 DON’S SPECIALTY MEATS
Mark Cole & Jimmy
Guidry
Don’s Specialty Meats
730 I-10 S. Frontage Rd
Scott, LA 70583
(337) 234-2528
Second Location:
104 Louisiana HWY 726
Carencro, LA 70520
(337) 896-6370
donsspecialtymeats.com
“The culture of the people over here—boudin and cracklings
is a big drawing card for this area, as far as people just eat it
every day for breakfast, lunch, or supper. I mean we open at six
o’clock in the morning, and a lot of people pick it up for
breakfast. And people come by and eat it all day long.”
— Mark Cole, owner
Louisiana native Mark Cole sold cars for twelve years.
In 1992 he went into business with Don Menard, opening Don’s
Specialty Meats in Carencro, Louisiana. Mark managed the money,
Don the meat. Boudin was one of their specialties. After just a
couple of years in business, Don left to open a grocery store. Mark
stuck with his investment, hiring a new butcher, Jimmy Guidry. In
2005 Mark decided to open another Don’s Specialty Meats in
the town of Scott. There, Jimmy arrives before dawn to make 1,500
pounds of boudin each day. He has to, because customers start pulling
in off of the interstate for a breakfast of hot links as soon as
they open for business at 6 a.m.
NOTE: Two interviews are featured
on this page: Mark Cole, owner of Don’s Specialty Meats
and his boudin maker, Jimmy Guidry. Jump
to Jimmy Guidry’s interview.
 Listen
to this 3-minute audio clip
of Mark Cole talking about what a typical day is like behind the
scenes at his store. [Windows Media Player required. Go here
to download the player for free.]
EDITED TRANSCRIPT (MARK COLE)
NOTE:
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been
edited for length. To download Mark Cole's entire transcript in
PDF form, please click here.
Subject: Mark Cole, owner
Date: October 13, 2006
Location: Don’s Specialty Meats – Scott, LA
Interviewer: Amy Evans
---
Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans for the Southern
Foodways Alliance and it is Friday, October 13th 2006. I’m
in Scott, Louisiana, at Don’s Specialty Meats with Mr. Cole.
Mr. Cole, would you please state your name and your birth date for
the record please, sir?
Mark Cole: Mark Aubrey Cole, September 29, 1962.
How long have you owned Don’s Specialty Meats?
We’ll be in our fourteenth year in business. We have a Scott
location over here, which at you’re at right now, that’s
been in business for right at a year. We opened over here right
off of I-10, Exit 97 and have another business in Carencro [Louisiana]
by the Old Evangeline Downs [race track] that I’ve been having
for fourteen years.
 And
who is Don?
Me and Don Menard went in business fourteen years ago. He knew pretty
much about the business, specialty meats, and boudin. I put up the
money to get started, and he stayed about two-and-a-half, three
years and went to open a big grocery store. And I just stayed in
my location and my business has been increasing ever since.
What were you doing before the meat business?
I was in the car business for twelve years.
And where are you from, exactly?
From Lafayette [Louisiana].
So what is it about this area that demands so many specialty
meat markets?
The culture of the people over here are—boudin and cracklings
is a big drawing card for this area, as far as people just eat it
every day for breakfast, lunch, or supper. I mean we open at six
o’clock in the morning, and a lot of people either pick it
up for breakfast or the pick it up to bring to customers early in
the morning, and people come by and eat it all day long. We’re
open ‘til seven o’clock [at night] over here, and we
sell a lot of cold and frozen boudin. As far as, you know, people
traveling, we have a lot of people traveling that stop to get boudin
to go—especially over here on I-10. We roughly probably sell
anywhere from 10 to 11,000 pounds a week between the two stores
of boudin.
So when you went in the business with Don did you must have known
that it was a good business decision to get into the meat business.
Yes. And then ever since I say the last number of years it’s
really picked up a whole lot. The Carencro store is probably—has
an increase of about 15 to 20-percent every year, which you know
has grown. We’re right off of I-49, and we have people traveling
that stop there. The [newer] Scott location has been real, real
good; it took off way faster than we thought it would have took
off. And they [at the Scott location] just accelerated from there
and surpassed the Carencro location that we’ve been having
for fourteen years. And it’s really done well.
