Cookin' Boudin

When my parents had me order a turducken from Cajun Grocer for their xmas eve I added a bunch of different boudin they offered from around the area to the cart and I now have a nice supply of it in my freezer. There are directions on the package as to how to cook it but there are a few different methods. Is there a trick or certain way that work better than most after I thaw them out? I've only eaten boudin in the form of fried balls and never cooked it. There are multiple mentions of not letting the skin crack so this is my worry. Obviously the BBQ method of cooking it in foil and slathering it in BBQ sounds great but I wont use BBQ so that I can taste the flavor and do a little taste off of each suppliers product. Thanks for the tips.

how was the turducken from Cajun Grocer?

I have been eyeing their site a while for sausage, & alligator, as well as for getting some live crawfish

I think the traditional method is to steam it or poach it in water (at maybe 190-200 degrees -- not boiling) until the casing is cooked, maybe 10-15 minutes. At the various gas stations and meat markets at which you can buy ready-to-eat boudin through Acadiana, they are basically pulling links out of a warm water bath in some sort of crock.

jimswside wrote:how was the turducken from Cajun Grocer?

I have been eyeing their site a while for sausage, & alligator, as well as for getting some live crawfish

I didnt like it that much. The fact that there are no bones made it a little dry and the cornbread stuffing tasted like plain old masa. However their boudin and andouille sausage selection seems pretty damn extensive for a mail order (I have about 8 different brands of each) and they are in Layfaette.

Thanks for the tip Matt, Ill use that method as that's what I remember when I visited Lafayette back in HS for a weekend.

Da Beef wrote:

jimswside wrote:how was the turducken from Cajun Grocer?

I have been eyeing their site a while for sausage, & alligator, as well as for getting some live crawfish

I didnt like it that much. The fact that there are no bones made it a little dry and the cornbread stuffing tasted like plain old masa. However their boudin and andouille sausage selection seems pretty damn extensive for a mail order (I have about 8 diffeent brands of each) and they are in Layfaette.

thanks, maybe I'll give them a try for some of these hard to find items in Chicagoland, especially the andoullie, & other items I mentioned.

jimswside wrote:

Da Beef wrote:

jimswside wrote:how was the turducken from Cajun Grocer?

I have been eyeing their site a while for sausage, & alligator, as well as for getting some live crawfish

I didnt like it that much. The fact that there are no bones made it a little dry and the cornbread stuffing tasted like plain old masa. However their boudin and andouille sausage selection seems pretty damn extensive for a mail order (I have about 8 diffeent brands of each) and they are in Layfaette.

thanks, maybe I'll give them a try for some of these hard to find items in Chicagoland, especially the andoullie, & other items I mentioned.

Yep no prob its a good source for those hard to find items and I got a bunch of different seasonings and spices and the shipping was very reasonable.

I think there's a tendency for boudin casing to stick and break when it's steamed in a basket. When we made boudin at Christmas (pics and post will be up one of these days), we poached it in stock (because we had a pot of stock going on the stove).

Boudin is already cooked, so you're really just reheating it. As pp suggested, a low/soft boiling water is plenty--too much of a rolling boil, and the boudin will get bashed around. This may sound like blasphemy, but I've also nuked it under a wet paper towel. Sometimes hunger trumps technique.

So, I've got myself a bit of Boudin picked up at Ream's Elburn market and I find myself wondering what to do with it. I'm guessing I could just grill or smoke it but was wondering if there were any more ambitious applications I could try? I searched the forums and didn't find much aside from steaming or smoking them.

Any suggestions?

You can use uncased boudin to stuff a bird. You can also remove it from the casing, form it into meatballs and deep fry it or pan fry it (after a quick roll in breadcrumbs or panko if you so desire) -- "boudin balls" are a fairly common appetizer/bar snack in Louisiana. You can also always simmer or steam the boudin; standard operating procedure in many Louisiana gas stations is simply to gently simmer in a crockpot.

KSeecs wrote:So, I've got myself a bit of Boudin picked up at Ream's Elburn market and I find myself wondering what to do with it. I'm guessing I could just grill or smoke it but was wondering if there were any more ambitious applications I could try? I searched the forums and didn't find much aside from steaming or smoking them.

Any suggestions?

The boudin that I bought at Ream's Elburn Market was some of the worst that I ever had. It really lacked taste.

Boudin is usually boied or booked in a crock pot.

I threw a few links of the boudin from Ream's on the smoker this past weekend and really enjoyed it. Nice and savory with not a ton of flavor at first glance but then developing a nice herby flavor in the mouth and finishing with a decent bit of heat. If this is a horrible example of boudin as Jlawrence propones then count me as a fan of boudin. I'll need to get some other examples!

KSeecs wrote:I threw a few links of the boudin from Ream's on the smoker this past weekend and really enjoyed it. Nice and savory with not a ton of flavor at first glance but then developing a nice herby flavor in the mouth and finishing with a decent bit of heat. If this is a horrible example of boudin as Jlawrence propones then count me as a fan of boudin. I'll need to get some other examples!

Head down to Lafayette, LA on the boudin trail and compare the local product with what is available in the Chicago area and there is a significant difference. It does not help the Reams product that it is frozen as opposed to fresh.

Go to the Southern Foodways Alliance website where you can find out more.