4-pound Pork Butts

[Cueford T. Justice]

Brethren- I'm cooking pork butts for about 40 this weekend. Rather than the normal sodium-filled cryovac ones at the local grocer, I wanted to step it up to fresh. We're lucky enough to be within shout of Nahunta Pork Center, which is actually the largest all-pork showroom in the east (so they say). You name it in pork, they have it.

Since they use smaller hogs, their butts are in the 3-4 pound range and there is no way to go larger. My thought it to just increase the number of butts I smoke and to aim for 4-pounders. I figure it will have more bark relative to the inside meat, which could actually enhance the flavor once pulled or chopped. It also won't take as long to cook these as an 8-lb+ butt. I know some wrap and some don't, but I plan to wrap it at about 150 degrees and pull it about 195.

Do any of you have any experience--good or bad--with smaller pork butts like this? Thanks for any thought.

 

[sandro]

We only get coppa and boneless pork shoulder around these parts, as processing Boston butts would deprive the carcass of usable prosciutto real estate, which is much more important to us than pulled pork. Coppa is what I go for when making pulled pork, and the heaviest I've seen was about 8lb. Not a problem, ever

 

[Big Andy]

I don't find them that small around here, but I usually cut the larger ones into 3 or 4 pieces to get more bark and cook faster. Just keep an eye on them because they get to temp pretty quick.

 

[thirdeye]

Since they use smaller hogs, their butts are in the 3-4 pound range and there is no way to go larger. My thought it to just increase the number of butts I smoke and to aim for 4-pounders. I figure it will have more bark relative to the inside meat, which could actually enhance the flavor once pulled or chopped. It also won't take as long to cook these as an 8-lb+ butt. I know some wrap and some don't, but I plan to wrap it at about 150 degrees and pull it about 195.

Do any of you have any experience--good or bad--with smaller pork butts like this? Thanks for any thought.

How did you come upon the information that this producer butchers smaller hogs, and therefore only has 3# to 4# butts? I mean it's possible to butcher 150# hogs instead of 250# to 300# hogs, but that would mean the hogs are 4 or 5 months old and might not be fattened up as nicely, and all of your service cuts would be small (ribs, chops, hams etc.).... and I would think the labor costs would drive up the price per pound. I'm thinking they might market 4# butts and use the rest of the meat for other purposes.

That said, I'd ask them about whole shoulders. They are my favorite pork cut to barbecue. And if this 'small hog' story is in fact true, then a whole shoulder from them would be 10# or 12# instead of the normal 14#+ whole shoulder.

 

[Cueford T. Justice]

Thirdeye- At first I thought exactly what you did: they use part of it for something else. But I called and finally got transferred to the man who makes their special cuts and when I asked him this directly he said it was the size of the hogs vs other uses. I can believe it. My brother has thousands of hogs in his topping houses and the big pork companies here have him keeping them longer given the covid impacts to processing capacity. The big ones tear up his equipment. Nahunta has their own vertical integration so I’m sure they have optimized it for their purposes.

He also steered me to the shoulders and I’m excited to try one , but don’t want to do my first one for this larger crowd. Yours looks great by the way.