Cajun Foodways

7. Boucheries, Mardi Gras, and Community Festivals

7Boucheries , Mardi Gras, and Community Festivals The crawfish boil is a well known Cajun food-related event, and it is regarded as characteristically "Cajun" by Cajuns themselves, by the regional media, and by Anglo-American outsiders. However, Cajuns hold a variety of other social events that revolve around food and eating, and that are often regarded by Cajuns and others as characteristically "Cajun." An analysis of these events, like the analysis of crawfish boils presented in chapter 6, yields insight into the relationship between Cajun foodwaysand ethnic identity. T H E F A M I L Y B O U C H E R I E A family boucherie—not to be confused with the traditional meat-butchering and distribution institution also known as a boucherie—is an allday , outdoor food event held during the cooler months in rural areas of Acadiana. The host is a full-time or part-time farmer, and the many guests include relatives and friends. With the help of some of the other men, the host slaughters one of his hogs, cleans it by scalding and scraping off the hair, and cuts it into usable parts, discarding those few parts which are considered inedible. Some of the men make cracklings and lard from the best cuts of fat; the cracklings, seasoned with salt and red no Boucheries, Mardi Gras, and Community Festivals 111 pepper, are eaten as a snack by the participants. Other participants— traditionally the women—carry out the long and involved task of making boudin, which includes cooking the bony muscle meat; separating the bits of bone from the meat; grinding the meat and the seasoning ingredients; cooking the ground meat, ground seasonings, and organ meat together; mixing these with cooked rice; and stuffing the product into cleaned sausage casings. Participants also make other pork dishes, such as backbone stew, hogshead cheese, chaudin, and rice dressing, and they either make on location or bring from home various other dishes, such as potato salad, cooked vegetables, and desserts. At the old, round-robin boucheries in the past, all of the highly perishable pork had to be eaten, preserved, or distributed to participants for quick use; at family boucheries today, however, whatever is not eaten immediately is relegated to the refrigerator or freezer for storage. Refrigeration has made it possible for individual families to hold fun-filled, play-oriented boucheries, independently of the older, work-oriented, round-robin system. Although today's family boucheries certainly involve work—and they fill the family freezer with meat—there is ample time at a family boucherie for play. Participants talk, relax, play games, drink, and have a leisurely, copious meal. Some hosts further reduce the workload at family boucheries, and increase the time available for play, by saving some of the more arduous tasks for later. For example, the bony parts of the hog may be frozen, and the boudin made another day. T H E C O C H O N D E L A I T The French term cochon delait literally means "suckling pig," and it once referred primarily to a special springtime dish, often served on Easter Sunday: roast suckling pig. Today the term cochon de lait is more commonly used to refer to a specific food event, that is, a hog roast. Adult hogs, rather than suckling pigs, provide the meat. A host need not be a farmer or even a rural resident to hold a cochon de lait, although he does need a yard with enough space for the required activities. The host buys a cleaned whole hog (muscle meat only) from a local slaughterhouse; with the help of some of the male guests, he roasts it with the use of some version of the hog-roasting equipment described in chapter 3. Women prepare or bring from their homes the various side dishes commonly 112 Cajun Foodways found at family boucheries or Sunday or holiday dinners: potato salad, baked sweet potatoes, rice dressing, green peas or green beans, bread, and desserts. The guests, specially the men, watch the hog-roasting process. Wfien the hog is cooked, everyone sits down to a full meal. A cochon de lait does not require as much time as a family boucherie, since the lengthy butchering process is not part of the event. The event often begins during the afternoon, and the festivities may continue late into the evening. As at a family boucherie, numerous...