We get invited every year for their annual food festival. So we go prepared with a lot of food to give away as samples in order to promote our cookbooks. We have found through experience if you want to sell a cookbook, give the people a taste of a recipe from your book. I always cook the tastiest meals to give as samples. I love the expression on their face and their body language which tells me “Umm, this is so good!” Then they turn to their husband and give him a sample. BAM! Book sold!

We prepared 3 batches of Blackeyed Pea & Sausage Jambalaya to be cooked there at the event in the rice cooker, and a double batch of Chicken Fajita Stuffed Potato already cooked in the slow cooker before the event. Small samples were given to the people to taste; it was all gone in 3 hours! The remaining hour we gave out Chocolate Peanut Clusters cooked earlier in the week in my slow cooker.

Elizabeth talking up my books and giving out samples

A lot of people were there for this event. I can tell when a person is not interested in what I have … they avoid eye contact. So I say, “Would you like a sample?” They shake their head NO. Then I respond by saying “I have chocolate.” That usually stops them in their tracks. I have sold many books like that.

We sold a lot of books, met some friends, met a potential new distributor, and a new professional recipe tester for my next cookbook. Thanks to my awesome daughter Elizabeth Bertrand Leleux and son Jeremy Bertrand who helped out and made it a great success!

I met a couple of fans of my books. They were absolutely praising my cookbooks about how great they are. I asked them if they would be willing to put that in writing and they agreed.

This is what one of them wrote:

“The Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites is the best little cookbook for everyday cooking. Great recipes, like old times. Love it!” Rosa Bernard Henry from Maurice, LA.

Here is what the other lady wrote:

“I love the Slow Cooker Meals book. That’s the best invention. I work 12 to 16 hours a day. I don’t have to worry about my meal. It is ready when I come home.”

Darlene Lantia from Scott, LA.

Please order my cookbooks. They will help take a load off you and your busy lifestyle and make cooking faster and easier.

What is a Cajun crawfish boil? There is a tradition here in Cajun Country, or Acadiana, where families look forward to getting together to have a Cajun Crawfish Boil. It is a major south Louisiana social event. Families get together for a back yard crawfish boil during crawfish season, which is from Thanksgiving to mid-June, with the peak of the season in April.

Today we are at a relative’s house with some of our extended family and we are getting ready to eat some good boiled crawfish. Today’s event occurred on Easter weekend at the peak of crawfish season.

Crawfish is one of the most popular Cajun food meals. Crawfish can be eaten in an étouffée, in a jambalaya, or in a number of various Cajun food dishes. But there is just something special about how a family reunion and a crawfish boil goes together.

Boiling crawfish is a time honored tradition for south Louisiana. Many families have their own recipes and traditions for these family get-togethers. Boiled Crawfish is available in many, if not all, seafood restaurants in South Louisiana. And it’s just not crawfish; many companies provide their customers with almost every kind of shelled seafood available, such as boiled crabs and boiled shrimp.

The little kids find it fun to play with the crawfish, too. They get to show how brave they are by picking up the live crawfish and they dare each other to pick one up without getting pinched. The crawfish are strong and their pinchers are pointed and can draw blood if not careful. The kids get to “help” daddy and pawpaw by picking up the ones that fall on the grass and put them in the pot. The kids love it and have a great time!

Cover the tables with newspaper or disposable, plastic tablecloths, get a platter full of crawfish, some ketchup with Tabasco sauce in it for dipping, and start peeling. There’s nothing else like it!

Recipe Summary

Before we boil the crawfish, we throw in some onions, garlic, potatoes, Cajun sausage, and corn on the cob into the pot of boiling water along with our crab boil and red pepper seasoning and let that cook for about 30 minutes. Then we place that in an ice chest to keep it warm

Next we put the live crawfish into the boiling water and cover the pot. Once the water gets boiling again and the steam starts coming out from under the lid, set your stop watch or egg timer for eight minutes. Then remove crawfish and place in an ice chest and sprinkle more red pepper seasoning over the crawfish and shake them up to spread the seasoning around.

Eat while they are hot.

See our cookbooks at Cypress Cove Publishing

related Blogs elsewhere:

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker

We weren’t quite sure how this experiment would turn out, so we took notes, jotting down what we used and the amounts, and this is what came out.

This is another good example of the ease and flexibility of using a rice cooker to make a quick, easy one-pot meal.

