Recipes or seasonings can either be made from scratch or from prepared mixes. A good example is the Cornbread that can be brought from corn meal and/or corn flour, or from a blend of dry ingredients box. Both cases are turned from a raw material into a finished corn bread. This is the same in Crawfish boil. If you fancy to, you can make your own ratios of ingredients like salt, cayenne, herbs seeds and spices by your own choice. Truth is, even most Cajuns don’t do this. They’d rather use pre-made mixes and/or make adjustments until they encounter the formula they like. But Cajun cooking is an art and not exact science.

Many Crawfish boil mixes cannot be bought on local grocery stores and can only be bought online. For you to choose which is the best, you have to try them and find which suits your taste. Major brands such as Cajun Land, Konriko, Louisiana, Rex, Slap Ya Mama, and Zatarain’s offer seasoning blends specially for Cajun style boil. To minimize the guessing of measurement, products come in specific amounts with corresponding amount of crawfish to be boiled. Currently, the buzz seems to go on a brand called Chackbay. Some parts of the country are known to add Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning on the top of the crawfish boil before eating.

Whatever brand you prefer, you should be aware that seasoning products come in three different forms; mesh bags, liquid and dry or powdered. Some recipes call for a mixture of seasoning forms. A little of this and a little of that. Much worse is that some recipes made by experts recommend not to follow the directions on the spice package. If you like better to follow the directions, just add the amount of seasoning proportionate on the amount of crawfish you would boil. Keep in mind that the seasoning will be absorbed by whatever you are cooking so if you are cooking more than one batch, you will need to add more, about one-third and two-thirds of the original amount.

Salt: Salt is important, especially the proper amount. Salt as a seasoning is more crucial as other flavor profiles increase. Flavor profiles are the overall taste in a dish; sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Together they balance the dish. Salt in this case, will intensify the flavor of the crawfish itself and balance the intensities of the other flavors. How much salt? Salt, in general is very subjective. The best we can offer is to give you a hint on range to stay within. It is easy to add salt and trying to subtract salt would involve expensive and complex desalinization equipment. For a sack of crawfish in a large crawfish pot (60 to 80 qt) filled two-thirds full of water (40 to 53 qt) you will use between one and two “cylinder” boxes of salt, that’s 1.5 to 3 pounds. It is normal that the water will be much saltier and much spicier than the crawfish because they aren’t going to be immersed for very long. Try cooking a whole box, and try a crawfish. It will at least be a good early reference point for adding more salt to taste. You can also add potatoes first to gauge the right amount of salt, especially while the crawfish isn’t added yet. Salt additions may be necessary on cooking batches because salt would be absorbed during cooking.

Mesh Bag Seasoning: These bags (3-4 oz.) come packaged a few to a box and are usually enough to season 4-5 lbs of seafood each. Like a teabag, it is soaked in the boiling water, but stay contained in the bag itself. The bag contains whole or flake form and is good for smaller batches and for moderate amount of flavor without too much spicy heat. Put the contents of the bag into a blender and the resulting powder would add more flavor and spice to your boil. The bag doesn’t contain salt so you would have to add it yourself. Bag contains some or all of the following: pepper flakes, peppercorns, whole cloves, dried citrus peel, herb leaves (basil, bay, laurel, oregano, thyme), and whole seeds (allspice celery, coriander, dill, mustard).

Liquid Seasoning: This comes in 4 oz., 8 oz., 16 oz., and crowd dispersing 1 gallon bottles. They are distinct, quick acting and powerful when added in a crawfish boil. You will want to use liquid seasoning as a spice and flavor booster, in addition to the mesh bags or dry seasoning. This is because as a lone seasoning, it doesn’t bring well rounded taste. It also does not contain salt. It is worth keeping around the house to be used in other recipes in addition to pest control and fending off home invaders.

Dry or Powdered Seasoning: Available in 1lb. bags capable of cooking 10lbs. of seafood or large 3-6 lbs jars for a whole sack of crawfish. This is the seasoning of choice to start out with. Preferably, the powder is used with a little extra liquid or bag for well rounded flavors. It has salt in it but not enough. Dry or powdered seasoning blends will contain some or all of the following: salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, white pepper, paprika, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground coriander, celery seed, lemon flavoring, ground herbs (bay leaf, thyme, oregano, basil) dextrose, MSG.

Straight Cayenne Pepper: In its pure form, ground red cayenne pepper is the staple ingredient for making adjustments to spicy heat. If premade mixes aren’t hot enough for you, refer from this.

