Wayne Jacob's Smokehouse, La Place, LA (Andouille and more)

This is a Louisiana Christmas year for my family, and we flew into New Orleans this morning en route to Baton Rouge (via rental car). While I typically make a trip to the Acadiana Parishes (aka Cajun Country) during visits to my folks' house in Baton Rouge to procure various Cajun meat products, a while back my interest was piqued upon coming across an article on La Place, Louisiana, which is the self-described "Andouille Capital of the World." Turns out that La Place is in a part of Louisiana dubbed the German Coast or La Cote des Allemands because of the fact that it was originally settled by Germans. (Some interesting history on St. John the Baptist Parish (where La Place is located) here.) While there appears to be some dispute as to the origins of andouille (whether it is a derivation of the French sausage of the same name or something that was developed more independently in the New World), the German-sausage making tradition surely influenced the development of the distinctive andouille we know today.

As La Place is between New Orleans and Baton Rouge and andouille is a traditional Christmas food down here (on account of andouille traditionally being made in late fall/early winter to coincide with pig butchering), we hit Airline Highway (Route 61) just outside of Louis Armstrong Airport and headed there. I had read up on a couple of places to potentially hit in this Times Picayune piece by Pableaux Johnson, this piece at BestOfNewOrleans.com, and this piece at Off the Broiler. Based on the latter two pieces and pressed somewhat for time by four and two-year old boys not so happy after 2+ hours on a plane and by a grandmother impatient to see them, we made one stop, at Wayne Jacob's Smokehouse.

Wayne Jacob's (or WJ's) Smokehouse is a meat market and informal restaurant. Because of our time constraints, we did not stop for lunch, but did end up picking up a bunch of andouille.

Exterior shots





Best lunch in La Place!



Smokehouses (there are 4 small smokehouses out back; note dog and boat, which are more or less mandatory)





I unfortunately did not get any interior shots, as I was busy trying to figure out an order and did not want to intrude on the lunch crowd there in any event. Here's a menu, though (just the take-away smoked meats and dry goods; there are plate lunches and other eat-in dishes on the rest of the menu):



So, on to the swag. I ended up getting about 10 pounds of andouille and a pound plus of tasso. After eating about one-third of one piece of the andouille, I would have to say that this some of the best I've had, definitely top three. It is very smoky and just a very well-produced product that you can tell a lot of care has gone into. The latter two articles I linked above use the word "artisan" when describing WJ's sausage (in distinction to the more commercial, mass-produced product put out by local competitor and mail order supplier Jacob's), and that term seems apt to me. Note that traditional andouille down here is a larger sausage than what you typically find labeled as andouille in Chicago, as the pork is ground fairly coarsely and then stuffed into beef middle casings. We'll serve a couple of links of the andouille, sliced, as an appetizer (standalone or maybe with some cheese) at my parents' Christmas Eve party tomorrow night, and the rest will accompany me back to Chicago for use in gumbo, jambalaya, etc. over the course of the winter.

Overall bounty (two pieces of andouille in butcher paper for eating in the next few days, six more that they vacuum sealed for us -- according to the woman behind the counter, these were fresh out of the smoker that morning and could be kept unrefrigerated for 5-7 days, and just over a pound of tasso that they also vacuum sealed for us).



Andouille





Tasso



While WJ's Smokehouse is in the opposite direction of New Orleans from the airport, it's worth a trip if you are heading west from New Orleans and probably worth the detour even if you are just visiting New Orleans (assuming you have access to a car).

WJ's Smokehouse
769 A W 5th St.
La Place, LA 70068
(985) 652-9990

NICE! A trip to La Place has been on my list of To Dos since I arrived in N.O., and this post fairly seals the deal for me. Thanks Matt!

just put it on my list also. pic s are great

In the last couple of years, Wayne Jacob's began shipping. If you haven't tried their products, particularly their andouille, you may think this is an insignificant event. But having tried some of the very best andouille from the andouille capital of the world, LaPlace, Louisiana - including Wayne Jacob's, Jacob's World Famous and Bailey's - I will tell you that this is pretty amazing for those of us in Chicago where great andouille is non-existent. It offers plenty of cayenne heat, and lots of smoke flavor from pecan wood.

