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ORAL HISTORY
Richard Elliott
Sunset Specialty Meats
After nearly two decades in the chain grocery business, Richard Elliott bought a small specialty meat market and food store, becoming the only small-scale, personalized grocer in a town that used to have several such businesses. In a single trip to Sunset Specialty Meats, you can eat a hot link of boudin and a bag of warm cracklings, both prepared that day. You can find a brown-paper sack of bananas, over-ripened and perfect for banana pudding. You can drop off a freshly killed deer to be hung, cut into dinner-ready pieces, and wrapped, then pick up a pound of housemade andouille for your next pot of red beans. You may also scan the meat case for regional specialties such as the heart, kidneys, liver, and marrow guts packaged together for cowboy stew. Elliott tweaked Sunset’s boudin recipe after purchasing the store, and the result is a full-bodied sausage made with ground pork from two different cuts, as well as dried cayenne peppers, medium-grain rice, and a touch of pork liver.
Sunset Specialty Meats is now permanently closed.