We hope we helped you with your boil in reading this article. The idea here is to familiarize you with seasoning ingredients and their various forms. With this knowledge, you can make your own adjustments based on how you think your crawfish should taste in terms of salt and seasoning. The best thing you can do to improve your technique is to practice. You’ll make a whole lot of friends and have some great memories along the way to crawfish boil perfection. You also want to keep journal of your crawfish boil. Some people do this for wine tasting, but this is way cooler. In it, record the important things: pounds of crawfish, which cooking pot, amount of salt, seasoning, lagniappe extras, cooking times, soak times, batches, etc. Before you enjoy too many beers, write down your overall impression and what others thought; too spicy made me cry; not salty enough; my fingers are swollen now I can’t get my ring off; potatoes turned into mashed potatoes; not enough beer, just right. This way if you are one of the unfortunate ones who only gets to have boiled crawfish once a month during the crawfish season, you’ll have some notes to refer to and make adjustments.

Source: buzzle

Regina Bracy is the resident coordinator at the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station.

She said farmers have been using row covers to protect the berries and that she hasn’t received any reports of major damage.

Bracy said cold weather can delay the crop, because cold weather delays ripening. But she said the quality and quantity of early-harvest berries has been good.

She said temperatures in the state’s main citrus growing area haven’t been as cold as they’ve been north of Lake Pontchartrain recently. But farmers still have to be mindful of protecting their trees.

klfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=9708555

Whether it’s eaten in boudin for breakfast, served with seafood gumbo for lunch, or prepared as a side dish with fried okra and barbecued pork chops, the versatility of the world’s most popular grain is undeniable.

“If we fix fried chicken and make gravy, we are going to serve that gravy over rice, not potatoes,” says Mike Davis, 62, owner of Conrad Rice Mill, the nation’s oldest operating rice mill, in New Iberia, La.

Davis, who bought the historic mill in 1975, says rice is as much a part of Louisiana cuisine as are seafood and spices. “If you are going to be a Cajun cook, you’ve got to have the seasonings and you’ve got to have the rice,” he says.

Rice has been grown in Louisiana since early Acadian settlers tossed seeds into sloughs and wetlands and harvested the volunteer crop, which they dubbed “providence rice.” In 2007, Louisiana farmers grew 1 million metric tons of rice, or nearly 12 percent of the nation’s supply.

Built in 1912, Conrad Rice Mill processes locally grown rice and, in terms of volume, may be the nation’s smallest rice mill. The mill processes about 2 million pounds of rice each year using some of the plant’s original machinery and markets its products under the Konriko, R.M. Quiggs, HolGrain and Conrad-Davis brands.

During milling, machinery removes hulls from the rice kernels. What remains is brown rice, with a layer of bran surrounding the kernels. When the bran is removed, it becomes white rice.

Most Louisiana cooks serve shrimp Creole and crawfish étouffée on a bed of long- or medium-grain white rice. In fact, most of the white rice milled at Conrad Rice Mill is sold at supermarkets in southwest Louisiana and east Texas, the heart of Cajun country.

One of Konriko’s signature products is Wild Pecan Rice, which interestingly is neither wild nor contains pecans. The aromatic rice was developed in the 1940s by an agricultural researcher in Crowley, La., who crossed Asian and domestic strains and came up with the nutty-flavored variety. Today, Davis contracts a farmer in Egan, La., to grow 100 acres of the rice each year.

Wild Pecan Rice’s unique flavor is produced by cutting small grooves into the bran. The grooves allow moisture to penetrate the kernel, reducing cooking time to 20 to 25 minutes, while the rice retains the bran’s nutty flavor. “It tastes really good and it smells great,” Davis says.

Rice consumption is increasing in the United States, with the average American eating about 24 pounds a year. Davis expects that trend to continue with the influx of people from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the continuing popularity of Louisiana cuisine.

Davis concedes that white rice by itself is bland, but it carries the flavors of other foods very well. “It will pick up on the red pepper and the black pepper and the holy trinity of Cajun cooking: bell pepper, onion and celery,” he says. “It’s all about the flavors.”

americanprofile.com/article/30986.html

Nothing can start a conversation on Thanksgiving like turducken.

The turducken — a duck in a chicken in a turkey — has become a tradition on Thanksgiving tables all over the world.

Some people think the turducken started with Paul Prudhomme, while others trace it as far back as the Middle Ages. But the story Ed Richard, owner of Hebert’s, tells has simpler beginnings, with a man named Junior Hebert in Maurice, La.