What made you choose Scott to open the second location?
The Scott area—especially being right off of I-10. I know
all the traffic on I-10 and the car count is about 80 to 90,000
cars a day on I-10, and this Scott area has just really built up
fast. We have a hotel going up next door; we have the new Harley
[Davidson motorcycle] shop next door, plus a bunch of other businesses
around this area and it’s just—the population of the
Scott area is also picked up but especially the highway traffic.
People on the I-10—traveling is a good part of my business
over here.
Now in Scott I know there are a couple other specialty meat places
that have boudin. Did you see that as competition or did you—were
you really confident that being here on the Interstate was your
thing?
No, being on the Interstate was being a big part of it. Exposure
and visibility is a big part of it. When people pass and see your
business and your location every time they pass on I-10—and
I have billboards also but on my—on my building. You know,
I have big signs and it’s very visible to see…and the
Scott area right here, especially by this exit is just—it’s
the first stop right before Lafayette and they just have a lot of
people stopping in this area. My closest competition is probably
The Best Stop, which is probably two miles—two or three miles
away from me off of Highway 93, and they have enough business for,
you know, both stores. They were happy when I came because they
said they had too much business, so I’m happy to be here and,
you know, happy to be in business here.
What do you think it is about this establishment, Don’s
Specialty Meats, that’s different from everybody else?
We have a nice new facility, always have a clean store, inside and
out, the—my old store in Carencro is a clean facility. I mean
it’s just—I like to keep a spotless store and, you know,
keep people when they sit and they see something clean, you know,
it makes them happy. And the quality of your meat and consistency,
as far as your boudin, cracklings, you know, keeping it the same
all the time, your same recipe and doing the meats and, you know,
doing everything the same has a lot to do with it.
And now can we talk about your boudin? Is that Don’s recipe
that you’re making?
Yes, it’s a mixture of Don’s recipe and my butcher over
there, Jimmy Guidry, that we have. It’s, you know, mainly
pork. You have some pork liver, and you’ve got rice and seasonings.
Can you describe your boudin, like the texture and the flavor?
It’s a real meaty boudin; it has a lot of meat in it. The
rice is not over-powering the meat and it’s a good seasoning—seasoned
well.
As in pretty spicy?
 Not
too spicy but it’s spicy enough.
So what would you say makes a good boudin?
A consistent boudin, you know, makes—we have two people that
make it here. It’s mainly a consistency that, you know, is
the same all the time. You don’t want somebody coming in one
week and they say, you know, your boudin is this way and then your
boudin is this way another week. You know, it’s—all
the seasons are measured and we put, like I said, you have the meat,
onions, bell peppers, and garlic; you’ve got parsley, your
red pepper, black pepper and salt, seasonings, a little bit of pork
liver and like keeping your consistency of your—doing it the
same way all the time has a lot to do with it.
---
Now I mentioned earlier before we started recording that I was
up in Mamou and places up there in more rural areas. Do you think
there’s a difference between the boudin up there and down
here near Lafayette?
Yeah, most definite. It’s not a whole lot different, but there
is a difference. The difference around this area from here you go
to Jennings [Louisiana], it’s a different boudin. If you eat
boudin in Baton Rouge, it’s a different boudin. It’s
a commercial boudin, and there’s a homemade boudin. Ours is
what we call the best homemade boudin over here. The commercial
boudin is made a lot cheaper, you know, different things in there
as far as the meat-wise. And, you know, they put more rice in it,
which they sell at a lot of commercial places. Ours is a homemade
boudin like old mom and pop used to make at their house with our
boucherie [family or community hog slaughtering tradition] or something
like that—that is a good boudin that everybody enjoys.
So can you talk a little bit more about those differences, though?
Is it just in like maybe where and how they’re getting their
meat, or is it a difference in spice and flavor or what?
I think it’s a little bit between the meat and the spice and
flavor. As far as the seasonings, the seasonings are probably varies
of—if somebody likes it hot or mild. But as far as the meat,
a lot of people put in commercial boudin you don’t put the
best quality of meat that you can get, you know, and it’s
not quite the same.