This is a version of the Hearty Corn & Black-eyed Pea Pastalaya found in my cookbook “Rice Cooker Meals: Fast Home Cooking for Busy People.” A pastalaya is a jambalaya made using pasta instead of rice.

Hearty Chili Mac and Corn in Rice Cooker

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cups large elbow macaroni, uncooked
• 1 (15 oz.) can chili with beans
• 1 (15.5 oz.) can black-eye peas with jalapenos (undrained)
• 1 (15 oz.) can whole kernel corn (undrained)
• 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce (used Hunt’s Roasted Garlic)
• Additional Seasonings to taste

Instructions:

Spray bottom of rice cooker with Pam vegetable spray.

In a 2-quart bowl, mix together the water, olive oil and macaroni so that the macaroni is coated thoroughly with the water and olive oil mixture. (This is to keep the macaroni from sticking together.)

Empty all cans into rice cooker. Mix together well.

Add the macaroni / olive oil mixture into the rice cooker. Add seasonings to taste. (We used garlic powder, onion powder, Cajun White and Red Pepper blend.) Mix well. Press down COOK button.

Results:

Our experiment cooked initially for only 15 minutes before flipping to WARM, because we did not add enough liquid. After a taste test, we added a little more water, stirred it again and put it back on to cook. After the 2^nd cook time it was done. So that’s when we increased the amount of water in the ingredient list to 2 cups of water.

This made a pot full. It was at the 6-cup level when done. So I recommend using an 8-cup rice cooker to cook this one.

How did it turn out, you ask? Oh my, it was sooo good. We ate on it for two days.

Give it a try. We think you’ll like it.

Neal & Jeremy Bertrand
Cypress Cove Publishing
Lafayette, Louisiana – in the heart of “Cajun Country”

Read about our Stainless Steel Rice Cooker here

Related Blog Posts:

• Julie’s Eats Treats Hearty Chili MacI liked the addition of pasta to it because you can never have to much pasta in my life It’s thick and yummy. If you like a little more bite to your chili feel free to add more chili powder. Hearty Chili Mac Printer Friendly Recipe.
• All-American Vegetarian Recipe Repeat Hearty Chili Mac KickstartRecipe Repeat Hearty Chili Mac Kickstart Children of all ages will enjoy this tasty combination of chili and pasta. NutritionMD.org Hearty Chili Mac check out my original post. 1 TB extra-virgin olive oil 1 onion chopped.
• TLC Cooking Hearty Chili MacMake the best Hearty Chili Mac with this easy recipe. Find thousands of free expert-tested printable recipes on HowStuffWorks.com.
• Vegetarian Chili Mac Cooking Between ClassesMy poor mother is super sick with the flu right now so I decided that I would make some hearty vegetable chili mac to help her immune system battle off the fevers and chills a little faster. Plus mildly spicy foods can be kind of.
• Hearty Chili MacHearty Chili Mac Ingredients use vegan versions 2 cups macaroni uncooked 1 onion chopped 1 green bell pepper chopped 2 cloves garlic minced 6-8 oz. burger-style crumbles 1 14 oz. can stewed tomatoes 1 8 oz. tomato.
• All-American Vegetarian Hearty Chili MacHearty Chili Mac. Day 17 of the Kickstart Challenge. Tonight’s dinner was very satisfying. I was also excited to finally have avocados. If you have read a few of my past posts the meals were in need of cubed avocado or.
• Whole-Wheat Chili-Mac Food Diet ProgramsTo serve spoon into bowls and sprinkle with grated topping. This recipe yields 4 servings about 1 1 4 cups of chili and 2 tablespoons of topping per serving Points Value 8. Comments This one-pot hearty meal can easily be.
• Hearty Chili Mac kickersisterHearty Chili Mac. Posted March 10 2011 by m0gra in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment. Note to Big Sis I forgot to mention that I bought vegan patties and just thawed and crumbed those into the chili when I made it. Turned out pretty good.
• Hearty Chili Mac General MyCookingBlogThis is so good and you can make it in the slow cooker. icon smile.
• Lorraine’s This2That Hearty Chili MacHearty Chili Mac. This was an easy and AMAZING Crock-Pot dinner I thought it was pretty good but my husband said it was AMAZING and that’s all I need to hear to make this again. Here you go 1 pound 90 lean ground.

