Boston butt question

[Dutchness]

Boston butss are widely available in the US, not so much on the other side of the pond. My butcher separated the picnic and the boston butt. But when I came home...it seems like the shoulder blade is like 30 or 40% in size compared to the whole piece. One side of the boston butt is hard and is all shoulder blade (no meat on top). It seems like he started with a shoulder that already had a muscle cut off that is suppose to be on a boston butt...

Is there anyone who could help me figure out what meat is missing from this 'boston butt'?

The whole thing ways 5.5lbs

Thanks

[HorseDoctor]

Looks like you got the entire shoulder blade, so effectively you got about the top 1/2 of what we call the "picnic roast" as well as the bottom portion (1/2 ?) of the "Boston butt". A typical pork butt will also have more meat left on the underside of the shoulder blade which appears to have been left on the ribs in this case. It will also include much more meat on the top side that lays up alongside the dorsal (top) spines of the vertebra. This includes what is referred to in competition as the "money muscle" which is actually the most forward portion of the pork loin. What you have there is a decent piece of meat that should cook up fine. It's just a little different from what we are used to in the States. Also looks leaner than what I'm used to seeing so injecting it might be a good idea. Enjoy!

[Dutchness]

Thanks for the response.

So a Boston butt does not have the entire shoulder blade in it? I thought it did, but not the whole shoulder joint...?

Since there is hardly any meat left on the underside of the shoulder blade...this means it is left on the ribs...on what ribs/what part of the ribs exactly?

Trying to gather as much information as possible so I can explain to him next time how I need it differently. Thanks

[Potkettleblack]

It appears from some charts I've seen that what is boston butt is sometimes divided into something that is called Spare Rib in the UK (which is odder than calling the shoulder a butt because it's essentially calling the pork equivalent of the deltoid muscle a rib). In other places they call this the collar, which makes a lot more sense, as it's the upper shoulder and lower neck (and likely quite tasty in it's own right).

I believe (and I'm not a butcher, I just play one on the Internet), that you want a combination of what is called spare rib roast and what is called blade.

Here's a helpful set of charts explaining the difference between US and UK butchering.
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.bl...ying-meat.html

[HorseDoctor]

This youtube video covers it pretty well. perhaps you can show it your butcher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1ExHaTgFUw The only additional thing is that usually the front few rib pieces and section of the vertebra are also trimmed off the "butt" prior to marketing.