---
Do you have an idea about the history of boudin?
I’m sure it originated—I mean with the Cajuns down here,
basically; as far as when it originated, I’m sure at least
you know 80—80 years ago. When all these people—when
they would have a boucherie and kill their pigs, and they would
have all their family; back then they used intestines, you know,
to stuff the boudin and it’s been going around a long time.
Have you experienced a boucherie yourself?
Yes, plenty of times; back when I was either younger growing up
and going to, you know, somebody’s house that had it or going
to the boucherie in St. Martinville, they do all that over there.
What do you think about that tradition in the Cajun culture?
That’s something in the Cajun—that we honor and treasure
because we the only ones around here that do it, as far as the tradition
that goes on right now as far—and then we celebrate it basically
every year by having a [community] boucherie in this area.
When you were growing up, did your family ever have a boucherie
of their own?
Not really of our own, but you know going to different people’s
houses—friends of mine; they had—you know, they had
things like this. As far as doing it on our own, we never really
did it on our own, you know. We grew cattle. I mean had cattle and
stuff. But as far as pigs, we had pigs but we never had really our
own boucherie.
Growing up in Lafayette, where did you like to go get your boudin?
Growing up we—I used to go with my grandfather and—to
Abbeville to Clemons, which they sold red boudin and white boudin—white
boudin is the regular boudin that we sell now; blood boudin had—you
would have pork blood in the boudin and only a slaughterhouse would
make that and they—they still—I think they still can
make, if it’s a slaughterhouse, but it’s very uncommon
these days. And the taste was a little bit different but it—it
wasn’t bad at all.
Can you describe the taste?
It’s basically the same. It was reddish. It made your casing
reddish. It just had maybe a little harsher kick to it, I guess
but I mean it wasn’t bad at all.
Well and with the boucheries and making boudin being a tradition,
a Cajun tradition in the area, and it being more or less a product
of wanting to use the whole pig and then now with your Don’s
Specialty Meats here on the Interstate and the amount of boudin
that’s going through these doors, what is it about boudin
that keeps people coming back?
They just love to eat it. It’s just a common tradition for
people around here—people that come over here and Scott are
probably 60—70-percent of my business, it’s highway
traffic. I have a lot of local people that eat it and like I said,
morning, noon, and—and supper. But as far as traveling people,
they can't get it every day; and when they come by, they’ll
load their ice chest you know—buy five, ten, to fifty pounds
at a time. A lot of people coming in from Houston that’s originally
from this area and Mississippi and Florida, but the majority of
the people, I guess, are from Texas—a lot of black people
and white people, both, that grew up on boudin and cracklings but—and
they just keep coming back because they enjoy the boudin that we
make—homemade boudin. And they tell their family members about
it and, you know, it goes on from there.
And here at Don’s Specialty Meats you’re making it
every day?
Make it every day, anywhere from 800 to 1,000 to 1,200 to 1,400
pounds a day. So we make probably, like I said, 7,000 pounds here
and 5,000 to 6,000 pounds at the other store every day except Sundays.
We don’t make boudin on Sundays, so the boudin, we package
it every day. We put some in the freezer every day. We sell it out.
We sell out the freeze every day in five-pound boxes, as well as
cold and hot.
---
A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that [boudin] sells
more in the winter than in the summer, but you seem to have a pretty
constantly revolving door here.
Yes. As far as the winter and the summer, these days it don’t
really matter. Boudin sells 365 days a year. As far as right now,
the summertime, I hate to see what the wintertime is going to be
because we’re going to be a lot busier, you know. It just
more work to do. But as far as summertime and wintertime, it’s
very, very close as far as the boudin coming through in and out
of the store.
---
Do you have an opinion about the rice and the rice that you put
in [boudin] and the consistency of it when it’s cooked?
