# Avid smoker from Louisiana



## Smokeinbr (Aug 26, 2019)

Hello to everyone, and let me start by expressing my utmost thanks to everyone that has spent so much time documenting their smoking/BBQ experiences and helping out newcomers. This site was very influential to me when I decided to invest in a smoker.

The background story is for many years I loved to BBQ as I learned from my grandfather, who was a farmer in the Eunice, Louisiana area (the very heart of the "prairie" Cajun country), had lots of rice, sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs and chickens on the farm, so almost limitless access to great meat. His, and my preferred method entailed cooking on a very thick barrel type smoker, his was a converted propane tank, with a smallish charcoal briquette fire fairly far below the grill, and lots of homemade BBQ sauce towards the end. Overall this was, for a directly over the coals method, a fairly low and slow process.

After much research, 3 years ago I purchased a LoneStarGrillz upright offset smoker, which is very heavily made - the cooker box is 1/4" steel and the firebox I upgraded to all 1/2" steel. I run this strictly as a stick burner, mostly pecan, and have wowed myself, family and friends with what we think are wildly successful smoking of pulled pork, baby back ribs, pork tenderloins, duck breast, spatchcocked turkeys, lots of chicken, etc.  In short I'm very happy with using this smoker for typical low and slow cooking at temps between 200-300 F, although almost always aiming for around 225 F.

But, as always, I wanted more. And having my fondest memories in childhood rooted in the real deal southwest Louisiana version of Cajun cuisine, really heavily smoked pork sausage and tasso are absolute necessities for almost all traditional family recipes. And what is sold as pork sausage and tasso in the Baton Rouge/Gonzales area, even if made locally, might as well be "Made in New York City!". I made two attempts to make tasso, and while I pretty accurately reproduced the spice and smoke profile I was aiming for, it was a pretty major hassle trying to keep the stick burner in the 175 F range. But, I had proof of concept.

So now I just ordered a meat grinder, sausage stuffer and Amazen 18" oval smoker tube, along with a very small low pressure propane burner. Not sure how this will go, but hoping to place the small burner in the offset firebox and place the smoker tube at the bottom of the vertical smoke chamber on top of the baffle plates. Hoping to have the option to smoke with no heat at all or be able to control the 100-200F range using the propane burner. I know it will all be lots of checking of temps and fiddling around manually, but heh, I got time and love it.

I will also be making boudin, which seems relevant although no actual smoking involved, other than when I buy it now my family loves for me to put it on the smoker and give it a very short "cook" to crisp up the skin and a little smoke flavor. Boudin wasn't a big thing around my grandparents' place, so I'm not big on the squeezing it out of a rubbery skin style of eating it, need a quick pan fry, time on regular grill or the smoker for me.

Thanks to all of the fantastic postings documenting the making of andouille, I will also give that a shot, although again it is not something I ever had when visiting my grandparents in Eunice. Out there the heavily smoked pork sausage and or the tasso took care of all duties in various gumbos, vegetable, beans and even just cooked up in a skillet to make a very thin gravy. My wife is from Baton Rouge and is all about andouille, and I have a general impression, quite likely wrong and based on my limited experience, that andouille is  more of thing in the Baton Rouge to New Orleans area. 

Funny how people all over the world think that know what Cajun cooking is because they've had or can cook a couple of dishes, and right here we all know there a thousands of recipes for something like gumbo, and the only "right" and "best" one is the one your grandmother and mother cooked! And in reading pretty much every forum thread containing the words boudin, or tasso or Cajun sausage or andouille there are as many versions as contributors. And don't even get me started on the hundreds of recipes for tasso all over the internet that are fully cooked while smoking and so mildly spiced they can be served as charcuterie. All of it might be delicious but I'm trying to reproduce the stuff my grandparents used, which had so much salt and pepper on it you had to rinse it very well before using it, even in a huge pot of gumbo. And of course, like the pork sausage, had to be kept frozen and cooked before eating.

So thanks again to everyone that has shared their recipes and/or explained their making and smoking process for sausage, tasso and boudin. I do have a very, very big question about smoking the sausage, but will post that elsewhere.


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## noboundaries (Aug 27, 2019)

Smokeinbr, welcome to SMF! Glad you're here and bringing the memories and excitement.