Information from Google Blog Search

Brown Rice, Black-eyed Peas & Sausage Jambalaya

• 1 lb. link sausage of your choice, cut up and browned in skillet
• 1 (15.5-oz.) can black-eyed peas with liquid
• 1 (10.5-oz.) can beef broth
• 1 cup (8 oz.) brown rice
• 1/2 stick real butter (not margarine), chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small bell pepper, chopped
• 3 to 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ cup (3 green onions), chopped (optional)
• 8 oz. water

Add all ingredients to rice cooker, stir well and press down COOK button.
It cooked for 62 minutes, then flipped to WARM. When it flips to WARM cycle, let it stand, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes so the brown rice will get softer, then serve.

Neal Bertrand, Author & Publisher of Rice Cooker Meals: Fast Home Cooking for Busy People;
copyright 2008
Cypress Cove Publishing

~~~~~
Available at stores in south Louisiana. To find a store near you or to buy an autographed copy call Neal toll-free at (888) 606-3257.

Available in paperback as well as ebook form on Kindle and on the Nook from Barnes & Noble.
also you can buy the ebook online at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/5327?ref=jjbooks

Additional Resources:

Apple Pie recipe for Slow Cookers:

• 8 tart apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. allspice
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups Bisquick, divided
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. cold butter

Toss apples in large bowl with cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Place in slow cooker. In a bowl, combine milk, softened butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and 1/2 cup Bisquick. Spoon over apples. Combine 1 cup Bisquick and brown sugar. Cut the cold butter into mixture until crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over top of apple mixture. Cover and cook on LOW 6-7 hours or until apples are soft.

Neal Bertrand
Cypress Cove Publishing

Additional resources:

• Crock Pot Menu Cookbook Quality recipes BBQ on the River How to make Chicken Cordon Bleu inside Crockpot Coffee dessert with apple pie filling up cooked inside slow cooker. Substances Apple Blend 1 can easily 20 ounce apple curry filling apple slices broken up somewhat.

• D is for Dinner Apple Pie Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker Apple Pie Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker. Yum You can make this with regular oatmeal too. I think next time I’ll make it either with milk or apple juice or maybe a mix of apple juice and water. and probably add a bit of salt.

• Slow Cooker Meals Make Apple Pie in a slow cooker Genius CypressCovePublishing.com I demonstrate how to make Apple Pie Apple Cobbler in a slow cooker. It is a recipe from my cookbook Slow Cooker Meals Easy Home Cooking for Busy People. I’ve had a lot of compliments on it. It tastes really.

• How to Cook Apple Pie Steel-Cut Oats in a Slow-Cooker If you subscribe to the blog via RSS feed or via email you’ll get helpful tips for healthy cooking and nourishing food sent straight to you for free This week I wholeheartedly embraced There’s not even a sticky crusty slow-cooker to wash just a measuring cup to rinse after you have served the cereal. For me the apple pie flavor puts this breakfast over the top. Why apple pie It’s a fun way to incorporate fruit into the breakfast. The combination of brown sugar spices.

• Slow Cooker Recipes are a Family Favorite Article from Free Article Directory and entitled Slow Cooker Recipes are a Family Favorite By slowcooker recipes. Dessert recipes range from apple pie coffee cake to stewed fruits. Soup recipes range from barbecued bean soup to potato leek. A basic slow cooker consists of a round or oval lid and a Cooking the meal in a single pot reduces washing up and the low cooking temperature and glazed pot make cleaning easy. Author Resource Slow cooker recipes website has.

• Juliann’s Easy Eats Slow Cooker Apple Pie Breakfast Slow Cooker Apple Pie Breakfast. Make this. no really do it. So stinking good. I am hot and cold with oatmeal but this was really yummy and it makes a ton and we ate it a couple of mornings reheated with a little milk.

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker & Steamer Basket

Stainless Steel Vs. Aluminum

Aluminum cookware has been proven to react with certain foods. The following was copied in part from the post at http://EzineArticles.com/5597154

Aluminum cookware can react with acidic and even alkaline components.
Aluminum particles can enter into food (contaminate) with acidic components. Hence, items like tomato soups should not be cooked in an aluminum cookware. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5597154

