is boston butt roast pork or beef

Is Boston Butt Roast Pork or Beef? The Surprising Answer Explained

If you’ve ever seen Boston butt roast in the grocery store or at a barbecue restaurant, you may have wondered – is this pork or beef? With a name like “Boston butt”, it certainly sounds more like beef. But in fact, Boston butt roast comes from the pork shoulder, not the rear end of a cow.

This confusing name can be traced back to the early days of the meatpacking industry in America, Let’s take a closer look at the history and anatomy behind Boston butt roast to understand where it really comes from

The Pork Shoulder – One Primal Cut

Pork shoulder is one of the primal or major cuts of a pig, along with the loin, belly, and hind leg. The front shoulder area contains a good amount of connective tissue, which helps make it well-suited for slow cooking and braising.

When the whole shoulder is divided into sub-primal cuts, there are two main sections:

• Picnic shoulder – The lower portion closer to the front leg. This is sometimes called an arm roast or picnic ham.

• Boston butt – The upper part of the shoulder, behind the neck, containing part of the shoulder blade bone. Also known as a blade roast.

So right away we can see that Boston butt roast comes from the pork shoulder, not beef. But where does the misleading name come from?

The Origin of the Name “Boston Butt”

In the late 19th century, meatpackers began standardizing cuts of pork and beef on a national level as the railroad expanded distribution. Different regional butchery styles had their own names for various cuts of meat.

As cuts like “New York strip” were coined, pork shoulder roasts were given names like “New York shoulder”, “California ham”, and “Boston butt”. These weren’t actually ham or butts – they were all shoulder roasts.

The use of the word “butt” referred to the thicker, rounder “butt end” of the shoulder. It became associated with Boston because packers there trimmed it a certain way. But it wasn’t named after barrels or containers as some claim.

Over time “Boston butt” became the common term used across America for the upper shoulder roast. The lower picnic shoulder never got a catchy national name. And the mistaken idea that Boston butt came from a cow persisted.

How to Identify Boston Butt Roast

When you see Boston butt roast in the grocery store, it may not look like a round “butt”. It’s more of an oval shape with a big bone on one side. Here are some tips to identify it:

• It will be labeled as “pork shoulder roast” or “pork butt roast”. Never beef.

• It weighs 5-8 pounds typically. Larger than picnic shoulder.

• One side will have a shoulder blade bone. Opposite side is boneless.

• The fat cap on top is left intact, unlike ham or loin roasts.

• The meat is marbled with fat and connective tissue throughout.

• The skin and excess fat are removed, but it’s not a lean cut.

• Color is pink to pale red. Texture is flexible when raw.

So despite the confusing name, Boston butt is definitely 100% pork. It’s taken from the upper part of the front shoulder. The name comes from old regional butcher terms, not the backside of a cow. Now that you know what it really is, you can cook Boston butt roast like a true barbecue pro!