Editing Cajun cuisine (section)

===Meat and seafood===
Cajun [[foodways]] include many ways of preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration and [[Mass production|mass-produced]] meat at the grocer. Smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or [[duck confit]] (preserved in poultry fat, with spices) are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities.

Game (and hunting) are still uniformly popular in Acadiana.

The recent increase of [[catfish]] [[Aquaculture of catfish|farming]] in the [[Mississippi Delta]] has brought about an increase in its usage in Cajun cuisine in place of the more traditional wild-caught [[Cynoscion nebulosus|speckled trout]].

* ''[[Andouille]]''—a spicy smoked pork sausage, characterized by a coarse-ground texture and large-diameter casing.
* ''[[Boudin]]''—a cooked sausage made with green onions, pork, and rice, and usually a large amount of ground pork or chicken livers. Boudin may be thought of as "dirty rice in a casing." Some locals prefer to eat the sausage with the casing on, while others squeeze the contents out. Boudin filling is completely cooked before being stuffed into casings and may be consumed immediately after purchase, although it is also popularly grilled at cookouts. Pork blood is sometimes added to produce ''boudin rouge''. Other versions can contain seafood, such as crawfish.
* ''Chaurice'', a sausage similar to Spanish ''[[chorizo]]''
* ''[[Chaudin]]'' or ''ponce''—a pig's stomach, stuffed with spiced pork & smoked.
* [[Ham hock]]s
* Wild boar or feral hog
* [[Head cheese]]
* [[Cracklings|Gratons]]—hog cracklings or pork rinds; fried, seasoned pork fat & skin, sometimes with small bits of meat attached. Similar to Spanish ''[[Chicharrón|chicharrones]]''.
* [[New Orleans hot sausage]]—<nowiki/>a spiced pork or beef sausage characterized by a reddish color.
* Pork sausage (fresh)—distinctively seasoned and usually smoked, this sausage is often used in gumbos as is andouille, but it may also be grilled or pan-cooked to produce a rice and gravy dish. The sausage itself does not include rice, separating it from ''boudin''. In Cajun country, a distinction exists between this sausage, which is simply called "pork sausage," is finer ground, and uses smaller pork casings, and the similar andouille, which has a coarser grind and larger beef casings.
* [[Salt pork]]
* [[Tasso ham|Tasso]]—a highly seasoned, smoked pork shoulder

'''Beef and dairy'''<br>
Though parts of Acadiana are well suited to cattle or [[dairy farming]], beef is not often used in a pre-processed or uniquely Cajun form. It is usually prepared fairly simply as chops, stews, or steaks, taking a cue from Texas to the west. Ground beef is used as is traditional throughout the US, although seasoned differently.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Dairy farming is not as prevalent as in the past, but there are still some farms in the business. There are no unique dairy items prepared in Cajun cuisine. Traditional Cajun and New Orleans Creole-influenced desserts are common.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

[[File:Old Cajun Woman reaches for Garlic 1938.jpg|right|thumb|Cajun woman reaching for strings of garlic suspended from rafters. Near [[Crowley, Louisiana]], 1938.]]