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ORAL HISTORY
John Saucier
Saucier's Sausage Kitchen
Born in 1941, John Saucier grew up on a farm in Plaisance, Louisiana. He learned the Cajun boucherie tradition of slaughtering hogs, how to preserve meat, and how to tend a garden. He carried these lessons into his adult life. Even while working as a custodian, supporting a family of his own in Mamou, Louisiana, he raised his own food. When John retired, he decided to keep busy by selling the things he’d always made for his family: smoked sausage, tasso, cracklins, and boudin. John is of the old school: he doesn’t believe that boudin is boudin unless it’s made the traditional way, using more than just liver and rice. To make it properly, he says, “You’ve got to put the right things in it.” And he stuffs all of those things—hog jaw, belly, heart, kidney, liver—into the casings at Saucier’s Sausage Kitchen. Locals look to John for old-style Cajun specialties. For him, the tradition is as important as the taste.
