Sonny D'Angelo, of D'Angelo Bros. on South Ninth Street, in the Italian Market, has been making sausage since he was 13, but back in those days it wasn't Cajun-style.
"Making sausage was one of the first things my father made me do," D'Angelo says. "He did all the seasoning and grinding, I just cranked it out. Back then we did the standard Italian, mild and hot."
These days, D'Angelo, 44, makes about 40 types of sausage, including the Cajun-Creole varieties that have become mainstream. And those he makes just a bit differently from the way they are made in Louisiana.
"You don't make andouille for Northerners like you would for Southerners," says D'Angelo. "I use pepper and less fat. Actually, I go according to the clientele; it's that simple.
"The only (Cajun-style) I don't stock with any kind of regularity is boudin, because I make a classic French boudin, and with two different sausages in the case with the same name it would get confusing."
It might be outside influences, but even in Louisiana it seems the sausages are a bit leaner these days, some with only 10 percent fat; many with a fat content of 15 percent to 25 percent. And many are made partly of chicken or turkey in addition to pork and beef.
Louisiana chefs share credit with Cajun-Creole cooking shows on television for making these sausages so popular.
Vaughn Schmitt, a member of the family that owns Creole Country, a Louisiana sausage factory, says that andouille and tasso, a smoked seasoned meat, are becoming popular in pastas and other dishes in restaurants everywhere.
Schmitt cites health concerns as a factor in his business. "I'm selling more turkey than I used to," he says. "People come in here with heart problems, and they can order 10 pounds of turkey sausage with no salt."