Kumar, Dharmendar “A Detailed Comparison Between Aluminum Cookware and Steel Cookware.” A Detailed Comparison Between Aluminum Cookware and Steel Cookware. 22 Dec. 2010 EzineArticles.com. 18 Mar. 2012 <http://ezinearticles.com/?A-­Detailed-­Comparison-­Between-­Aluminum-­Cookware-­and-­Steel-­Cookware&id=5597154>.

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer basket

Neal Bertrand of Cypress Cove Publishing and Rice Cooker Meals tested this; he used 2 separate new rice cookers one had a stainless steel inner pan and the other an aluminum inner pan. The test he used was to boil several cups of pure filtered water (not tap water which may contain chlorine) the same amount in each pan, the result was that the water in the stainless steel pan still tasted pure; where as, the water boiled in the aluminum inner pan had an after taste to it.

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker

Take your Rice Cooker Meals cooking to a new level of health and efficiency! Introducing our incredible, new 8-cup Miracle brand Stainless Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer!  Order your rice cooker with a stainless steel inner bowl today for $79.95 plus s/h (plus 4% sales tax for residents of the State of Louisiana)

Take your Rice Cooker Meals cooking to a new level of health and efficiency with our incredible, new 8-cup Miracle brand Stainless Steel Rice Cooker and Steamer!

• Cooks your meal automatically and then switches to a “stay-warm” mode when meal is fully cooked, keeping food warm for hours.
• This 8-cup cooker will yield a full 12 cups of cooked white or brown rice.
• The inner cooking pot is a beautiful solid mirror-finish stainless steel.
• The glass lid allows you to view the rice or vegetables while cooking.
• The stainless steel steaming tray fits on top of pot so you can steam vegetables to perfection (like yummy corn-on-the-cob) while cooking your meal.
• The easy view indicator lights identify cooking and warming cycles.
• Rice measuring cup and stirring paddle included for your convenience.
• 500 watts, 120 volts, 60 Hz

Why stainless steel versus aluminum?
When cooking in aluminum pots, the aluminum metal leaches out into liquids or the food you are cooking. Then you eat the aluminum-contaminated food and the aluminum attaches to your brain cells.

Did you know that aluminum has been implicated as contributing to Alzheimer’s disease?

My mother died of Alzheimer’s disease in the nursing home. She was slowly losing her mind and bodily functions.

I certainly don’t want to end up like that, nor do I want you to, either. With stainless steel, the metal will not leach out and harm you. It is safe.

What about my non-stick coated rice pot?
The chemical compounds in the non-stick coating are also harmful. The coating releases chemicals into the food over time, not to mention scratching the coating off the pot and into the food.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found through their research that PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) is used in the manufacture of non-stick materials. This chemical was exposed as harmful and has been featured in ABC’s “20/20” TV Show and Time Magazine among others. The summary of the matter is that the fumes from heated non-stick surfaces can cause flu-like symptoms and can kill pet birds, and is a “likely human carcinogen”.

Now we have an alternative to using a rice cooker with a non-stick coating or an uncoated aluminum surface. This is why I feature the Miracle Stainless Steel Rice Cooker. Just give it a good spraying of non-stick vegetable spray before putting your ingredients in the pot. I personally use this rice cooker and have featured it on the front cover of my cookbook, Rice Cooker Meals: Fast Home Cooking for Busy People.

Video for Easy Smothered Potatoes and Sausage

This crock pot recipe is in my new book “Slow Cooker Meals: Easy Home Cooking for Busy People.” I made this meal recently for our church family get together, and it was very popular. I doubled the recipe as it says in the video here, and they ate it all. It was a big hit! I also have 17 desserts you can make in a slow cooker or crock pot, same thing.

When I made this slow cooker crockpot recipe I used a local brand of smoked sausage, but you can use andouille sausage or fresh sausage, it is up to your tastes what you prefer.

Please watch the video and see how easy it is. If I can do it, you certainly can.

here’s the Recipe for Easy Smothered Potatoes & Sausage

Easy Smothered Potatoes & Sausage

This savory meal goes well as a side or main dish.

• 3 links (1 lb.) smoked sausage, cut in small pieces
• 1 (2-lb.) bag frozen, crinkle-cut French-fried potatoes, defrosted
• 1 (1-oz.) package onion soup mix, dissolved in 3/4 cup water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt, red & black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 stick butter, chopped

Brown sausage in skillet, drain excess grease. Add all ingredients to slow cooker, stir, cover and cook on HIGH for 3 1/2 hours, or on LOW for 6 or 7 hours.
