Buckboard bacon butt size

The instructions tell you to debone the butt before curing. That will prevent a problem from using a thicker butt.

Buster is right. The instructions say to put the cure liberally on the inside where the bone came out. I have done a couple of butts this way and turned out great.

The first butt I did, I actually cut the butt in half, along the deboning cut, after the curing process and smoked the two pieces. I got a lot of hickory smoke flavor in the meat and taste was excellent. The main reason I cut it in half was the lousy deboning job I did and there wasn't much holding the two halves together anyway.

The next butt I did wasn't cut in half and smoked whole. The taste was still excellent, but not quite as smoky a flavor.

If you debone and then sort of butterfly pieces by cutting along the fat lines and flattening out (not a very good explanation) you can wind up with strips that sort of resemble "regular" bacon after cooking.