As far as the rice, we never change—the same rice company
since we opened. Like I said, everything is consistency; if it’s
working, don’t change it. So as far as the rice, it’s
all Louisiana-grown from right in the Crowley area, the rice that
we get and we use the same—like I said, the same company for
fourteen years because the product they have is—is a good
product and it’s—the—the rice that we cook every
day I mean is—is measured to, you know, the same with the
water and so it should be the same all the time.
How would you describe boudin to someone who has never had it
before?
People that haven’t—haven’t never tried it, we—over
here, if they want one, we give them a sample piece—the same
thing with the cracklings. As far as describing it, it’s—it’s
kind of like—you’ve got to tell them it’s like
a sausage in a casing; it’s not really a sausage but it’s—it’s,
like you can say almost a rice dressing in a casing, as far as the
meat in your rice, you know—as far as the way it looks and
the way it tastes is different but we—we like to give everybody
a piece to try, if you have never tried it when they come in the
door.
---
In your operation here how do you process [such a large] quantity
of boudin in a day?
It starts early in the morning. My main market manager, Jimmy [Guidry],
him and his wife both work for me over here. He runs—he more
or less runs the—the store and he helps out with the other
store, also. They come—they come to work six days a week,
and they come to work at four o’clock in the morning. I come
the other day at four o’clock in the morning and get things
started. We start with putting the boudin on at four o’clock
in the morning every day. As far as getting that ready, the preparation
of it starts right after that—as far as getting the boudin
 ready
for the—for the next day, you know, cutting the meat up and
processing it and getting everything ready. We put the beef jerky
on. Also we—we sell a lot of beef jerky, which is common around
this area and it really sells well—put that on early in the
smoker, four o’clock every morning, unless he cooks sausage—smoked
sausage. We just put it on early in the morning also and then start
putting the cracklings on, and we cook cracklings every day except
Sunday. As far as pre-cooking them, we have a process when we cook
the cracklings. They take anywhere from 45—50 minutes the
first time, and then we take them out and let them cool off and
then that keeps going on. We cook in two different pots, six days
a week from four o’clock in the morning usually ‘til
four or five o’clock that afternoon. We sell a lot of cracklings
every day. As far as the cracklings, you start off with a—a
box weight of about 50 to 55 pounds. You take that and you cut your
cracklings up, as far as cutting them in cubes. They’re all
cut by hand; we cut them with the saw, and then they’re cut
by hand. Those are cut every day over here in preparation for getting
them ready to put in the pot when—when they’re cooked.
Like I said, they start off with about 50—55 pounds. By the
time it’s cooked, by the time all your grease is cooked out
from your fat, you end up with probably about 13 to 14 pounds of
cooked cracklings out of a box of cracklings. Like I said, we cook
24 to 30 boxes a day, probably, and sell anywhere from 20 to 24
boxes every day of cracklings. Cracklings are a big seller, just
like the boudin.
Now Jimmy, who makes your boudin, is that something he knew how
to do, or is that something he was trained in?
He’s been in the meat business for about 20—26 years.
His brother, Roy, works with me also in the Carencro location. They
both been with me for a total of about twenty years. Well as far
as—Jimmy has been in the meat business, he been working with—for
me for—for thirteen years, and his brother has been working
for me about six to eight years and they—his—their other
brother opened the Carencro store with me, which he works at another
business now. And their—their whole family has been in the
meat business and slaughterhouse business. They—they very
much know how to prepare any kind of meat and—that you need.
Do you think that there is anything about boudin that is specific
to the person who makes it?
Yes, because every—everybody has a different idea, I guess,
about making boudin, as far as the way they like it. I’ve
tasted boudin from probably 30 different places and not everybody’s
boudin is the same. It varies from people putting a lot of rice,
people like use—we put a lot of meat in our boudin. The spice
is always, you know, trying to be consistent with the same spices,
the same seasonings, which has a lot to do with it. You don’t
want to eat it one time and it be mild and the next time it will
be real hot. So as far as that everybody—everybody’s
boudin is, it—there’s a difference in it. It just depends
what you like in boudin.
And I’ve heard of people talking about making crawfish
boudin and things like that. What do you think about that?
