Paulbill wrote:

So the picnic had a different bone in it. It is a leg bone as opposed
to a shoulder blade type bone?

That's correct. The Picnic is essentially the upper arm of the pig. It
has a longish bone running though it, with a couple smaller ones at the
joint. It usually has a thick skin covering part of it that the butt
won't have.

I have never done a picnic before.

Pretty much the same as a butt, mainly have to decide what to do with
the skin.


Brian
--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
Denny Wheeler wrote:

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:56:40 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:


Most butts are sold boneless.

Hm. That may be regional. I've never seen any boneless ones.


That may be, but here in New England I've never seen a bone in. Two
boneless in a Cryovac package to the stores.

Here in Phoenix, the Costco has started selling them boneless (they used
to sell them bone-in). I haven't tried the boneless version yet - what
do they do, bone them and then roll them up like they do with boneless
lamb?

Price has gone from about $.89 - $.99 per lb. for the bone-in to about
$1.55 per lb. for boneless, FWIW.

TL

--

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist
the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

H.L. Mencken

On 24-Oct-2005, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

Denny Wheeler wrote:
On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:56:40 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

Most butts are sold boneless.

Hm. That may be regional. I've never seen any boneless ones.

That may be, but here in New England I've never seen a bone in. Two
boneless in a Cryovac package to the stores.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

Come to Hurricane Central. We get them both ways around here. I just posted
a bone-in pic over on A.B.F. a week or so ago. That's where my current batch
of pulled pork came from. I have another in the freezer that's labeled "pork
shoulder Rst, half". I can't tell by looking about the bone, but since it does not
mention boneless, I'll assume it is also bone-in. (It's 7# @ $1.18/lb). If I remember
I'll mention it when I finally cook it.
--
The Brick said that (Don't bother to agree with me, I have already changed my mind.)

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Matthew L. Martin wrote:

All the butts I've bought in central MA have been bone in.


Where do you buy them? I usually get mine from Fairway in Worcester. Never
saw a bone. Same with Price Chopper. OTOH, every picnic has had the bone.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

Typhoon Longwang wrote:


- what do they do, bone them and then roll them up like they do with
boneless lamb?

Yes.



Price has gone from about $.89 - $.99 per lb. for the bone-in to about
$1.55 per lb. for boneless, FWIW.

Yes, you still pay for that bone.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
Matthew L. Martin wrote:

All the butts I've bought in central MA have been bone in.



Where do you buy them? I usually get mine from Fairway in Worcester. Never
saw a bone. Same with Price Chopper. OTOH, every picnic has had the bone.

BJ's Wholesale Club. Typically $1.39/#.

Matthew

--
Thermodynamics and/or Golf for dummies: There is a game
You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game

Matthew L. Martin wrote:


BJ's Wholesale Club. Typically $1.39/#.

Matthew

BJ's has plenty of picnics, but never has butts when I ask. I go to the one
in Auburn. The $1.39 with bone is not a big deal though, Fairway is $1.69
with no bone. That is what I use for sausage.

--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 02:45:39 GMT, "Brick"
wrote:


On 23-Oct-2005, Paulbill wrote:

Hello all,

Doing a pork butt tomorrow in my BB Chef offset. It is all loaded with
lump, and ready to light (early) in the morning.

My question is, How can I tell the difference between the picnic portion
of the shoulder, and the Boston butt.

I ask, as I just went to my local store/butcher and asked him for a pork
butt. He pulled out a cryovac bag that had a Whole? pork shoulder inside
of it that contained 2 pieces. He said they were both the same, and gave
me one.

What is the story. Was it a whole shoulder that was cut in half (one
piece the picnic one piece the butt), or was it 2 butts packaged together?

Or am I crazy, are they both the same thing? My piece, bone in, is about
7.75 lbs, and is almost exactly rectangular, with a little fat on the
top, and some internal marbling. Looks good.

Thanks

Paulbill

It sounds like what you have there is a two pack of pork butts. The picnic is
the upper front leg portion below the shoulder joint. In commonly is the skin
on all around except for the extreme ends where it was cut away from the
butt on one end and the shank on there other. In comparison with the butt
you could call in triangular in shape. So, you asked the man for a pork butt
and he sold you a two pack. We get a lot of that here as well. It's pretty
uncommon to find whole pork shoulders which include both the butt and the
picnic. (Two bones with a joint between)

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
Matthew L. Martin wrote:


BJ's Wholesale Club. Typically $1.39/#.

Matthew


BJ's has plenty of picnics, but never has butts when I ask. I go to the one
in Auburn. The $1.39 with bone is not a big deal though, Fairway is $1.69
with no bone. That is what I use for sausage.


I usually go to the BJ's in Natick and Westborough, though I do go to
the Auburn store in the summer. It's on the way to our lake house.

I'm beginning to get peeved with BJ's as they are either eliminating
stuff that I use regularly (molasses, salt pork) or replacing items with
lower quality Berkely & Jensen store brands at higher prices.

--
Matthew mlmartin@ .com (fill in the blank with user name)

We trained hard, but it seemed every time we were beginning to form up
into teams, we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in life that
we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising, and a wonderful
method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing
confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.

From Petronii Arbitri Satyricon AD 66 (Attributed to Gaius Petronus, a
Roman General who later committed suicide)

Default User wrote:
snip
Here in St. Louis the stores stock almost exclusively bone-in butts. In
fact, the most popular way to sell them is sliced into "pork steaks"
which are essentially pork chuck steaks about 1/2 thick, with the
characteristic 7-bone in some of them. The stores will usually have
unsliced butts as well, sometimes labeled "pork butt roast".
Brian

I have them slice the butt into pork steak too and they are very tasty
and tender grilled! I didn't always know what cut pork steak came from
until I moved to SC and couldn't find them.

--
Regards, Mike (Piedmont)

http://groups.msn.com/ThePracticalBa...ewwelcome.msnw

Mike \"Piedmont\" wrote:

Default User wrote:
snip
Here in St. Louis the stores stock almost exclusively bone-in butts. In
fact, the most popular way to sell them is sliced into "pork steaks"
which are essentially pork chuck steaks about 1/2 thick, with the
characteristic 7-bone in some of them. The stores will usually have
unsliced butts as well, sometimes labeled "pork butt roast".
Brian

I have them slice the butt into pork steak too and they are very tasty
and tender grilled! I didn't always know what cut pork steak came from
until I moved to SC and couldn't find them.

I turn a butt into smoked chicken this past weekend. Seriously. I had a
few butts on the fire and decided to put a little bit of Tender Quick
in the rub of one of then. I finally got into the test butt yesterday
after a lady from the neighhood came asking I any of the BBQ was left
and took off with it The test butt looked, felt and tasted just like
smoked chicken breast. It seems the Mortons plus 20hrs on the fire plus
fridge time does crazy things to pork. It is tasty though but odd
considering the whitish pink color of that butt. You don't think that
might have been an EMU leg instead do yah ?

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 10:13:02 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

Denny Wheeler wrote:
On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:56:40 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

Most butts are sold boneless.

Hm. That may be regional. I've never seen any boneless ones.

That may be, but here in New England I've never seen a bone in. Two
boneless in a Cryovac package to the stores.

Here in Vacheville. the cuts arrive at the retailers with the bones
attached/installed, but the meat cutters trim those out and, unless
you threaten to create a scene, you end up with boneless meat.

Our local Co-Op has no code in their 'cash' registers for bone-in
beef, so my compromise is that bones stay, but the guy undercuts the
weight and I buy a boneless butt with the bone still in it. Ain't it
a grand Country!

Harry