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mail order Louisiana goodies?


bavila

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We had one of Poche's stuffed, boneless chickens for Christmas dinner.  The stuffing was not what I would call pork, but rather a blazing hot sausage.  Thank the stars I wiped off all that red goop on the outside, which looked like cayenne pepper to me, or no one would have been able to eat it.

Now I'm wondering about the rest of the pork sausage I ordered, which I plan to have for New Year's Eve.  My son and SIL (son, not sister) can eat about anything, but there will be six of us who don't care for food that's too spicy.

Can those of you who have ordered a range of Poche's products please rank them for me in order from mild (if any!) to red hot?  I have Boudin, smoked sausage, Andouille and Tasso.  I was thinking of serving the Boudin and smoked just plain and putting some Andouille or Tasso in cheese grits.

What would you serve with these to cool down the mouth?  Purely by accident, I discovered that a berried Jell-O with a whipped cream and cream cheese layer was absolutely the most effective cool down food I've ever tried, but I'm trying to make this an all NOLA meal and there will be those present who don't like Jell-O.

Suggestions?  Help, help.

To begin with, I am probably not the guy to be giving you advice on how to "tone down" the fine pork products from Poche's. I have never considered them to be overspiced and I suppose that you can base that on local palate development. I love those chickens (though, admittedly, I almost always eat the crawfish or shrimp stuffed ones because that is my families preference) and at my house they are kind of used in the vein of fast comfort food. They can come straight out of the freezer and 90 minutes later be a very good centerpiece for a simple meal. Of course, I pick them up locally, they don't have to be delivered, and they are so dear price wise as they are when you have them shipped by air.

You should have tasted the "red goop" that you were wiping off. You would have found that it is not nearly as "blazing hot" as you might have thought. As it bakes it gives the bird a beautiful color and adds a nice flavor to the skin of the bird.

And of course, while user opinion will vary, neither the andouille or the tasso is hot in really any way. The tasso, in particular, is a really, really flavorful seasoning meat and would be a nice touch in grits-it is also a great replacement for dried ham products in many Italian dishes. The andouille is not hot, at least in my opinion. What it is has more to do with the smokiness of the sausage than with the spices in it. In fact, I enjoyed some last night as a side of Gumbo Z'Herbes and it was really delicious.

The boudin might be a different deal (I don't know if you bought spicy or mild). It can be pretty zippy. Usually, here, it's a snack food that is consumed with crackers of some sort and iced soft drinks and beer. It can be steamed or, better yet, grilled on the pit over low heat and charred a bit before serving.

Anyway, if you don't like spicy food, I suppose that there is not much to be done about it, and I certainly can't speak for exactly what you have in your hands, but I don't think that most of us would consider it to be "blazing hot" Of course, like I said, it's probably got alot to do with conditioning, both culturally and palate wise.

I do hope that you enjoy what you have left though, and I suspect that you will.

Happy New Year,

Brooks

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Poche's Tasso and Chaurice and Andouille is certainly not very hot at all. We used a good amount of it in a jambalaya recently and without adding extra cajun/creole seasoning to the dish, the entire casserole of it was very well balanced in flavor.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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You should have tasted the "red goop" that you were wiping off. You would have found that it is not nearly as "blazing hot" as you might have thought. As it bakes it gives the bird a beautiful color and adds a nice flavor to the skin of the bird.

Brooks

I thought about tasting it, but who's going to taste something that's sitting atop a raw chicken? I do know that it was very salty, because I had to add lots of barely salted chicken broth so the sauce/gravy wouldn't be too salty.

We could not have one of the seafood stuffed chickens because my SIL is very allergic to bivalves and the inclusion of "seafood base" did not give any clues as to which seafood were used. He often gets ill in restaurants eating seafood soups because of the inclusion of clam broth.

My definition of "blazing hot" is anything which is painful to eat. I am very clear on this: eating is for pleasure, not pain. It will be interesting to taste the remaining products to see what my palate says about them.

Thanks for the comments, Brooks and Jason.

Ruth Dondanville aka "ruthcooks"

“Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?” Mario Batali

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I agree that the andouille is not overly hot, however the tasso we used from Poche's in last week's jambolaya was coated in a reddish seasoning, and tasting an individual piece, it was quite hot to me. However, you just use a little to flavor a recipe, so I think using it to spike cheese grits would be an excellent way to perk up a relatively bland dish. (Don't use as much salt as you might otherwise, as it is salty too.)

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We placed an order for about $100 worth of product from Poche's right before Christmas and it was our favorite gift to ourselves.

We had the cornbread-stuffed chicken for Christmas Eve dinner, and absolutely loved it. Juicy, delicious, and heartwarming (if that makes sense).

Over past few days, we've gotten together with family and friends to sample the tasso ham, andouille, chaudin, and both the smoked and regular alligator sausage. I grew up in the Amish country and am accustomed to "interesting" sausages and uses of pig stomachs. Their food was right on the money and incredibly delicious and satisfying. Thanks to everyone for their postings about it -- I think we'll make it a regular ordering spot.

Happy new year everyone!

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  • 2 years later...

Hey y'all.

Long time no post. But here I am to pass along a little 411 gained from my latest crawfish boil.

I've ordered live crawfish from Cajun Grocer several times with good results. Last year, though, they annoyed me a bit by telling me that my boil seasonings would be included with the 100# of mudbugs I'd ordered. The shipment arrived 2 hours before I had 50 guests arriving, and NO SEASONING! :angry:

Anyhoo, HungryC suggested that I try Bayou Bounty next time. So I called them the other day and was astounded by their shipping price -- $212 to ship 40#! More than double the $90 charge for the crawfish. If I'd wanted to drag my ass to BWI airport, shipping would have been only $65.

So I sucked it up and ordered from Cajun Grocer -- $187 for 40#, including shipping! And this time, the seasoning was there. Yay.

More about the boil and some pics are here.

Bridget Avila

My Blog

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Ha! Leftovers? What leftovers?

Though I noticed this morning that the racoons feasted on remains. I could have made a bisque with all the nicely cleaned out thoraxes I found.

As for the shipping prices, I guess Bayou Bounty just hasn't built up enough out of state traffic to get low shipping rates like Cajun Grocer. C'est la vie. I still appreciate the tip.

Bridget Avila

My Blog

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  • 8 months later...

For crawfish, I love the Louisiana Crawfish Co.... www.lacrawfish.com I think their prices were a bit better than Cajun Grocers, and their product is fantastic... and really great service too...

I just ordered some early season crawfish last week - FEDEX damaged the box - out of my 10# order, probably 7-8 pounds came dead and crushed... this was a first for me with lacrawfish - but I emailed them, and they were happy to give me a refund or store credit.... very easy to deal with...

Usually, when their crawfish come in, they're big, lively and very tasty - with only a couple of dead ones in the whole 10#.... They also include a pack of their boil (which is really really good) plus a can of creole seasoning which between the two make a great crawfish boil.... I just add some garlic cloves and a couple of halved lemons to the pot in addition to the boil....

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I'm looking to get some andouille, boudin and tasso for some upcoming treats for my ex-NOLA wife...

I've gotten some andouille from Poche before and it's great... but was wondering how it compared to some of the other brands out there - Comeaux's, Richards, Tonys, etc... Also, which are your favorite boudin and tasso???

I've heard Cochon Butcher makes some great stuff - I'll check them out the next time I'm down there - probably in April.... but does anyone know if they ship??

Thanks!!!

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