The story goes that a man walked into Junior’s with a deboned duck, chicken and turkey. He knew the three would be good roasted together, but didn’t know the best way to do it. He left that for Junior to figure out, and on that day the turducken was born.

Not everyone will like the turducken. But that’s the fun of it. No matter what, it is a good way to get your guests talking.

But don’t place all your bets on the turducken. It’s best to have a back-up bird for the traditionalists and those who want plain, leftover turkey.

An 8- to 10-pound turducken, which feeds about 15 people, is about $63.

]]> http://cajungoods.com/cajun-turducken-gets-em-talking/feed 0 http://cajungoods.com/cajun-turducken-getting-around http://cajungoods.com/cajun-turducken-getting-around#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:44:15 +0000 Ragin Cajun http://cajungoods.com/?p=118 What shall we have for Thanksgiving this year?

How about a turducken?

A turducken is a trio of birds – tur (turkey), duck (duck) and en (chicken) – all nestled together.

It sounds like the beginning of a tall tale: There once was turkey that lost all its bones and was stuffed with a duck that swallowed a chicken. They were all separated by a spicy, flavorful stuffing and then seamed back together in one meaty package.

All that meat comes at a price – it’s at least three times more expensive than a traditional turkey. And that’s without the shipping fees.

Last year, reader John Smeekens of Clinton Township, Mich., called the Detroit Free Press Test Kitchen looking for a local source for turducken.

“I read an article about it in the Michigan United Conservation Clubs magazine and Googled it and I couldn’t believe the number of hits on it,” says Smeekens. “It really sounded interesting, and who would have ever thought to take a duck, stuff it with a chicken and stuff that inside a turkey?”

But instead of for Thanksgiving or Christmas, Smeekens ordered it for New Year’s Day from Tony Chachere’s (SASH-rees) in Louisiana. He got a holiday pack that came with a 12-pound turducken, 1 pound of shrimp, 2 pounds cornbread dressing, 2 pounds rice dressing, 8 ounces of Tony Chachere’s seasoning and a Creole cookbook. Without shipping, it was $59.95.

This year, the Free Press ordered a turducken to see what all the fuss is about. After all, John Madden, the NFL commentator, is a huge fan. Southern sweetie Paula Deen has featured her own on the Food Network and is including one in upcoming episodes.

Folks from French Market Foods in Louisiana, from which we ordered the Free Press turducken, say their expert meat cutter can debone a turkey in two minutes and a chicken in one minute. French Market Foods produces turduckens (and other meats) for private labels and is the retail operation for Tony Chachere’s products.

“We sell 65,000 to 70,000 a year,” says Scott Arrant, an owner of French Market Foods. “It’s almost 100 percent yield on it. It’s a great product; people who order from us order over and over again.”

With its solid meat and huge portion of breast meat, turduckens need a long, slow cooking method so that the meat doesn’t dry out.

The instruction to our turducken said it should be cooked at 350 degrees covered for 4 hours; then cooked 1 hour uncovered so the skin browns. It took every bit of that, and did turn out moist. We were advised to cook the turducken in a tight roasting pan. (Turduckens are held together only by the skin of the turkey. If it’s allowed to expand, there’s a chance it will split during roasting.)

When it was all done and ready to eat, tasters raved about the aroma and the look of the golden brown turducken. The flavor was moist and delicious and fans of duck loved the flavor combination.

Turduckens have been around since the 80s, mainly in the South. They are very popular in Louisiana. Some sources say it all started with the famous Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme

A recipe for turducken can be found in “The Prudhomme Family Cookbook: Old-time Louisiana Recipes,” by the 11 Prudhomme brothers and sisters (the book is out of print but may be found used).

An Internet search also listed a 2005 National Geographic article pointing to Herbert’s Specialty Meats in Maurice, La., as another early source of turducken publicity. Herbert’s Web site says the turducken was invented 25 years ago.

In Louisiana, turduckens are available year-round; they are popular not only for Thanksgiving, but for New Year’s Day and Super Bowl parties

azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/articles/2008/11/10/20081110turducken1110.html

Types
Boudin blanc
A white sausage made of pork without the blood. In some versions, the sausage is made from a milk or pork rice dressing, much like dirty rice, only more moist, stuffed into pork casings. Pork liver and heart meat are typically included. Rice is more frequently used in Cajun cuisine, whereas the French version tends to use milk, and is therefore generally more delicate than the Cajun variety.

