A few highlights: Continue Reading
Exploring The Storied Sausage Belt Of The US Gulf Coast
Smoked sausage is the north star that guides Louisiana’s best red bean cooks.
Sunday nights in New Orleans means one thing: Emptying a big bag of Camellia beans into a glass bowl filled with cold water for a good overnight soak before you make your family’s red beans and rice dinner on Monday.
That tattered old note card with your great aunt Ophelia’s recipe? It stays in the cupboard. You know the formula by heart. Continue Reading
2021 Boudin Cook-Off and Acadiana Bacon Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana
The party is held out of doors and most sentient observers long ago determined that conducting one’s affairs in the great outdoors is largely safe and bug-free.
Boudin journalist Robert Carriker is the man behind the event and he vows that all necessary safety protocols will be followed to the letter. The sausage obsessed promoter of Cajun charcuterie noted that, “this will be the place to be to sample everything from boudin rouge to bacon-wrapped boudin balls, to cheesy bacony grits, to boudin pie, and everything in-between.”
2021 Boudin Cook-Off and Acadiana Bacon Festival
October 16th, 2021
Parc International
Lafayette, Louisiana
Hope to see y’all there
This Week In Charcuterie News: American Association of Meat Processors, Southwest Pastrami Co., Royal Pigery, Big Doobie’s Boudin and Cracklins
“Dwight Ely, of Upper Makefield, was elected president of the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) last week during the 82nd Annual Convention of Meat Processors and Suppliers’ Exhibition in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.” Continue Reading
This Week In Charcuterie News: Best Stop Reacts To Kartchner’s, Laura’s II, Johnson’s Boucaniere, Norbert Restaurant, Corned Beef, White Smoke
This Week In Charcuterie News: Who Poisoned Your Bacon Sandwich? Dalmatinska panceta and pečenica, Smithgall and Ging Meat Packers, Tommy’s Ham House, French Nitrates
Dalmatinska panceta and pečenica are classic rural examples of Croatian cured meats. They are now officially protected by the European Union. The public squares of Zagreb come alive on Saturday mornings when the charcutieres set up tables crowded with blades and meat to vend to the public. more
Tough news coming out of Pennsylvania. Waltman Meats aka Smithgall & Ging Meat Packers is closing up after a half-century of business. Don Waltman is 77 and reports that he is tuckered out.
Tommy’s Ham House in Greenville, South Carolina is also closing. Tommy Stevenson had a 36 year run selling big fluffy biscuits packed with salty, cured ham but he’s hanging up his apron. Lewis Barbecue of Charleston will be taking over the building and installing a Texas-style smoked meat house.
The French are attempting to ban nitrates from their charcuterie. It’s going to be an uphill slog. Retraining all the people in the industry on the new methods will take thousands of hours and cost millions of dollars. Here’s the report on the efforts more
This Week In Charcuterie News: Lily Jones’ Country Ham, El Mercado de Yecapixtla, Cajun Traditions Food Processors, Willie Joe Showels Is Dead, Godshall’s Quality Meats
I’ve taken dozens and dozens of motorbike trips throughout Mexico but have yet to visit El Mercado de Yecapixtla where Cecina Eva and Cecina Aída vend cured, dried Mexican beef alongside other renditions of American charcuterie. Paco de Santiago has the tale of a generational family business here
Cajun Traditions Food Processors has purchased an old garment factory in Church Point, Louisiana. They’re turning the factory into a Cajun meat manufacturer. This will mean jobs, and more importantly boudin being produced in 1000 pound lots that will be shipped all over the great state. more
Back in the early 90s Willie Joe Showels was one of the few men selling boudin in the city of Austin, Texas. I used to love to visit his Willie’s Barbecue joint on Martin Luther King Boulevard. We’d sit around talking about smoked meat, and he’d regale me with stories from the good old days. Willie Joe has passed away. He is survived by 10 of his 11 children, 42 grandchildren and 72 great-grandchildren more
Are you a Muslim with a deep yearning for bacon that must go unanswered due to religious restrictions? Godshall’s Quality Meats has some bacon products that you may feel like exploring more
This Week in Charcuterie News: Koji Alchemy, Armenian Basturma, Euskal Txerria Hogs, Tulare Meat Locker
He was almost at the corner of the rue Piroutees, and the [charcuterie] shop was a joy to behold. It was filled with laughter and bright light and brilliant colors that popped out next to the white of the marble countertops. The signboard, on which the name QUENU-GRADELLE glittered in fat gilt lettering encircled by leaves and branches painted on a soft-hued background, was protected by a sheet of glass.
Émile Zola, The Belly of Paris, 1873 Continue Reading
This Week In Charcuterie News: Boudin Vending Machines, Portugese Chourico in Greenwich Village, Otis Knapp Lee of Mr FoFo’s Deli, Green’s Sausage House in Zabcikville
This Week In Charcuterie News: John Folse Boucherie, Andre Hueston Mack, Teddy’s Barbecue, Ocean Charcuterie
Sit down for 40 minutes and watch the old master, John Folse host a hog killing and boucherie where his crew makes andouille sausage, pork sausage, and ponce; red and white boudin; backbone fricassee and white beans; hog’s head cheese; cracklins; debris stew and porchetta. Continue Reading