Makes two quarts.

Neal Bertrand
Lafayette, La.
Buy my cookbook at www.CypressCovePublishing.com, or Amazon.com, or as an ebook at Smashwords.com in Kindle (.mobi), Epub (Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), PDF, RTF, LRF, Palm Doc (PDB) formats.

Slow Cooker Meals: Easy Home Cooking for Busy People, or How to Cook Simple Cajun and Southern Crock Pot Recipes including Pastas, Meats, Soups, Stews, Chili and Desserts
And please “LIKE” my video and “SHARE” it with all your family and friends.

Thanks!

Corn Maque Choux, a classic Cajun dish

If you don’t have fresh corn, then use canned corn. This Louisiana Cajun recipe is a good choice to make at any time of the year. Another addition I may make next time I cook this vegetable side dish is to add some sliced-up andouille sausage in it.

This Louisiana recipe makes a great dinner side dish, or to bring to a get-together at family, friends or for a church meal.

Cookbook available at http://cookbookdude.com/

Transcript of Corn Maque Choux video.

Hey everybody this is corn macque choux. A recipe we are cooking today, and so get ready to watch how we do it.

Hey everybody this is Neal Bertrand, with Cypress Cove Publishing and CypressCovePublishing.com. I’m here talking about my new Cajun cookbook titled “Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites, Revised Second Edition.” Today we’re doing a recipe called corn maque choux.

So we’re starting with 2 tablespoons of butter, and it’s in the pot and it’s melted (the butter we used was no salt added, and butter is healthier since it doesn’t have the chemicals that margarine has.)

Then we have 1/4 cup pimento, (or you can use red bell pepper, which is what pimento is), 1 clove of garlic chopped up, 1/4  cup of bell pepper, 1/4 cup onion chopped up.

We’re going let this sauté in the pot, and get this nice and soft, then well add the corn.

Ok folks this has been simmering for about 10 minutes, so what we’ll do is add the corn. This is white corn, we also got a can of yellow corn, and a can of Rotel mild diced tomatoes and green chilies. And what we did is we blended all that Rotel up; (you don’t need to, but people in my family don’t like whole chunks of tomatoes so that’s why we did that.) And give it a good stir. Cover it, and you can add salt and pepper of your choice. Maybe some garlic powder or whatever. We’re going to cover this … and let it cook for about 20 or 30 minutes.

Alright, folks. We’re getting to the end here, getting ready to shut this thing off.

I cooked this on about medium-high heat for about 25 minutes to let it reduce. There was a lot of liquid in here. So it’s looking really good. This is Corn Maque Choux. It’s from my book Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites, Revised Second Edition. And you can buy it at CookbookDude.com or at CypressCovePublishing.com. It’s available on the Amazon Kindle, on the Barnes & Noble Nook, and on Smashwords.com in about 8 different formats of ebook / ereader … and make sure you hit the LIKE button to like it on FaceBook. Alright thanks for watching.

and also at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/5442?ref=jjbooks

Slow Cooker Meals: Easy Home Cooking for Busy People, or How to Cook Simple Cajun and Southern Crock Pot Recipes including Pastas, Meats, Soups, Stews, Chili and Desserts

Related Blog entries elsewhere:

the following information is from Google Blog Search

• Mardi Gras Cajun Corn Maque Choux Cajun Corn Maque Choux Ingredients 1 small onion chopped 1 4 cup chopped green bell pepper 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cups frozen shoepeg corn thawed 2 plum tomatoes diced 1 4 pound andouille.

• Pan-Roasted Snapper with Pickled Slaw Corn Maque Choux Purée This recipe won the regional award at the Almost Famous Chef Competition sponsored by Acqua Panna and S. Pellegrino. The winner was student chef Paul Terrebonne.

• Exploring My Kitchen Corn Maque Choux Corn Maque Choux. What you need 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 4 cups corn 1 cupped chopped onion 1 chopped red or green bell pepper 1 minced jalapeno 2 teaspoons creole seasoning Emeril’s works best.

• Sunday Fried Chicken and Maque Choux Cooking in Sens 4 tbsp butter. 2 cans whole kernel corn. 1 1 2 tbsp creole seasoning. 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved. 1 4 cup cream. Whisk the milk and eggs together then add the chicken to marinate while you prepare the maque choux.

• Corn Maque Choux News14.com INGREDIENTS 4 Tbsp. Butter cup Onion diced inch cup each Red and yellow bell pepper cut in inch 1 each Jalapeno pepper seeded and minced 2 tsp Minced garlic 4 cups Fresh corn kernels about 3.

• Tuesday Dinner Specials 3 6 12 Mr Friendly’s low country shrimp-corn maque choux roasted red pepper coulis creamy grits sautéed veggies 21. Sesame Seared Yellowfin Tuna sweet thai chili glaze tempura fried shiitakes spicy kimchee coconut-curry broth ginger.