Although the sausage wrap is edible, the stuffing is sometimes squeezed out of one end. In French cuisine, the sausage is sauteed or grilled. The Louisiana version is normally simmered or braised, although coating with oil and slow grilling for tailgating is becoming a popular option in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In Cajun cuisine another popular variant is crawfish boudin, made with the meat of crawfish tails added to rice. It is often served with cracklins (fried pig skins) and saltine crackers, hot sauce, and ice cold beer. An alligator version is also made, mainly as a novelty. Boudin Blanc dressing is also used to make Boudin balls. The dressing is not stuffed into a casing but formed into a ball, rolled in breading and deep fat fried, similar to the Italian arancini.

Boudin rouge
In Louisiana cuisine, a sausage similar to boudin blanc, but with pork blood added to it. It originated from the French boudin noir.*
*Sale difficult in US due to having to have an on site USDA inspector and shelf life.

Availability
It is notable that when one refers to ‘boudin’ in the cultural region of Louisiana, Acadiana, it is commonly understood that he/she is referring to Boudin Blanc and no other variant. Boudin Blanc is the staple boudin of this region and is the one most widely consumed. Cajun boudin is available most readily in southern Louisiana, particularly in the Lafayette area, though it may be found nearly anywhere in “Cajun Country” including eastern Texas. There are restaurants devoted to the speciality, though boudin is also sold from rice cookers in convenience stores along Interstate 10. Since boudin freezes well, it is shipped to specialty stores outside the region. Boudin is fast approaching the status of the stars of Cajun cuisine (e.g., jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée, and dirty rice) and has fanatic devotees that travel across Louisiana comparing the homemade numerous varieties.
As availability for boudin grows so does demand. Now a Boudin-Cook-Off has even been organized in Lafayette, Louisiana (the heart of Cajun Country) for October 25, 2008.

 

Tony Chachere’s

This is probably the most famous of the cajun seasoning name brands and most likely one to be found in a supermarket near you.  Its found in homes across the area here and has a very well rounded flavor and base. Its a very versatile seasoning and can be used on just about anything to add some cajun flavor. Its built on a creole/cajun seasoning base with salts / file/and many more spices and herbs. If your looking for your first taste of cajun seasonings and flavor then this is a great place to start.

 

Tabasco

Well i think just about everyone has head about “tabasco”. This company has grown into a world wide enterprise offerings many different cajun pepper sauces and other various items. Located in the heart of cajun county on Avery Island they continue to put out some of louisiana best tasting items. The well known “tabasco Sauce” made now in red or green is a delightful seasoning with a better than average burn to it and has become a favorite across cajun country.  No mater which of the Tabasco company products you decide to sample you wont be disappointed as there quality is top shelf.

 

Zatarain’s

A New Orleans based icon this company has continued to supply some great cajun and creole items throughout the years. They offer great options in the cajun and creole seasoning markets along with many other products like boxed mixes for  red beans/seafood/gumbo/etouffee etc.  There seasoning mixes are based on recipe’s from years of cajun culture and offer a very balanced blend that surely excites the taste buds. I surely wouldnt pass on a chance to grab a taste of the zatarains product line.

 

Slap Ya MaMa

One of the newer seasoning brands on the scene in louisiana they are quickly catching up to the rest. They offer a very nice line of cajun seasoning blends including the original , white pepper , seafood boil, and hot blend.  Its a very versatile bunch of blends and can easily find its way on almost anything to add that great cajun kick. Its got maybe a bit more kick to it than some of the previously mentioned mixes but at same time isnt over the top on the burn meter. This brand is starting to pop up more and more across cajun country at the dinner table and cookouts.

 

 

These are some of the more popular brands but there are many more local blends and mixes that have been put together through out the years by the great cooks of cajun country. The taste of louisiana and the cajun people surely has no end .  Hope you all Enjoy !

 

If your interested in any of these items and would like to find out more info on a certain brand or where to find these items at the best prices , contact:   support@cajungoods.com

 

This book was written by local author Donald Menard and should be considered one of the great reads to come from the area. It is filled with tons of great information including interviews with some of the Cajun people who went through the historic storm which hit Louisiana in 1957 along with some great pictures of the area and damage done by the storm. The books gives many historic facts about the actual storms and reports of its path and strength calculations now adjusted from original reports coming from the work of Menard. Right from the heart of Cajun Country Mr Menard put in an enormous amount of research time and his hard work shows in the excellent detailed writings of his book. If Cajun history and culture or hurricane’s interest you then this is a must read !

To obtain a copy of this great book right from the heart of Cajun Country email: support@cajungoods.com