Where to buy pork butt/brisket?

AnsonWilson

Hey guys,

Looking to slow cook my first pork butt, but I don't think I've seen it in supermarkets.

Can I just pick it up at publix? I've got a butcher, but I worry about spending high dollar for my first cook, as it could go up in smoke

Any tips on sourcing good meat?

Thanks!

asianflava

I get them at a few different places. I have a local butcher just down the street from my house, they work in a pinch but it costs a little more for the same meat. Sam's and Super Wal-Mart have them all the time. Sam's used to have the packer briskets out, but I've had to ask for them lately. Pork butts often come two to a package so keep that in mind as you look for one.

Celtic Wolf

Sam's Club, BJ's, Costco. Your local butcher.

Be wary of the ones in Supermarkets as they could be "Enhanced" That enhancement is a brine solution and will actually cost you more, because it adds 15% to the weight. Plus Brine over time becomes a Cure and you'll end up with pulled ham.

FearlessGrill

Where do you live? That would help someone who is near you provide specific advice.

In general around here (Boston suburbs) big BBQ cuts are somewhat hard to find. None of the regular supermarkets around me (Shaws, Stop and Slop, Roach Brothers) really carry any meat worth eating, never mind butts or briskets, and when they do have something like ribs, their prices are high. Whole foods is one alternative, as their meat departments are generally pretty well stocked and they will order things for you but their prices are off the charts. Even the Costco we go to doesn't generally have butts and usually only has small flats for brisket, though I've heard that in other places Costco and Sams are good places to check. We have a couple of local wholesale-style butchers that I tend to go to first. One of them has great prices on 'normal' meats like steaks, beef and pork roasts, etc. However, he won't stock butts or brisket because he says he can't sell enough of them to bother. The other has butts and usually has brisket, but you have to ask the guy at the counter who then brings it out in an unlabeled package from the back room. Very odd.

-John

AnsonWilson

Thanks for the help. I live in Upstate SC (Greenville) if that helps!

Thanks!

Bacchus

Any grocery store will have butts, and many will have brisket.

Frobozz

That is flat-out not true. I live in the DC area, for example, and I'll often go to the local big ol' Safeway and find neither pork butts nor briskets.

Anson, pork butts sometimes are called "Boston butt roasts" in stores. I often shop now in Hispanic supermarkets for my barbecue meats -- they are the only place around here to get packer briskets and they have better-quality chicken and pork, IMHO (and my local one also carries fantastic fish and crabs). But even they often don't carry butts -- they do carry whole pork shoulders, but that's not the same thing and those take a little more work to turn into pulled pork.

Big-box stores like Costco almost always have pork butts, though.