Enjoy the forum!

Ray


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## Hawging It (Aug 27, 2019)

Welcome from Southeast Mississippi. Best forum on the net!!


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## JC in GB (Aug 28, 2019)

Welcome from Wisconsin.


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## SmokinVOLfan (Aug 28, 2019)

Welcome from East TN. Sounds like you will be able to chip in and help us all as well!


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## gmc2003 (Aug 28, 2019)

Welcome to the site, happy to have ya join the fun.

Chris


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## casmurf (Aug 28, 2019)

Smokeinbr said:


> Hello to everyone, and let me start by expressing my utmost thanks to everyone that has spent so much time documenting their smoking/BBQ experiences and helping out newcomers. This site was very influential to me when I decided to invest in a smoker.
> 
> The background story is for many years I loved to BBQ as I learned from my grandfather, who was a farmer in the Eunice, Louisiana area (the very heart of the "prairie" Cajun country), had lots of rice, sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs and chickens on the farm, so almost limitless access to great meat. His, and my preferred method entailed cooking on a very thick barrel type smoker, his was a converted propane tank, with a smallish charcoal briquette fire fairly far below the grill, and lots of homemade BBQ sauce towards the end. Overall this was, for a directly over the coals method, a fairly low and slow process.
> 
> ...


First off welcome, there are some really great people around here.I'm also from south Louisiana . I was born and raised in Rayne La. MY family still farms rice and soybeans in Mowater and Roberts Cove La. I know what you mean most of the Cajun  around is more creole French than Cajun IMO. MY Dad owned a Meat Market so we made our own Andouille,Tasso and Boudin. IF YOU Goggle NOLA Cuisine there is a  recipie for Tasso and andouille that are  fair starting points. also goggle ugly brothers BBQ. their recipe for tasso is a lot closer to what  my dad made. if you search boudin on this site Foamheart has a decent recipe. Once again welcome.


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## casmurf (Aug 28, 2019)

Richard Foster said:


> Looking forward to your future posts and recipes.


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## Smokeinbr (Aug 28, 2019)

Thanks for the welcome messages.

As far as providing help to others, 90% of what I know right now about regular smoking (225F low and slow cooking), I learned by reading voraciously on the Web, most of it on this forum. It is incredible how "prepared" I was to jump in to smoker cooking thanks to this forum.

As far as recipes, if I ever finalize my own recipes for pork sausage, tasso and boudin, I'll post them. But again, for now I'm in the mode of studying numerous recipes on this site and elsewhere.

casmurf: 
Glad I'm not the only one who recognizes that Cajun/Creole culture and cuisine encompasses several very different subgroups. When I think of Cajuns, I think of the area from Opelousas across to Lake Charles where most of the French heritage refuges from Nova Scotia, Canada and other French colonies settled down on what was "prairie" when their various homelands were ceded to England. For the most part this culture was hard core simple folk, farming and ranching and growing all their own food. 

Then as you mention, there is what is now called "Creole" influence centered around the New Orleans area, which incorporates French, Spanish and African American influence. To a certain extent, this was and is fancier cooking (for "city folk"), and very easy to spot this online when doing research into basic recipes and seeing recipes from New Orleans chefs with fancy herbs in sausage and tasso and virtually every version of "Cajun" anything. And I never had red beans and rice as a meal until I got to LSU, and subsequently learned this originated in New Orleans.

I also think there is the remnants of another subgroup, kind of in between the first two, in the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Not exactly farming and ranching historically, but not big city either.  I never knew anyone would make jambalaya from scratch with raw ingredients until I moved to the Gonzales area, home of the "Jambalaya Festival" and EVERYONE makes it for parties. Back around Eunice, jambalaya was a quick way to make a light supper from leftover pot roast, rice and gravy prepared for dinner at noon. Just saute an onion, throw in the leftover meat, rice and gravy and dinner ready in 15 minutes. 

But heh, at this point we all know how fantastic food from all over south Louisiana is, even if say 50 years ago it was most popular in a very specific area. But just like your family wanting to have the sausage, tasso and boudin that you considered "traditional", I'm on a similar journey to figure out how to make those myself, the way I remember. Thanks for the pointers on recipe sources.


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