Southern Foodways: Boudin
Southern Foodways appears on Fridays as part of our collaboration with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization based in Oxford, Mississippi, that "documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South." Dig in!
Chances are, if you don’t happen to live in or around Louisiana you might never have heard of boudin. If you do know about it but don’t live anywhere near where it’s made, you likely got your first taste of boudin courtesy of Calvin Trillin through his essay, "The Missing Links: In Praise of the Cajun Foodstuff That Doesn’t Get Around."
Since boudin is so good, why is it such a secret? Trillin posits a possible answer, “I figure that about 80 percent of the boudin purchased in Louisiana is consumed before the purchaser has left the parking lot, and most of the rest is polished off in the car. In other words, Cajun boudin not only doesn’t get outside the state; it usually doesn’t even get home.”
Another possible answer—boudin is a by-product of hog killing. The stuff a commercial slaughterhouse might discard or sell for animal feed, the boudin enthusiast saves and uses. And, he uses it well. Boudin is made from the parts of the hog that can’t be preserved—liver, hog jaw, belly, heart, kidney, and, sometimes, blood. All the good stuff is ground and mixed with rice, green parsley, green onions, onions, and other secret spices then squeezed into a sausage casing.
