Andouille Sausage

[back2ajs]

I'll be in New Orleans near the end of January. I'm coming from Iowa - and since good Andouille sausage is a rarity in the midwest, I'd like to stock up on sausage to bring back so I can make jambalaya and gumbo for the rest of our long cold winter.

I typically get my andouille from a gourmet grocer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Generally, recipes call for smoked Andouille. I personally prefer unsmoked Andouille - as I find the sausage retains a more intense heat/spice.

So what are the thoughts on Andouille sausage? Is unsmoked sausage a sacrilege? Who has the best sausage and where do you recommend buying sausage? Maybe your recommendations aren't in New Orleans - any lockers or butchers who will sell sausage by mail order/internet?

[edible complex]

http://www.acadianfoods.com/

Schexnayder's is a great source, and be sure to get some Hurricane Sauce.

[koogle]

By far the best, they sell it by the pound. There are two different Jacob's in Laplace. Wayne Jacob's is by far the best. Yes, it is smoked. I'd suggest you find out the best yourself. Jacob's, Bailey's and Wayne Jacobs are near each other. Try all 3 and chose to your liking. You might have to go 3 minutes further to Wayne Jacob's but worth it.

http://local.yahoo.com/info-18145960-...

[Hungry Celeste]

+1 on Wayne Jacobs....and they don't ship, so the only way you'll get it is driving to Laplace. And there's no "unsmoked andouille" in Louisiana, BTW. It's a coarse-ground, fairly heavily smoked pork sausage, traditionally stuffed into large intestines, so it has a larger diameter than the usual fresh or smoked sausages.

[Uncle Bob]

X 3.....Had some WJ Andouille in the black-eyed peas yesterday....Some for breakfast this morning too.

[uptownlibrarian]

I can't remember ever seeing unsmoked andouille at Jacob's or Bailey's. Does it exist? I don't know if OP is going to be able to locate an unsmoked andouille.

[CharlieH]

By definition Andouille is a smoked sausage. Unsmoked sausage does bad pretty quickly and needs to be frozen.

[hazelhurst]

The best andouille, by long odds, is from the Best Stop, just west of Lafayette, LA....it is thick and dense. Has the enormous advantage that it does not disintegrate when cooked in gumbo or jambalaya. They will ship it but the freight cost is staggering. better to rent a car and drive over there. Besides, it is more fun. If you like, we can post all kinds of other places to stops and sample sausage and boudin etc between NOAL and Lafayette

[Littleman]

Jacob's is my recommendation. It's a few miles W of NOLA near Laplace.

http://www.cajunsausage.com/DoYouAndo...

[collardman]

I prefer Bailey's. But one's address is 505 and the other's 513 so if you go to LaPlace you can sample both their products. Pick up some tasso too.