ROUSES.COM
11
During the course of my fieldwork I came to crave boudin and
develop my own opinions about what I call The Great Boudin
Debates: short grain vs. medium grain vs. long grain rice; to pork
liver or not to pork liver; what place, if any, celery and green bell
pepper have; how fiery with red pepper boudin should be; the ratio
of rice to meat; and whether it’s gauche to squeeze the sausage’s
innards into one’s mouth rather than attempt chewing through the
casing. But as much as I enjoyed sampling all specimens of boudin
(including seafood, white bean, and other unusual variations), it was
the makers behind this strictly Louisiana delicacy that truly sold me
on its cultural import. Sitting down and talking with almost twenty
of them — and meeting others on the Southern Boudin Trail web
site — served as an irreplaceable social, cultural, historical, and
culinary education.
Following are some of those voices, boudin makers and sellers (and
one park ranger) describing in their own words what boudin means
to the people who rely on it for sustenance.
What exactly is boudin, and where did it come from?
“Well we found out it comes from an archaic French word called
“bedaine”—b-e-d-a-i-n-e—meaning the guts or the entrails. And
then we also thought that boudin was relatively new, say 200 or 300
years old maybe. Well the first appearance in documentary records
is in 1268 A.D. So this practice has been going on for, let’s see,
almost 800 years they’ve been making boudin. But it’s not just from
the French. The French…when they started colonizing, they spread
this method to Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, the Antilles, French
North Africa, and, of course, here in Louisiana.”
—
Vincent Fontenot, United States National Park Ranger, Prairie
Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice
“They used to make boudin with the old-time boucheries. Stuff
that wasn’t going to be appealing to eat, they boiled it down and
they de-boned it. Like the head, the hocks and stuff, the little pieces
of meat that they couldn’t do anything with. They’d grind that up
after it was cooked. It was falling off the bone, and then they would
mix the internal organs with it, and then the vegetables — they’d
grind all that up together. They’d stuff it in the casings and they’d
cook it all at one time, you know, because they made thirty, forty
pounds at a time. They’d cook it, and then everybody took some
home and they ate it cold or they reheated it or whatever.”
—
Bubba Frey of Mowata Store in Mowata/Eunice
“It’s actually a rice and gravy in a casing. It’s just the way I can best
explain it.”
—
Daven Hulen of Chop’s Specialty Meats in Broussard
What goes well with boudin?
“If you have a link of boudin, you almost have to have a few
cracklings. And most of the time they get a diet drink with it, but I
don’t know how much that helps.”
—
Robert Cormier of The Best Stop in Scott
“A six pack of beer and a pound of boudin. That’s the traditional
Cajun seven-course meal. So I guess beer is about the best product to
eat with boudin, but there’s nothing wrong with an RC Cola either.”
—
Floyd Poche of Poche’s Market in Breaux Bridge
To pork liver or not to pork liver?
“To me it’s not boudin if there is no liver in it.”
—
Coz Fontenot, home boudin maker in Eunice
“We’ve got to use the hog jaw, the belly, the meat, and the liver and
the heart, the kidney — we put all that in there, all the good stuff,
and you grind all that.”
—
John Saucier of Saucier’s Sausage Kitchen in Mamou
“We decided that we would not put liver in the boudin. People that
like boudin with liver still eat the one without the liver, and then
the people that don’t like the liver, they definitely concentrate on
coming here.”
—
Kevin Downs of The Sausage Link in Sulfur
Do you eat the casing?
“My preferred way to eat boudin is barbecued. Now if you barbecue
it, then you eat the casing. You put it on a pit until the casing turns
golden brown. Then you take it off and eat it. When you bite into
the boudin it just breaks the casing.”
—
Scott Menard of Trahan Foods in Rayne
Which grain is the proper boudin rice?
“We have the right amount of rice, so that it’s not too meaty. And
the texture of the rice is not coarse so that it’s flaky like long grain
rice, falling off your plate or something. We have a good medium
grain rice that we use.”
—
T-Boy Berzas of T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse in Ville Platte
“I use long grains. I just like it. I find the others are too mushy.”
—
Lynn Dale Coleman of Coleman’s Sausage and Specialty Meats in Iota
What about the red pepper?
“We use twenty pounds of pork, we use ten pounds of liver…We
need a little bit more pepper, a little bit more salt. But if you drink
too much beer it ends up kind of hot because it’s never hot enough
when you’re drinking beer. I learned that by experience.”
—
Andy Thibodeaux of Eunice Superette & Slaughter House in Eunice
“We don’t make mild or real hot; it’s just hot. I mean it’s not overly
hot, but it has a little kick to it. But we have no trouble selling it.”
—Judy Huval of Webster’s Meat Market in Cecilia
“I think ‘Cajun’ has been broadened way too much. Everybody
thinks if it’s Cajun it’s pepper, and it’s not. It’s all about flavor.”
—
Tiny Prudhomme of Tiny Prudhomme’s House of Meat in Broussard
When do people eat boudin?
“When I was younger it was a treat to go get boudin. We probably
did that once every couple weeks or so. And then when I was driving,
when I was in high school, me and my buddies would go hunting or
fishing; we’d always stop and get a link of boudin on the way back.”
—
Billy Billaud of Billaud’s Grocery in Broussard
“If they don’t have time to cook supper, they just walk up to the
counter and buy five, six, seven pounds of boudin. That’s supper
because it’s like a whole meal. You have rice, you have your meat,
you have onions, your bell peppers, your vegetables and stuff.”
—
Shannon Bourque of Bourque’s Supermarket in Port Barre
“I remember in my early 20s, 30s, they were eating boudin for
breakfast and I’m going, ‘Wow. Man. Golly, boudin for breakfast.’
Well I mean, what is it? It’s pork, which is bacon; it’s rice, which is
cereal. You’re getting everything that you normally get for breakfast
in the boudin.”
—Dickie Breaux of Café Des Amis in Breaux Bridge
