Posted on 02/03/2008 7:23:45 AM PST by decimon
Butcher Timmy Guidry, right, holds down the pig before butchering it during La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns Saturday Feb. 2, 2008, in St. Martinville, La. 'The boucherie is so important to our culture,' said Denise Leger, 34, a Cajun Catholic from New Iberia who helped her uncle butcher the pig. (AP Photo/Brad Kemp)
ST. MARTINVILLE, La. - Far from the Carnival balls, parades and raucous crowds of New Orleans, Cajuns in St. Martinville held their last "bon temps" before Lent in a far different fashion: with a grand boucherie, or slaughtering of a pig.
Hundreds of people watched at least part of the ritual Saturday, though most have seen it before. The pig's skin was being shaved for cracklins, a Cajun snack, while the carcass was being prepared for transport to a butcher shop.
"The boucherie is so important to our culture," said Denise Leger, 34, a Cajun Catholic from New Iberia who helped her uncle butcher the pig. "A lot of people give up their favorite foods, like boudin, as a penance during Lent."
Every year, Catholic Cajuns in this community about 140 miles west of New Orleans hold "La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns" the weekend before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.
"This is a celebration that was started out of necessity," said Stephen Hardy, 38, who leads the group organizing the event. "Before refrigeration, they had to share the slaughter. One family could not consume a whole hog before it would go bad. They would have family and friends over to help, and everyone would leave with something."
Back then, he said, a family would either host or attend a boucherie about once a month. With meat readily available at any grocery store today, the boucherie is simply a celebration of an old tradition, bringing family and friends together once a year for one last hoorah before the Catholic season of fasting begins.
Unlike other Carnival celebrations, food is the focus in Cajun communities like St. Martinville. In Mamou, locals ride on horseback collecting ingredients for a community gumbo during the "Courir de Mardi Gras," or "Fat Tuesday Run."
"I don't think I'll be able to watch them kill the pig, but I sure like the food," Jody Gibbens, of Bandera, Texas, said Saturday as she sipped a beer and weighed her lunch options as a band played in the background.
Federal health code regulations prevent attendees from eating what is slaughtered during the celebration, Hardy said. So the butcher, after showing what is done traditionally, will take the carcass and byproducts to his shop to finish preparing the meat.
He'll have plenty of options: salt meat, patties and sandwiches, sausages such as andouille and boudin, rice and pork dressing stuffed in an edible casing, head cheese and cracklins, among them.
Nothing goes to waste, Hardy said. The skin of the hog is scraped and the fat layer next to it rendered into lard for cooking. The skin and attached fat are what's fried to make the crisp, tasty cracklins.
Twelve-year-old Sage DeLaunay's arms were dripping with fat after he beat out more than 20 kids to win a greased pig contest — and the lard-covered piglet he nabbed.
"This was my first time, and I'm so excited," he said. "I'm gonna raise it and kill it one day."
Federal health code regulations prevent attendees from eating what is slaughtered during the celebration,
So does this apply during Ramadan too?
I've got one thing to say about this Cajun tradition:
YUM!
Excellent observation! This is a little gruesome though. I think that my daughter has the correct attitude toward all of this. She: "I love a good ribeye or T-bone steak. Just don't tell me how it came to be a ribeye or T-bone."
For their own safety, PETA better keep away from this.
That celebration is an Islamic-repellant, to be sure! LOL...keeps the terrorists at bay.
That was my question also. What kind of federal regulations are these? Does our government really presume to tell us that we cannot get together and prepare food from scratch?
What about game animals? Am I now supposed to take a deer to butcher to comply with some federal meat regulation?
It’s different than slaughter.
I’m a medical assistant. An ADMINISTRATIVE medical assistant. When I went into school I told them that I would study clinicals but didn’t want a job in it. I ended up as an office manager for Psychs.
I’ll skydive, thanks.
Since the 16th Amendment was supposedly ratified on February 3, 1913.
.....I’m glad there’s still Cajuns left and still Cajun culture....things are just too homiginised in America these days....if you want to see neat stuff you gotta get off the inter-states and hit the blue highways...I lived in south Louisiana in the early 70s and had some great times there.
***Actually, I’ve hunted eggs. It fascinated me that they were soft and warm when first out of the chicken.***
They are warm, wet, but not soft. I have gathered eggs, finding some that just came out of the chicken, I mean the egg plops on your hand when you reun it under the setting hen. When slaughtering some older hens we found eggs in all stages of development still in the hen. They are not soft when they come out.
re: kill what I ate
My wife had a rascal of a little boy in her preschool several years ago that shot a lizard with his BB gun. His dad was not happy at all and decided to use it for a learning moment. He wanted to teach the kid that you don’t kill things for the sport, without making him feel like he was bad or anything. So dad picked up the dead prey by its tail and told the kid that hunters eat what the kill. Dad went inside, opened a can of anchovies, then came out insisted the kid join him in eating the fruits of his hunting. The kid was none too happy, but ate one anyway. Dad told my wife later that was the last time he had used his BB gun to shoot at a living thing!
I thought Dad was pretty smart in this. I can’t think of anything less appetizing than anchovies, but certainly harmless. I guess it was lying to the kid, but somehow I think it was a fair trade!
I agree but progress carries that price. We wouldn't be doing what we are right now doing without that progress.
I think that was a great lesson!
Kudos to the dad.
Makes you wonder who first looked at a chickens butt, and said, “I’m gonna eat the next thing that comes out of that.”
I think it is a little weird the way the author uses the words “Catholic” and “Catholics” in this article. Yes, most Cajuns are Catholic and yes, generally speaking, Lent is more emphasized by Catholics than by other Christians, but Mardi Gras is celebrated by almost all South Louisianians (among others) and Cajun is Cajun. The events described here are not “Catholic” events.
For the record I prefer beef so one whitetail lasts my family a whole year.
I chuckled when I read that. I've known adults who were surprised that eggs are warm when they're laid. Like they didn't know birds are endothermic.
Turtle eggs aren't warm when they're laid. And sea turtle eggs are soft, too. (Bird eggs have hard shells.)
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