pork shoulder. As mentioned earlier, the Boston butt cut most of us are used to is cut from below where that lymph node is. So it's not there for you to find.
There is no "roadmap" for where the gland is on every pig! Every body is a bit different. Generally, I've found that the first place to start looking is on the opposite side from the bone, where that big fat deposit kinda runs from corner to corner. I'm going to take most of that fat off anyway, so that's where I start cutting. Most of the time, that's where the gland is. I've deboned lots of whole butts and never found a gland around the bone. Look in the fat or alongside the fat, that's where it is.
Here's my Mustard Sauce
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup honey
1/2 cup prepared yellow mustard
1 apple, peeled cored and finely chopped (Granny Smith is good!)
1/2 cup Jack Daniel's or your favorite whiskey
4 tablespoons mild rub (use what you season pork with)
1 tablespoon granulated garlic.
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer stirring occasionally. Do this until the apple dissolves and the sauce is thick. Cool and bottle. Keep in the frig to serve with pork. This sauce just gets better as it ages!
This looks good! Thanks for the recipe! Smoker_Boy - the honey offsets the tang of the vinegar more than you would think. Also, you can find some bottled "Carolina Gold" sauces that are mustard based if you don't want to make it yourself.
You won't have that gland in an 8# bone in OR boneless butt. It's only present in the WHOLE shoulder (aka picnic ham), which usually weighs in around 15 pounds or more.
Thank you for answering my original question.
And Thank You to everybody who has shared information with me as well.
It's all greatly appreciated.
The glands in hogs, humans, and other mammals are often found near neurovascular bundles. Arteries, nerves, and veins often run in close approximation with one another and the lymphatic channels also run with them. Lymph nodes act as filters for the lymphatic system and they too are found running with the neurovascular bundles. Larger arteries/veins/nerves tend to run between larger muscle bellies. The muscles provide protection to for the arteries, veins, and nerves. I tend to find the lymph node on pork butts when I take the fat cap off and then often find it in a thicker rind of fat with some blood vessels. My pig anatomy and formal vascular anatomy isn't tip top so I don't know the name of blood vessels there. If I see them I just take them out as I am trimming the pork butt as I like to cut off the extra fat since the butts have so much intramuscular fat.
Here is a list of glands always found in pig shoulders but there are others that may or not be there. You can see why there can be confusion as to the location because some are present in one cut but they might show up in another cut. Some might find it in the butt but other times in the picnic. Just assume that you have eaten one or two sometime in the past.
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