When is a "butt" not a butt.

[GusRobin]

It is probably something said before but in case some of you were wondering why it is called a " butt" when it is from the shoulder.

Barbecue used to be broken down by the best cuts of meat, which went to the wealthiest people, and the less valued cuts of meat, which went to the poor folks. That's where we get the expression "eating high on the hog".  In pre-revolutionary New England and into the Revolutionary War, the low-valued cuts were packed into barrels for storage and shipment. These barrels were known as "butts." The folks in Boston used to cut their shoulders in a certain way that became the common way to cut up a hog. The cut from the hog's shoulder became known in other regions as the Boston Butt. The name stuck, and today it is still referred to as the Boston Butt almost every-where in the U.S., except in Boston, where it is simply called a pork butt!

See, you are never too old to learn. (Maybe too old to remember, but not to learn)

[Ka Honu]

Hmmm.  Cute (and often quoted) story but I thought the word butt (from Dutch "bot") described the thick end of something (including a butchered pig's shoulder) long before there were barrels in Boston.  I'm not quite old enough to know firsthand, but that's the way I heard it.

[GusRobin]

Hey --I read it on the Internet and you can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true. ::)

[BAM1]

Bonjour

[Caneyscud]

Ant to make it all the more fun, a beef butt is from the other end - not exactly where you might envision but close.

[classicrockgriller]

I got a big chuckle reading this and thinking of a post I made
in 2009 about a conversation with my (ex) wife about the Bradley.

Here is the post: http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=11646.0#quickreply

Here is part of the post that pertains to the "BUTT"

This was a actual conversation with my wife the other day while smoking a picnic on the Bradley:

W: What are you doing?
M: I'm preparing this picnic to go in the smoker.
W: Where's the picnic from?
M: H E B
W: No, I mean what part of the animal is it from?
M: The animal's a pig and it is the part below the front shoulder. Some people call the front shoulder a Boston Butt.
W: I thought the butt was on the rear of a pig.
M: A pig does have a butt and it is on the rear, but the Boston Butt is off the front shoulder.
W: Boy....Those people from Boston don't know anything do they.
M: No baby I guess they don't.....Geez

Boy....Those people from Boston don't know anything do they. ;D ;D

[SiFumar]

I got a chuckle from reading your 2009 post!  ;D