I prefer the spice and smoke of Wayne Jacob's to Jacob's Famous (still a great product) and Bailey's (very good, but less smoke flavor). And while I like Ream's andouille, I just don't think it offers the smoke or spice that any of the LaPlace andouille delivers.

Here is a link to their website. To place a shipping order, their phone number is 985.652.9990.

Thanks for this most excellent update, BR.

Do you know if Wayne Jacob's is using nitrates/nitrites now that they are shipping ? There was some speculation that the reason Jacob's was able to ship was due to their addition of nitrates/nitrites.

tatterdemalion wrote:Thanks for this most excellent update, BR.

Do you know if Wayne Jacob's is using nitrates/nitrites now that they are shipping ? There was some speculation that the reason Jacob's was able to ship was due to their addition of nitrates/nitrites.

They told me that they still don't use nitrates or preservatives. That being said, I know Jacob's World Famous does, and while it's not as good as Wayne Jacob's, it's still a pretty fantastic product.

Thanks for the update, BR.

I tend to stock up on andouille during trips to Louisiana (or have family members bring some when they come up this way), but it's good to have a mail order source. Lately, have had trouble convincing three young kids with travel-induced grouchiness and a wife with traveling-with-three-young-kids-induced grouchiness to indulge me with a stop in La Place on the way from the New Orleans airport to Baton Rouge, so have been hitting up Bergeron's in Port Allen (across the river from Baton Rouge), which has a good product. While it is better than anything that can be procured in these parts (and holds its own against many other Louisiana purveyors), it does not compare to Wayne Jacob's.

I have tried andouille from the various places in La Place and from a large number of places in Acadiana, and while I have had a few batches here and there that were truly special, nothing touches Wayne Jacob's for consistent excellence. As BR notes, the mix of spice and smoke is just about perfect (at least to my taste).

Yes, Wayne Jacob's delivers - second day mail and I'm sitting on a nice stock of andouille and tasso. Pretty fantastic stuff which made its way into a chicken and andouille gumbo.

If you need a fix for this kind of Andouille, Nola Cusine has a recipe that tastes spot on. I used to order from Jacobs every fall but the last two years I have made my own, smoked over pecan wood chunks, and it is incredible.

http://www.nolacuisine.com/2005/11/14/a ... ge-recipe/

Bailey's in LaPlace offers really inexpensive shipping. Jacob charges about four times their actual cost of shipping. Wayne Jacobs would'nt even provide the information.

Tim wrote:Bailey's in LaPlace offers really inexpensive shipping. Jacob charges about four times their actual cost of shipping. Wayne Jacobs would'nt even provide the information.

I've ordered from Bailey's and I think they offer an excellent product, but I much prefer Wayne Jacob's stuff and when I call them up, they couldn't be nicer. And when my shipment this year was a day later than the USPS had promised, I was delighted that they called the day after I was to receive the shipment to see if I had received it. As for estimated shipping costs, they ordinarily use USPS 2nd day (absent a different request from the customer) so it's not too difficult to price when you know how many pounds of product you are ordering. They certainly didn't charge me that much more for shipping, but since I don't have my receipt handy, I can't say right now that there wasn't any additional charge.

Update on Wayne Jacob's Smokehouse: I reviewed my receipt and they did not charge me anything for shipping outside of reimbursement for USPS 2nd day shipping. WJS' reluctance to provide shipping information may be because it depends to some degree upon package weight.

BR's comments here on LTH as well as reviews & word of mouth from others had made Wayne Jacobs spot a place I have wanted to visit for a while now -

finally got in about a week ago - maybe 20 mins before they closed for the day -



hog cracklins were dope.


old school - my school -


grabbed up a few items, a few sticks of andouille, as well as some Ital. sausage rope and the above mentioned cracklins.

Cracklins were top notch and meaty , Ital. sausage was a great product as well - easily hold its own if not kick the ass of any of Chicago's finest Ital. sausages -

the andouille - looking forward to getting this in my gumbo - maybe next weekend -



Great spot, lived up to what I was expecting - wish I could have gotten in for lunch - however time was not on my side -