Elder Ward, Help with Pulled Pork!

Paula

I just printed out the whole 9 pages of Elder Ward's scrumptious-sounding NC Style Pulled Pork recipe. Heck, I grew up in Henderson, NC, north of Raleigh, so surely a native girl should know how to cook this stuff! Right? Wrong! I had no interest in cooking until I grew up and moved to Yankeeland! Yes! Now I need to know![p]But the recipe, unless I'm blind, does not say what kind of pork we're using here! Shoulder? Butt? What would it be called up here above the Mason-Dixon Line?[p]

The Naked Whiz

Paula,
You can use butt or picnic. Together, they make up the shoulder. I've always used butts here in Raleigh, just south of Henderson. :-) Wouldn't it be called Boston Butt up there? If you ask your butcher, say you want the butt end of the shoulder. Regardless of what it's called up there, a butcher will know which piece of meat you mean.[p]TNW

Sundown

Paula,[p]Where are you up here? Not a lot of markets carry butt unless you get into an ethnic neighborhood. We have a big Latino community and those markets in the area always seem to have both butt and - what they call here - fresh shoulder. I'm in Mass just north of Providence RI. My family claims the fresh shoulder has a better flavor so that's what we usually cook up.

Wise One

Paula, I put this into my PDF copy and it's also inthe new BGE cookbook:[p]JUST SO YOU KNOW
Boston butt = Boston roast = pork butt roast = pork shoulder Boston butt = Boston-style shoulder = Boston shoulder = Boston-style butt = fresh pork butt = pork shoulder blade roast
Notes: This economical, rectangular roast is the cut of choice for pulled pork barbecue, since it's marbled with enough fat to keep the meat moist while cooking. You can buy it bone-in or boneless. Substitutes: pork picnic roast (also works for pulled pork) OR pork center cut loin roast (This is lower in fat, so roast it at a lower temperature and avoid overcooking it.) 2 hours per pound at 225 degrees is a good rule of thumb. Remember this is for the individual piece of meat not the total weight. Two 5 pound butts (10 pounds total) should cook in about 10 hours as long as there is some separation on the grill.

fishlessman

Paula, i live within 20 minutes of boston and the piece of meat is just "pork butt" at the butcher shop. they don't call it boston butt. at the supermarkets they will carry picnic shoulders, which is good for pulled pork also. either cut of meat will do just make sure that there is a good fat cap. also bone in taste different than bone out. i like the flavor that the bone imparts to the pork.

JerseyD

Paula,
Just had a conversation about this with Jim Barth at Barth's Pork Store in New Providence, NJ, yesterday (as I was buying a butt that is cooking RIGHT NOW)! The answers you have already been given are correct, of course. The reason for the "Boston" part of the name, according to Jim anyway, is that back in the day this cut of shoulder was hugely popular with Boston's large Italian-American population who did not want the entire shoulder and asked for the "city cut," which became known later as the Boston Butt. Any other opinions about this out there?