On this episode of the all-things-meat show Prime Time, hosts and butchers Ben Turley and Brent Young of Brooklyn’s the Meat Hook head down to Wayne Jacob’s Smokehouse in LaPlace, Louisiana to learn how to make traditional andouille sausage.
The owners of the smokehouse educate Ben and Brent on the sausage’s history in the area. Andouille sausage was brought over by French settlers in the 1700s, and LaPlace in particular has kept the tradition alive and popular.
Andouille is a lean, coarsely ground pork sausage stuffed into a beef casing, as opposed to the more common hog casing, which gives it a unique taste. The main flavor that sets andouille apart from other sausages is heavy smoke. This sausage gets smoked for 12 to 14 hours, making a perfect complement for corn, potatoes, and fish—in other words, a traditional Southern crawfish boil.
After learning how to butcher, grind, season, case, and smoke the sausage, Ben and Brent bring some over to Mason Hereford’s sandwich empire Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans for a backyard crawfish boil.
“It still holds up, and in fact, I think it only got better,” Ben says after trying the sausage that’s been simmering in the crawfish boil for hours.
“It did get better,” agrees Brent. “It absorbed a lot of the spice, it’s more spicy and it’s more salty.”
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