Pork Chuck Roast

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Claire

Master Chef
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
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Location
Galena, IL
Ever have one of those weird feelings? You know you experienced something, and people think you're crazy?

Well, about 5 years ago, give or take, I walked into my grocery store and saw something I'd never seen before (or since). A pork chuck roast. Huh? I bought it out of curiousity. Now beef chuck is one of my favorite cuts for anything low and slow, and I was looking for something to use with my Cousin Joanna's New Mexico Green Chili Stew. It was SO tender and delicious that when my neighbor ate it, he ran to the store and bought up the rest of them for similar types of dishes.

You have to understand that we live in a small town, and at the time, that grocery store was the only game in town, so to speak.

Several years have passed, and I never saw such a thing again. I make the recipe once a year using pork butt as I did before and since.

I got curious, though. The butchers at this store are the same guys who've been there since I moved here. So I stopped to chat and neither of them remember ever hearing of a pork chuck roast/steak.

So I asked, OK, which part on a cow that would be chuck, on a pig, what would it be? They came up with, as I suspected, the butt. For some reason, someone who cut the meat cut it differently that one time.

Well, I will buy some pork butt, and will take the poblanos and cow horns I grew and my husband roasted, and the rest of the ingredients, and will use a pork butt for the stew I make this year. But it is funny ... that one pork chuck roast (actually, I bought two of them, and my neighbor bought the rest, and they were never seen again!)
 
Miss Clair..There is no recognized cut on pork known as "Chuck" ....
My guess would be it was simply "creative labeling" by some butcher/packer/etc. To call a pork butt/shoulder a "chuck" would be a stretch. If you ever see this again...(which I doubt) You should see exactly where the meat came from on the hog. If it's not spelled out plainly on the label in the Bold Print...It may be in small print abbreviations such as Bn-in-shld-rst-butt-portn (Bone-In shoulder roast, butt portion) or some such jargon. It's called Truth in Labeling. Compliance is not always 100% on this however. HTH
 
I agree with UB, this was probably a case of creative marketing.

I also have never seen a pork chuck roast. The Boston butt cut on a hog is in essentially the same location as the chuck on a steer.

You can't go wrong with a butt for dishes like chili.
 
Yes, I'm sure some butcher made a mistake and sliced the butt instead of putting it out there whole. The same day I talked to the butcher, I went to the meat counter and found a pork loin roast labeled "beer can chicken". Huh? The store doesn't even sell such a thing. I brought it over to the butcher and he started laughing. He said he'd sell it to me at that price (considerably less than a pork loin roast). Unfortunately, I don't have freezer space any more, and couldn't really think of what do do with it, so passed. I'm sure I should have bought it. It was obviously a computer-generated label and was a screw-up.
 
I'm a butcher by trade. It was an error in terminology. On a beef, Anything in front of the rib is considered the "Chuck." by the USDA

This includes common cuts such as Chuck and Arm Roasts and steaks, Short Ribs, Scotch Tenders, Chuckeye steak, and Charcoal steak.

Think of it as anything from your own shoulder blade to your neck, including your arm.

The same primal cut in pork is called a "Shoulder" under USDA guidelines which would include the butt, picnic, and hock.

Retail Labeling requirements very from state to state but if I had to bet the "Pork Chuck Roast" you purchased was a Shoulder Butt that had been cut in half giving you the blade side of the butt.
 
Claire said:
I went to the meat counter and found a pork loin roast labeled "beer can chicken". Huh?

:LOL:....Sounds like someone hit the wrong number on the computerized scales...They hit a number assigned to "Beer Can Chicken" (mistakenly) so the scales weighed up the pork loin, at the chicken price per pound and printed the label...I've seen this type of mistake myself at times...
 
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