Part of the joy of writing and self-publishing cookbooks is enjoying the fruits of your labor and cooking recipes in a slow cooker … and eating the delicious meals; in this case, a crock-pot cake.

This dessert combines two of my favorites, pudding and cake, to make a delicious combination that will please the whole family.

This is one of the slow cooker recipes found in my new cookbook, “Slow Cooker Meals: Easy Home Cooking for Busy People.”

CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE

• 1 cup Bisquick® biscuit mix
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
  
• 3 tbsp. plus 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1 2/3 cup hot water

Mix Bisquick, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the 3 tablespoons cocoa, milk and vanilla extract. Spoon batter evenly into a greased crock pot.

Mix remaining sugar, cocoa and hot water. Pour over batter in crock-pot. Cook on high for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until batter no longer looks shiny on top. Don’t overcook. The batter rises to the top like cake, and underneath is a rich chocolate pudding.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Related posts:

How to Make Cajun Cracklins

I needed the best Cajun cracklins  recipe I could find for my cookbook, Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites, so I called a local meat market that I know has awesome cracklins — Earl’s on Verot School Road here in Lafayette, La. I made an appointment with Jacque the butcher to go when he would be cooking them. I went to watch how he did it and took pictures of the process.

What are Cracklins?

Cracklins are a Cajun Country specialty meat product. They are known in some parts as pork skins or pork rinds. In the Cajun country of south Louisiana they are also called gratons. Technically, Cajun cracklins are a delicacy made from pork bellies. Cracklins are composed of three layers: there is the skin, a layer of fat, and meat. They are fried in hot oil, seasoned and eaten as a crunchy snack.

How are Cracklins made?

The pork bellies are ordered from the local wholesale meat company, which the butcher cuts into one-inch squares and boils them in hog lard. They are cooked in an outdoor kitchen in a large pot over a propane burner. The large pot has to be stirred so the cracklins don’t stick to the pot. Once they are cooked for the specified time and at the correct temperature, they are taken out and put into a box and cooled overnight in the cooler. The following day, put them back in very hot oil for a specified time so they will “pop.” Then they become crispy and “crack” in your mouth when eating them. Here is a closeup photo of cracklins on a saucer that I took when I got back home. They were so tasty and crunchy.

Here is a Cracklin (Graton) Recipe for home use

CRACKLINS (GRATONS)

Editor’s note: I watched the butcher make a batch of cracklins to be sold in their market. He cooked 60 pounds of pork bellies in a huge pot, stirring it with a long metal paddle. It made 20 pounds of cracklins when done. You can follow the same process at home with a smaller amount of meat. You will need a meat thermometer and propane burner setup. This must be cooked outside.

• Hog lard
• Pork bellies cut into 2 or 3-inch chunks
• Seasoning

1. Add lard to a large pot. Get temperature to 180 to 220 degrees, then add meat.
2. Keep at a rolling boil. The meat will be floating for a long time. The fat on the meat will slowly melt away and the meat will sink. Stir often so it does not stick to the pot.
3. After a long while the meat will begin to float and the skin will start blistering or “blooming.” Once the oil gets to 310 degrees take them out of the pot and put them in an ice chest or cooler to let them cool to room temperature. (The butcher puts them in a 35 degree cooler overnight, and “pops” them the next day, since he makes a batch six days a week.)
4. Heat the grease back up to 380 degrees and put the cracklins back in for seven minutes. This will cause the cracklins to “pop”. Then take out and season immediately.

Cliff & Amy Amox
Arnaudville, La.
From “Down-Home Cajun Cooking Favorites” published by Cypress Cove Publishing

• Bayou City Bites On the Road Boudin and Cracklins in LouisianaRule 2 is why a road trip through Louisiana is complete fail without a stop for boudin and cracklins. If you’re just passing through basically every town between Lake Charles and Baton Rouge has some sort of meat market.

• Fun Travel and Food Billy’s Boudin Cracklins Scott LaI could almost write a page on the fresh cracklins alone. The seasoned ones are worth taking the extra cholesterol pill for I love the way they keep a little bit of meat on the ends. It is almost like eating a little bitty fried pork roast.

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