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It may be possible to have a bad meal in Louisiana, but it hasn’t happened to me yet. Everything from shrimp out of the back of a van to the off-the-track little diners and restaurants to the palaces of New Orleans to mom-and-pop boucheries in Cajun Country, Louisiana is an eater’s paradise. Cajun boudin is not the least among the state’s culinary glories.
Louisiana boudin (boo-dan) is unlike French boudin, which is a more general term for sausages there. Cajun boudin is more like a meat stuffing packed into a hog casing and poached, grilled or smoked.
Some people eat it by squeezing out the good stuff from the casing — sometimes onto a cracker (Saltines appear to be the general cracker of choice), squirting some mustard on it and sitting on the back of your tailgate munching away and pondering the mysteries of life and sausages. Many others skip the crackers and just eat boudin like a meaty pop-up popsicle.
Boudin is a meal in a bite: Meat, fat, carbs from the rice, lots of vegetables and plenty of spice. Like dirty rice in a casing. It’s Cajun fast food.
If you are a hunter or an angler, boudin is a dish you need to know about, because Louisiana boudin can (and is) made from pretty much anything. Pork yes, but also duck (as I did in this version), venison, rabbit, alligator, chicken, crawfish, shrimp, crabs, nutria, quail, turkey… you get the point.
And since you grind everything, it’s a fantastic way to use the wobbly bits like livers, gizzards and hearts. You won’t really notice they’re in the boudin, and you get the satisfaction of a) not wasting parts of the animals you’ve hunted, and b) telling your offal-hating friends what they just ate — after they’ve eaten seconds. Or thirds.
How do you make this wondrous sausage?
I honestly had no idea until I got a chance to tour Cajun Country as the guest of the folks from Tabasco a few years ago. Among other things, they introduced me to Legnon’s Boucherie in New Iberia. Ted Legnon is famous both for his cracklins’ and his boudin, but I honestly can only eat a few crackin’s at any one time. I can eat inordinate amounts of boudin, so I focused my attention to that.
Boudin is a cooked sausage, in that everything is cooked before it’s ground up and stuffed into a casing. They’re sold in long links that are often tied into a ring and either poached and served or smoked to be eaten on the go. It’s a sloppy mixture that is only loosely stuffed into the casings — very unlike the tight stuffing you do with German sausages to get that characteristic knacken or snap.
Ratios of meat to rice vary; Legnon’s goes for a 1:1 ratio. My recipe is a little more meat-heavy.
The sausage can be mild or very spicy, with lots of vegetables (usually the “trinity” of onions, celery and green peppers) or few, red with paprika or just a humble gray. The point is that everyone makes boudin differently, and I’d be insane to claim that my recipe is definitive.
But I did learn from Legnon’s and I’ve eaten an awful lot of boudin, so I can tell you that my boudin is at least in the ballpark, even if it’s different from how your grandma or your local boucherie makes it.
If your boudin is different, how so? I’d be interested in hearing your variations.
New to making sausage? You can find my detailed tutorial on how to make sausages at home here.
Louisiana Boudin Sausage
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds duck, venison, beef, pork, whatever
- 1/2 pounds liver
- 1/2 pound pork fat
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 poblano or green bell peppers, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Instacure No. 1 (optional)
- 3 to 5 tablespoons Cajun seasoning, or see below
- 2 cups cooked white rice (long-grain is best)
- 1 cup parsley, chopped
- 1 cup green onions, chopped
- Hog casings
Instructions
- Chop the meats, liver and fat into chunks that will fit in the grinder. Mix the meats, liver and fat with the onion, celery, poblano peppers and garlic, then the salt, curing salt (if using) and either the Cajun seasonings or the spice mix you made from this recipe. Put it all in a lidded container and set in the fridge at least an hour, and up to a day.
- Put the contents of the container into a large pot and pour in enough water to cover everything by an inch or two. Bring to a simmer and cook gently until everything is tender, at least 90 minutes and up to 3 hours. Strain the cooking liquid (you'll need it later) and spread the meat, fat and veggies out on a sheet pan to cool.