It’s all right. I mean I’ve tasted it. We never really
made it over here this far. It was mainly made because of people,
I guess, during Lent, people in South Louisiana all—mostly
all Catholics and they didn’t eat boudin on Friday because
of the—the meat situation. And right now we don’t see
that hindering our business as far as eating—people not eating
meat on Fridays. I mean we sell seafood over here in the deli on
Fridays, but as far as people not eating meat on Fridays it’s—there’s
so many younger people these days that really don’t follow
the—really rules of the Catholic Church like they used to
like older people do, basically.
Do you think that you can call crawfish boudin boudin, if it
doesn’t have the hog liver in it?
It’s got rice. Instead of the pork meat, you have crawfish
in it and I mean it’s going to be like a crawfish Etouffee
in a casing, basically. That’s basically what it is, as far
as the—it’s a good flavor and a good taste. The cost
of it cost you more to make than pork boudin, so you got to sell
it for you almost twice or three times the amount.
What do you think the future of
Don’s Specialty Meats is?
I’d like to open another store in the Broussard area—as
far as catching people off of Highway 90 in the Broussard area,
which is a very populated area. Growing big in the—in the
Lafayette area and that probably will be next location that I’d
like to—to build at.
---
To download Mark Cole's entire transcript in PDF
form, please click here.
 JIMMY
GUIDRY
“Boudin has come a long way now because back
then, you used the cow horn or a bull horn and stuff it in that.
Today, it’s machinery, you know, because you make so much
of it.”
— Jimmy Guidry, boudin maker
Listen
to this 2-minute audio clip
of Jimmy Guidry talking about how the meat industry in Louisiana
has changed and what he thinks about its future. [Windows Media
Player required. Go here
to download the player for free.]
NOTE:
What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been
edited for length. To download Jimmy Guidry's entire transcript
in PDF form, please click here.
EDITED TRANSCRIPT (JIMMY GUIDRY)
Subject: Jimmy Guidry, boudin maker
Date: October 13, 2006
Location: Don’s Specialty Meats – Scott, LA
Interviewer: Amy Evans
---
Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans for the Southern Foodways
Alliance on Friday, October 13th 2006 in Scott, Louisiana, at Don’s
Specialty Meats. And I’m with Mr. Cole’s boudin maker
and meat cutter, Jimmy. Jimmy would you say your full name and your
date for the record, please, sir?
Jimmy Guidry: Jimmy Guidry. I was born January 27th 1957.
And you were just saying a minute ago, you’ve been in the
meat business for about thirty-some years.
Thirty-two years, yes, ma’am.
Where are you from originally?
Duson, Louisiana. That’s next door to Scott, actually.
Since you’ve been here a long time, what was the Scott
area like thirty years ago?
Well, I mean, it’s grown a whole, whole lot because back then
it was mostly country, and we grew up in the country, basically.
That’s when we really started learning how to make boudin
and doing our own butchering back then.
Can you talk about that a little bit more?
Well my parents and them used to butcher their own hogs and stuff,
and I mean I pretty much grew up around that all my life. So as
far back as I can remember, when I was seven or eight years old
I remember, you know, taking the pig down and—and butchering
it and making crackling and boudin, hog-head cheese and all that
stuff way back then.
And so when did you get in the meat business, exactly, and how
did that happen?
I started in the meat business just before I turned eighteen right
out of high school and actually my mom was working for a slaughterhouse
which was Leboeuf’s back in Broussard, Louisiana, and he just
so happened to need a butcher and asked my mom if I’d be interested,
and that’s how I pretty much got started. I started on the
slaughtering floor, and I slaughtered for four years and after that
I got into the meat part of it and became a manager, you know, at
a very young age. I was twenty-two years old when I first became
a market manager.
Can you talk about what you learned growing up in the Cajun culture
that had the boucheries and all that and how that translated into
what you do now?
Pretty much so, because I mean if you grow up with that around you,
you know, it kind of like sticks into your blood, I would say, you
know. So growing up in that culture and learning that at a very
young age, a lot of people would think that’s—“Ew,
that’s disgusting,” you know, if they saw that today.
But growing up with that all my life is like, you know, it came
natural to me, so that’s pretty much why I was interested
in that field.
