Sure glad I stocked up on Pork Butts for smoking cause they are as hard to find as Hen's teeth now. And a beef brisket comes with a payment plan!

I think that the next shortage we will see will be meat. The grocery stores are already limiting how much you can buy. I used to support the kids in FFA by buying a calf they had raised + then take it to the locker plant. You can come up with a large number of cuts and at a good savings over store-bought. Since my kids are grown now I don't know any of the students anymore.

Local butchers are not taking any more clients here; booked up for a year.
Big plants around here are closed down for now.
Millions of pigs on the farms; (22 million in the stare) soon they will have to pile them in the land fill because they are getting too big, so come up and you can get some good deals on them.
However. local stores have butts for 97 cents a pound now; not sure why. For those city guys, a pork butt is really a shoulder. The rear end is a ham. I thought about opening up a slaughter operation but that would take time away from gunsmithing.

Once things ramp back up I gotta believe prices are going to drop till the excess is sold off? SIL hauled corn to Herbecks all day to fill contracts, corn prices are a pinch low but their prices are set. Look for a meat sell off by mid/late summer.

Here on left coast, I picked up a Angus brisket for 2.47 per #. Big, marbled as was great on Mother’s Day. For some reason, things in Kalifornia are still affordable and the custom butchers are available. Might be a different story soon, as they canceled most of the county fairs and all the livestock kid are looking to offload their animals.

Guess it depends on where you live. We just bought 4 for $.99 a pound on Sunday, May 10th at Food Lion. We always wait for these sales before stocking up the freezer. Normal price is $1.49 - 1.79 a pound.
Last week Costco had Prime briskets for $3.95 a pound

Wow, Prime brisket for $3.95 LBS, Put me down for 50 LBS plus!

Walked into Costco this mourning and the brisket that was $79.00 last week is $97.00 this week! We're going back to eating Twigs and Leaves.

WhenI saw PORK BUTTS I thought you were talking about Washington DC and all the politicians there!

Saeed: There's two definitions of Pork Butts. You're familiar with the second one.

I was at the grocery store today thinking that a steak sounded good for supper. Not at that price. I will not pay $15.00 for a New York strip that I cook myself. (at least not yet).

BIL call a little while ago and said Texas was in crisis mode!Brisket jumped from $2 something a pound to over $6 plus per LBS and the Smoke Shops were ready to revolt. BIL has traveled to Texas at least 8 times this year for a building he's building say's the brisket is excellent down there.

It is. If you're down this way into central Texas try Smokey Mo's. He has several stores in the North of Austin + surrounding areas.

Pork butts $.99 a pound today at the local Piggly Wiggly food store. I've got 20 lbs in the smoker coming off at 10 PM. Hard to beat that price for prime protein.

How many hours on the butts? I'm running 10.5 to 11

Came home today with 4 pork loins at $1.49 lbs from the Meijer store in town. Hope pork and beef prices come down soon.

Bob, glad to hear that Piggly-Wiggly is still around. We haven't had one down here in 35 years. Safeway is gone also. There are still a few Albertsons but their prices are too high. H.E.B. has central Texas at least sewed up. Wal-Mart has groceries but I don't like their produce.

Cut the pork loins up into chops and put 5 on the coals tonight, Damn living is good when your grilling!

quote:

Originally posted by buckey:
How many hours on the butts? I'm running 10.5 to 11

Personally, I think that a pork butt absorbs as much smokiness as it is going to in three to four hours.
I finish them in an oven three or four after the smoker.
The one tip I learned that really makes a difference in making pulled pork is to drop the large chunks of meat into a mixer with a dough hook and add the juice as it is mixed.
Perfect pulverized juicy pork without goofing with forks or tines to pull it apart manually.

I'm going 8 hrs at 225 - 250F in a 3 burner gas grill with smoke packets the first 4 hrs. The Butts are first seared on all sides, then placed over the center burner with a drip pan underneath. The center burner is cut off and the left and right burners turned to low. It uses about half of a 20 lb propane cylinder. I then pull them off the grill and wrap them in foil, place in an Igloo Cooler, and go to bed. Next morning I remove the still warm butts and pull the pork. We season with salt and pepper, portion and freeze in zip bags. When ready to eat we coat in our favorite sauce, cover, and bake at 300 F for 30 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by buckey:
How many hours on the butts? I'm running 10.5 to 11

Pork butts are not at all difficult to smoke/cook. Pretty hard to screw it up. But I brine them for a few hours, dry rub for 4 to 8 hours, sometime I inject, most of the time I don't, it just depends on fat content and mood. Then its 8 - 10 hours depending on weight in the smoker at 225ish. I use a remote meat thermometer to hit an internal temp of 190-200 degrees - the remote takes all the guess work out. Then wrap and rest in a cooler until I cannot wait any longer.

Lest someone not know this, Pork Butt is a marketing term to make stupid people think they are buying a rump of a pig.
It is the shoulder. The rumps are saved for ham.
Of course everyone her knows this but this for the lurker.

Kroger last week was .99 cents per LBS and Meijer is .99 cents this week. They seem to stay good in the freezer for extended periods of time so need to stock up.

Yes, as for $15 beef steak, you can take that same pork butt/shoulder and slice it 3/4 inches thick; saw through the bone; do not debone it, and it is sold as pork steak anyway. put your favorite rub on it for a few hours and grill it. It's better than ribeye. Ok, it's very good.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Yes, as for $15 beef steak, you can take that same pork butt/shoulder and slice it 3/4 inches thick; saw through the bone; do not debone it, and it is sold as pork steak anyway. put your favorite rub on it for a few hours and grill it. It's better than ribeye. Ok, it's very good.

I had this done but cut thin and grilled hot and quick and it was fabulous. A little Montreal Steak Seasoning and it is almost like steak.

Last week I went to the H.E.B. grocery store + they had 1 1/2" thick boneless chops @ $1.69 per lb. I bought a six-pack that was $6.61. I should have bought more because they saw their error + now have them for $2.79. Still not too bad. I do a baked potato in the oven @ 350 for 1 1/2 hrs + in the last 45 minutes I put in the chops coated with Worcestershire sauce + lemon pepper marinade. I like the latter with H.P. sauce.