- When everything is cool enough to handle, grind it through the coarse die (6.5 mm) on your grinder. You can also hand chop everything.
- Put your meat mix into a large bowl and add the cooked rice, parsley and green onions. Mix well, and add up to 4 cups of the reserved cooking liquid. Mix this for 3 to 5 minutes so you make a more cohesive mixture to stuff into a casing. You now have boudin.
- You can just shape the mixture into balls and fry them (they're awesome), or use your boudin as stuffing for something else, like a turkey. Or you can case it. Stuff the boudin into hog casings, and while you're doing it, get a large pot of salted water hot -- not simmering, just steaming. You want the water to be about 165ºF to 170ºF. Poach the links for 10 minutes, then serve. If you are not serving them right away, no need to poach the links yet.
- Boudin does not keep well, so eat it all within a couple days. It does freeze reasonably well, however.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
HOMEMADE CAJUN SEASONING
Make this if you can’t find store-bought Cajun seasoning. It’s a little different from my normal spice mix, but it’s reflective of what you often find in boudin. If you want a redder sausage, increase the paprika. If you want it less spicy, reduce the cayenne.
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
- 1 tablespoon cayenne
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
I have lived in South La all my life and eat boudin with or without crackers. Our duck hunting club has a ritual after hunts we grill boudin and eat it with bread or crackers and cold beer !!Have made it a few times with variations on amount of rice. From about Lafayette west to Lake Charles there seems to be more rice in the recipe. Best Stop, Jerry Lees and Bergerons in Port Allen are all good.
Eating boudin with a dip is the worse thing i’ve heard. True cajuns eat boudin directly from the casing. Pick up the link and bite it. Its alright to have a few saltines with it but please dont think that you have to spread the boudin on them. We usually eat crackers with boudin because most boudin tend to be a little greasy. Sidenote: try eating your next link with a ripe banana.
Lo: Whatever. I do this because a) I like it, and b) EVERYONE was eating their boudin like this at The Best Stop. So get off my back.
I’ve lived in South Louisiana all of my life and have eaten boudin from several places but I’ve never tackled making it myself. Until this past weekend when I discovered this recipe. I used the seasoning as it was listed but added a tablespoon of thyme. I’ve received rave reviews from co-workers and friends who are connoisseurs of boudin. One of my most prized compliments was “This boudin is better than Jerry Lee’s!” Since I think Jerry Lee’s boudin in Baton Rouge is the tops in boudin, that was a major compliment to me and this recipe.
Hey your absolutely right about the store brand Cajun seasoning. I made up my 1st try using Toneys, which I do like, but it was so salty I had to throw the whole thing out. If anyone has a recipe that taste close to best stop in Scott La. please pass it on to me. Thanks, and yes, hold the crackers. maybe a slice of loaf bread
I just stumbled across this blog after just visiting my family back home in Lafayette and one of my family members brought me some boudin from Legnon’s.. The crawfish and the regular boudin was out of this world good.. I too have never eaten it with crackers but I love squeezing out the filling between two pieces of soft white bread.. Boudin sandwiches are awesome. I live in Arizona now and of course you can’t find it here but would love to try and make it.
As far as the cracker question goes, I, too, have not had boudin w/crackers, but see no problem w/that. As I drive through Cajun country my “hot boudin” is sold w/a couple slices of plain white bread. Never had it any other way.
Hank,Love your books and web site.
I Love boudin! I live in Gonzales,La. and have an old family recipe. It calls for 5lbs. of pork shoulder and 5 lbs. of cleaned pork skin. You boil the skin first for a couple hours, then grind it ad add it back to the pot with the shoulder meat and the rest of the seasonings. The skin is THE secret in good boudin! One thing I will say is that the farther west you go in South Louisiana, the more rice they put in boudin. I like more meat than a 1:1 ratio. And we do not eat boudin on crackers. BTW-boudin is THE #1 duck blind food. Period. LOL!!
