Let's talk about your hogshead cheese

Boudain balls?

I didn’t even know that

boudain had balls.

A talkative fellow I encountered in the grocery store a little while ago asked me a very provocative question as he was hunting for some crawfish boudain.

“You ever have any hogshead cheese?” he asked.

I told him that I couldn’t say as I had. I have had all kinds of mystery meats both at home and abroad but for some reason, I had never given any thought at all to eating hogshead cheese. He told me how one of the Cajun markets in Port Ar-teur (as we used to call Port Arthur, Texas, due to its strong population of Cajun folks)had some magnificent hogshead cheese.

Actually, the area in which I live is considered by many authorities on Cajun life as part of the so-called “Cajun Country.” This is because many Acadian people left life in Southwest Louisiana for nearby Southeast Texas, where shipyards sprung up during World War II and were followed by the multitude of petrochemical plants in this area.

Back to hogshead cheese, or head cheese or whatever you want to call it, the opportunity just never arose in which I either ate or had the chance to eat hogshead cheese. I probably knew what it was before this fellow asked me about my experience with hogshead cheese this afternoon. I just naturally wince at eating any creature’s head. I don’t know why. I say that truthfully, because I’ve eaten mountain oysters, snails, monkey, raccoon, and Bambi, not to mention the more normally accepted animal fare of pig, cow, fish, shellfish, chicken, turkey and last but not least, that curious animal known as the Spam.

Luckily, the guy I was talking to in the store found his crawfish boudain and we thus ended our talk — which started from our autos in the parking lot to inside at the sausage-boudain section. I came back home hungry for information about hogshead cheese. I’m sorry if you are disappointed that I didn’t take the predictable route and said: “Hmmm, I think I’ll try some of that there hogshead cheese.” Here is what I found from Wikipedia:

“Head cheese is in fact not a cheese, but meat slices from the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow), served in aspic, with onion, black pepper, allspice, bayleaf, salt and or vinegar. It may also include meat from the feet, tongue and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat. It is sometimes also known as souse meat, particularly if pickled with vinegar.”

That sounds like and it looks somewhat like Spam, even though that doesn’t make it rise to the level for me to stop what I’m doing, throw the laptop on top of the bed and run back to the store to cop me a pound of head cheese. For one thing, aspic, which “is a dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatin made from a meat stock or consommé. It is also known as cabaret,” is not very appealing to me. Sorry.

So I can’t say if I will ever eat hogshead cheese. I really like boudain, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with hogshead cheese except hogshead cheese is also a favorite among some Cajuns. By the way, I noticed on the Web site for Zummo, which is a local sausage and boudain manufacturer and I guess would have to be my favorite boudain, that the local heart institute at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital, a block or two away from me, labels Zummo boudain as “heart-healthy food.” That’s always a plus.

I’m hungry so it’s time to sign off. Eat more boudain. As for the hogshead cheese … I am … not so sure.

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