Was there something other than it being natural to you and something
that you grew up with—something that you particularly like
about being in the meat business?
Yes, I had a real experience about wanting to learn the different
cuts of meat and not only that, but the quality of meat. So through
the years of being a meat cutter and dealing with meat, you know,
for thirty-two years, you could pretty much look at a grade of meat
and tell, you know, if it’s choice or, you know, the number
two or prime or whatever it is. And, you know, that was just, you
know, something that I wanted to learn.
And at what point of your career did you start making boudin?
I started making boudin back when I was—let’s see, I
started slaughtering—I was eighteen, back when I was like
twenty-one years old, and I’m fixing to be fifty here in January.
So it’s been a few years.
When you started making it, was it a recipe that was given to
you, or was it something that was part of what your family used
to do?
Well, when I first started making boudin, we did it as a youngster,
actually. When I was telling you earlier, during the boucheries—and
I mean boudin has come a long way now because back then you use
the cow horn or a bullhorn and stuff it in that. Today it’s
machinery, you know, because you make so much of it. But, you know,
Mom and Dad had a recipe of their own, but when I came to work for
Mr. Mark Cole [owner of Don’s Specialty Meats], you know,
they had their own recipe, and I just followed their recipe and
just make sure that everything is consistent.
Can you talk more about the bullhorn? Is that like you use it
as a funnel to get it in the casing?
Right, the bullhorn was kind of like a funnel and basically, you
put the casing on the end of the bullhorn and you use your two forefingers,
actually, to stuff it down into the casing and it made a boudin.
Can you describe a little more the boucherie and the process
and kind of what you would do first with the hog and where boudin
would fall into that process?
Actually, the first thing they did was when they took the hog out
from the stall, you know you get four or five guys, they would knock
it down and they would bleed the hog. And from there the women would
come with a bucket, and they could catch the blood and you know,
they made blood boudin back then in the day. And from there, you
know, they would scratch the hog and, you know, clean the inside
out and naturally, take the skin and the fat off and the cracklings
came from there. And the boudin came from the head, if they weren't
making hog-head  cheese
with some of the shoulder parts of the hog. Or should I say like
pretty much the trash part of the hog was what boudin came from.
Can you talk about what is different in what you do now and the
traditional boucheries?
Well, I mean, it’s much cleaner now because I mean, everything
is done inside. You just do lots more of it and, you know, everything
that we get in now is pretty much in a box, you know, where back
then we did our own killings, actually, our own actual killings
and took it from there. So I would say it’s definitely easier
today, you know, especially with the machinery and the tools and
the cleanliness.
What about the part of Cajun culture that is the boucherie?
Well, I don’t think it’s going to go way
because every year they do have a boucherie here in St. Martinsville,
and people get to go out there that are interested or, you know,
just to keep the Cajun culture going. And they actually do the boucherie
there in front of the crowd, so it’s something that they can
come out and visit and see.
Can you talk about and describe the blood sausage [or boudin
noir] because Mark and I were talking about that a little bit earlier.
What it tastes like and—?
Yes, the blood sausage. Like I said, when they bled the hog, they
would catch the blood and then they would stir the blood constantly
so the blood wouldn’t clabber. Then once your boudin meat
was cooked and your rice was cooked, when you blended in your meat
and your rice, instead of adding a whole lot of boudin juice or
boudin water, they would put the blood in there instead. And—and
that’s where your blood boudin came from. And I mean it’s—it’s
good-tasting boudin, actually. It’s a different taste than
the regular white boudin, but now they—you can't find that
anywhere anymore because of, you know, the Board of Health purposes
and that sort of stuff.
Do you think that hogs taste different now from when you were
coming up and when you had the boucheries within your family and
raised your hogs and then the hogs that you’re processing
now?
Yes, I think today the pork is—has much better quality to
it because these hogs are grown on feed lots, and they’re
fed nothing but, you know, quality feeds, whereas back in the day
these hogs ate grass or they were slop hogs, you know—anything
that your parents were going to throw away they fed it to the hogs,
you know, rice bran or bread or anything that was not any good,
actually. They would put it in a barrel and put water in it, and
it would ferment and they would feed that—the slop to the
hogs.