I was taught the crackers were to help you get full, because you can never have too much boudain!
I second that Ms. Robicheaux. I have family in Lake Charles, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge areas. We just push the insides through the skin. No crackers or dip. This is the way I was taught to eat it by my parents and grandparents. Just a little insight from a Cajun.
Gotta love Cajuns! You know the only reason I know about the crackers is because everywhere I bought boudin in Cajun Country I was served crackers with them. So everyone does it a little differently, it seems.
I vote to chill the cooking liquid well, and whisk well the liquefied fat into the broth. Add it slowly during the mixing process. I also would throw out the first cooked mirepoix (I don’t use peppers), and start a new cooked mirepoix (probably in some rendered fat). I do like lots of parsley and green onion, black pepper.
Another suggestion would be to maybe smoke cold the boudin for two hours heavy (AmazN tube lit at both ends) after the poach, chill, and dry casing. I think a spot in Scott, LA smokes but can’t remember the name of it. Could be Best Stop.
Also, Ronnie’s in Hammond is ok but I usually pick up some boudin from Jerry Lee’s in Baton Rouge when I’m there to get Hog Head Cheese.
My experience is in eating more than processing-only stuffed it a few times with some guys that really didn’t understand.
Thanks for the recipe, and I’m ready to try my hand with duck, pheasant, chukar, and fat hog that I have too much of at the moment. Maybe this will be a saving grace for preserve released pheasant that are often too lean, and discouraging to get into.
I believe that you can transcend your cracklin’ eating limitations by incorporating them into your boudin!
Oooh… nice idea!
Will: Excellent point! I don’t put salt in my own mix. I think the Cajun mix sold by Penzey’s Spices is salt-free, too. But Tony Chachere’s is loaded with it.
Hank,I love this. I’ve been wanting to make boudin for a while but there are so many recipes out there it’s tough to find one from a trusted source. I’m so excited to see it on your site.
The only caution I’d give is that most store-bought Cajun seasonings are super heavy on salt, so subbing in your mix, which I’m sure is delectable, will likely yield different results.
Ms. Robicheaux: That’s the awesome thing about Louisiana: Every time I write about the food of that state, what’s common in one area is utterly unheard of in another. Like crackers, for example. I saw LOTS of people eating boudin on crackers out by Lake Charles.
Not sure who lead the tour when you visited Louisiana, but you just eat the whole thing. There are no crackers involved in Boudin, if you don’t want to eat the casing be it natural or synthetic, you just suck/pull the stuff out…
But this whole cracker bidness is… weird and definitely not something we do…
Source: born and raised Southern Louisiana, helped great-grandmother and grandmother make and eat Boudin, both with natural and Synthetic Casings.
I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see your reference to Donald Link and my favorite cook book! I use his recipe for boudin, but have yet to get too adventurous with it. I’ve only used pork liver and made the crawfish recipe once. I don’t stuff it into casings, though, but prefer to serve it as a dressing, stuff it into other food.
I wrote a post a few months ago on Venison Boudin Balls (https://www.mywildkitchen.com/venison-boudin-balls/). The fried balls prevented me from having to stuff any casings, which was convenient for a one-time meal, and I used previously ground venison and finely chopped the livers to mix in. You can’t go wrong with Boudin, and I especially like grilled or smoked venison. No matter what it’s always fun to experiment with new things.
Hank,
Here are some amazingly meat Market / Boudin Shops you should try next time you are here.
Ronnie’s – Hammond, La
Billy’s – Scott, La (best ever)
The Best Stop – Scott, La
Like Hank said, I always thought the reserved cooking liquid was to cook the rice with. Later this summer I think I’ll do some for a party with wild boar, rabbit and maybe squirrel. Thanks for posting!
For me, the key to the best boudin is to cook the rice in the braising liquid. I also usually discard the onion/celery/peppers from the braising liquid and either go without in the boudin, or sautee some new onion/celery/peppers to add.