Pork butt is the top part of the front leg...nicely marbelled but not fatty like country style ribs.
remember, wal-mart doesn'd do any cutting of meat....what does that guy know?
Perhaps where you live it might be called pork shoulder?
Linda c

I agree, I'd never ask a guy at Walmart about a cut of meat, they don't cut any. It all comes cut and prepackaged and they just stock the shelves.

As LindaC mentioned, I think you want pork shoulder. Here it's called pork butt too, but it's not "butt" at all. If you can't find that look for "boston butt", which is just another name for that piece of the shoulder. It was on sale here last week for 69 cents a pound and I bought one, but I had to buy the entire front shoulder, all 11 pounds of it! It's also called "fresh picnic" sometimes, if it's smoked it becomes a picnic ham.

If you can't find any of those, the country style ribs would probably work too, and they aren't really the ribs either, LOL. Here they usually contain a piece of the loin and a piece of the backbone, the ribs are sold as ribs, back ribs or baby back ribs. Go figure.

Annie

I have seen pork shoulder. I didn't realize though that shoulder is butt. And yeah, these country style ribs have no ribs at all.
Does Costco have people that cut the meat there? I've been lucky with their rib-eyes. Maybe that's where I should do all my meat buying.
Thanks!

There is no Costco anywhere around here, so I don't know about their meat cutting. We have Sam's Club and although they have good meat I don't really know if they cut their own either.

My local grocery does do their own cutting and will custom cut anything I want, but since I raise my own beef and usually my own pork, I get it cut to order and packaged by my local meat "guy", Carl.

Yes, I think this is a year we'll raise pigs again, and I'm thinking of raising a couple dozen ducks for the freezer too.

Annie

Neither Costco nor WalMart cut their own meat. Nor does K-Mart and other "big box" stores. That's not their business. Nor does Trader Joe's. They all have it cut at big factories, packaged and shipped to their hubs where it's then trucked to their stores.

Truth is, not many markets cut their own meat. None of the big ones around here (Albertson's, Von's, Ralph's, Scolari's) do. We have a small family-owned chain of market that does (Spencer's) and that's the kind of place where anyone who doesn't know meats should shop.

It seems like real "butcher shops" are found only in the tiniest towns or in the biggest towns (e.g., New York). But not in the middle-sized towns, which are saturated with chain markets with no butchers.

If the person behind the counter is not a real butcher (not just someone who will pull a piece of meat from behind the counter for you), I wouldn't trust them to know enough about what a piece of meat is, where it came from and how to prepare it.

As far as the cut you want, ask for "pork butt" or "pork shoulder", same thing as everyone has pointed out. I'd only add that you want a good fatty piece if you want a tasty, fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-your-mouth Kahlua pig.

Joe

Hmm....pork butt is pork shoulder?
Thinking of an "off the butt blouse"...but I don't suppose thqat makes sense either....

The confusion comes from the term "butt".

Pork butt is the butt half of the shoulder, the upper part of the shoulder. The lower half of the shoulder is the picnic. The rear leg of the animal is called the ham, not the butt.

It might make more sense if you make an analogy with leg of lamb, which often is sold in halves also. The big half is the butt half. The small half is the shank half.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Pork Butt and Picnic

I use pork butt. I use Hawaiian sea salt and liquid smoke, wrap in banana leaves and roast in the slow cooker for a long time.
Comes out just like what I get on Maui.

Well I just finished pulling apart the pork. It tastes good & now my next venture will be sticky rice. There was alot of fat to remove, but very tender pork.
I couldn't find Hawaiin salt so I had to use Kosher. I didn't know where to get the banana leaves either.
Thanks for explaining the cuts of meat. I'll know better next time.

Misti, Thanks for reporting back. I will be making this next week. I looked in the pantry and had an unopened bag of Black Hawaiian salt and Wright's Liquid Smoke so I'm good to go.

Check out any Asian grocery stores in your area. I have seen some when I was looking for lotus leaves, for sticky rice recipe, in one of the Asian stores. Didn't know what they were for but now I know.

I found the banana leaves, frozen, in an Asian market in the next town.
I make Kalua Pig, Portuguese bean soup and two types of rice for Christmas Day. And a Hawaiian desert.

Carol-Could I get your measurements? Mine turned out a bit on the salty side. I did use Kosher though because I couldn't find the Hawaiian salt. I'll look for both the banana leaves & salt next time. I've read about the Hawaiian being more like clay.
My FIL is coming out & would like to make it for him. Also, I have Portuguese sausage in my fridge. I mixed it with eggs, but kind of bland. How difficult is the soup? If you have any suggestions on rice, I'd appreciate that too. Thank you!

Misti, Just a thought, in preparing to make this, I had to search out pork that wasn't injected with a salt solution as that might impact the saltiness.

Mustangs,
I didn't even think of that. Will it say it on the packaging as salt solution in the list of ingredients? I added more liquid smoke after pulling apart the pork because I wanted a little stronger flavor. I think that could have also added the extra saltiness. It tasted better prior to the extra splash of smoke. Got carried away. Got big-headed & excited. Going to make it extra good! And then realized I should of stopped while I was ahead.
Thank you for the advice & that's something I'll check out next time too.

I can't find my Kalua Pig recipe but the last time I made it, it was too salty, too. I think it called for 1 TBSP Hawaiian salt so next time I will reduce it to perhaps one tsp. I use about a TBSP or so of Liquid smoke. I poke the roast with a fork and rub everything in, then wrap it in the banana leaves and add a small amt. of water in the bottom of the crock pot.
Here is the link to the Portuguese bean soup. It tastes better with home made kidney beans and my DD and family prefer some added grated cabbage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Portuguese Bean Soup