So let’s talk about making boudin. Can you describe the
process of what you do?
Yes. Actually, the boudin process starts at about four o’clock
in the morning. We get here and we’ll boil the meat in the
big boiling pots for about an hour-and-a-half. And in the meantime,
while the water is boiling we cook our rice. And after your meat
is boiled—and it’s not over-boiled because you want
a good texture to it—you ground your meat up and add it to
the rice with the seasoning. And the seasoning is always weighed
and measured, so it’s always pretty much consistent, you know.
And it’s all weighed in portions, and it’s mixed in
portions, so like I said, you know, it’s pretty much consistent
all the time.
And Mark was saying that you add some of the seasoning when you’re
boiling the meat and also after when you’re mixing it all,
is that right?
Yes, ma’am. We do boil it with the seasoning and, you know,
the other spices, onions, bell peppers, all that good stuff that
makes it taste good.
---
I was commenting earlier, when I had the taste of boudin, that
it’s a lot bigger link of boudin than I’ve had before,
where the circumference is a lot bigger. Is there a preference to
the size of the casing that you’re using and a reason for
that?
Yes, I find that the size casing we’re using your boudin looks
a lot prettier. It’s not real fat, but it’s not real
skinny. I think it’s a good medium-sized casing and also it
makes your boudin look nice, and it makes it pretty, and it’s
real easy to cook.
What do you think is the most important thing about making boudin?
Consistency. Consistency is number one, you know, making sure that
your seasoning is always weighed or measured and not having ten
people make your boudin. You know, if you have—keep your boudin
recipe down to one or two people, I think you’ll be fine.
Now do you have somebody that’s kind of an apprentice to
you and that is learning how to do this one day when you might decide
to retire?
Yes, ma’am, I do. Actually we have a young guy. He’s
twenty-seven years old; he’s been with me now for a couple
years, and I just oversee everything that he does and make sure
that it stays right and—either myself or my wife make the
seasoning and it’s all weighed and measured. It’s in
bags and ready to go—per-fifty-pound batch, so we just make
sure that everything is put correctly.
Are there any tricks to making boudin?
Not really. Just a lot of work.
 So
when you were growing up—outside of the boucheries that your
family would have—where were you getting boudin?
We would make our own; that’s the only way you had boudin.
Because back then, I mean, we had refrigerators, but a lot of people
didn’t own deep freezers or freezers as they would say now,
so everybody may boucherie at least once every two weeks. If my
mom and dad didn’t do it, then you know, her brother or sister
or my dad’s brother and sister and my aunts and uncles would
do it. But every two weeks we were doing some type of boucherie.
When do you think all these retail markets started springing
up in the area?
Actually, when I first started, you had a few retailers that were
slaughterhouses, but now a lot of your slaughterhouses are dwindling
down and it’s basically just your big processing and packing
plants that you can get quality pork from. Just the thing about
it is a lot of young people don’t want to get involved in
that type of industry. I mean it’s very hard work and again,
the younger people think it’s a real messy job, and it’s
like, “Oh no, we don’t want to do this kind of work.”
And I think it’s a fantastic industry, and I would really
be glad to see more young people get involved in this because this
is a thing of the future, I guarantee you.
Can you explain that?
Yes, way back then when I started slaughtering thirty-two years
ago, you know, thirty years ago, butchers didn’t make very
much money. It was like a job like any other job, you know. But
today, I mean, they have very few butchers and so the—the
pay is going to have to come up to try to get these young people
interested in this industry or else the industry is going to go
to nothing. You won't have any, you know, qualified meat cutters,
so if you don’t have any meat cutters here, you’re not
going to be able to actually get fresh meats because you’re
going to have to get it from a packing house. And by the time these
stores will get it, it’s going to be five days old, you know.
So our culture is going to go to nothing, if we can't get these
young people involved.
And I would think that it’s a really important part of
Cajun culture, specifically, because so much of the culture is based
around hunting and bringing in fresh meat on a recreational level.
Yes, it is. I mean you do have some of your hunters that will go
out there and—and do their own, you know butchering of the
deer or what have you. But then again, they don’t know the
whole process, so they have to bring it, you know, to these specialty
meat companies or slaughterhouses in order to get it processed because
they don’t know anything about—they know how to kill
it and they know how to take the skin off, and that’s about
all they know.
So would you say, then, that butchering meat—what was once
a necessity is now more of a craft?
It is. It’s like a skilled labor job now, you know. And it’s
going to become very demanding in the future.
---
We were talking earlier about there not being many retail boudin
places when you were growing up. How do you think this area can
support so many specialty meat markets and places that sell boudin?
Again, back in the day when I was coming up, everyone had their
own boucheries or made their own boudin, so they were not going
to go in a store and buy the product because they made their own.
But now you don’t have that anymore. You know, you don’t
hear of anybody doing their own boucheries anymore and it’s—it’s
a great demand. It’s a big demand and I mean it’s part
of our Cajun culture. So now we’re bringing in people from
all over the world through our Cajun culture that want to taste
boudin or you know, want to see what it tastes like or even what
it looks like because people come in and ask you for something that
don’t even sound like boudin. But you know that’s what
they’re asking you for and they want to taste it. So it’s
a big demand; it really is.
---
Can you describe how boudin in this area is different from boudin
in Jennings and in Opelousas and other areas?
Well I guess I’m partial, but I think we have the best boudin
in Acadiana, bar none. Some people like to put a lot of rice in
their boudin; others like more meat. I think we’re—we’re
pretty much equal rice and meat as far as, you know, balancing it
out and—and you don’t have too much rice or too much
meat. And it’s hard to say. I mean people follow their recipes,
I guess, that might have been let—handed down from their grandparents
or, you know, their parents, and I guess they feel the same way
I feel like they have the best boudin in Acadiana.
But do you think, outside of there being differences in family
recipes and differences in boudin from person to person, do you
think that there is like a regional difference within southern Louisiana
of styles?
Yes, I think—I think southwest Louisiana is totally different
from like, if you would go just right out of the state of Texas,
for instance, because they come here and they eat it and they go
back home and try to make it. It’s not a recipe that was handed
down, you know, from their parents or their grandfathers or ancestors,
should I say. And they taste it, and they try to go home and make
it. And it’s not a product that you can just make overnight;
I mean it’s something that takes a lot of, you know, measuring
and changing this and changing that until you get it right.
---
One thing I would like to ask you, then, I’m reminded of,
is in the older boucherie tradition that was in the families that
you were talking about, putting the trash meats in the boudin and
a lot more organ meats used to go into it, and now it’s just
primarily liver, can you talk about that?
The only thing that we—we use a little bit of in our boudin
today is just a little bit of liver in 100-pounds. Back in the day
when we made the boucheries yes, the liver went in, the pork heart
went in, the pork kidneys went in, all your flank meat went in,
you know, the head meat went into your boudin. Today, all we use
is the pork liver and quality Boston butt meat in our boudin today.
And you think that’s just kind of supply and demand; you
can't get a hold of all those organ meats? Or is it a taste difference?
Or how did that kind of devolve into being just the liver?
I think back in the day they just tried to use everything that they
could, as far as making a product, you know, like the boudin. They
could put the heart and the liver and the kidneys and all that and
have a way to go with it, without throwing  any
of it away. It does taste differently. I find today it’s—the
boudin has a much better flavor because of the fact you have just
quality meat going into it.
---
As a butcher, are there things that you like to work with more
than others, like you prefer to make the boudin or prefer to work
with beef?
I love working with meats and trying to come up with new ideas.
I do love the specialty meat part of the meat industry. I don’t
have a problem liking or making boudin. I like that because I grew
up with that, but I do like to come up with new ideas on specialty
items.
Is there something that you have an idea about that you haven’t
made yet?
Yes. I do have a couple of ideas that I’m working with right
now. I just—I haven’t put them out. I don’t like
to put a product out unless I sample it myself and make sure that
if it passes my test or not, you know. And so there is a couple
of things that I’m working on, yes, ma’am.
---
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