Smoked tasso

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4 pounds Pork Butt
¼ cup Cayenne Pepper
½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
¼ cup Cracked Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Louisiana Gold Pepper Sauce*
¼ cup Salt
¼ cup Brown Sugar
½ cup Granulated Garlic

Directions

From : Michelle M. Bass Smoked Tasso (2-½ hours, 3 pounds) Cut pork butt into one half inch thick strips. Place on a baking pan and season with Worcestershire and Louisiana Gold sauces. Once liquids are well blended into meat, add all remaining ingredients. Mix well into meat to ensure that each piece is well coated with the seasoning mixture. Cover with clear wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Using a home style smoker, and using briquettes flavored with pecan wood and sugar cane strips if possible, smoke tasso at 175-200 degrees F. for 2-½ hours. Once cooked, tasso may be frozen or used to season gumbos, vegetables, or a great pot of white or red beans.

~-Michelle M. Bass

COMMENT: Tasso is yet another example of the Cajun and Creole desire for unique flavor in a recipe. Tasso is a dried smoked product that is seasoned with cayenne pepper, garlic and salt and heavily smoked. The word tasso is believed to have come from the Spanish word "tasajo" which is dried, cured beef.

Although this delicacy is often thinly sliced and eaten alone, it is primarily used as a pungent seasoning for vegetables, gumbos and soups.

Today in South Louisiana, tasso is becoming a popular seasoning for new and creative dishes. It has also gained wide acclaim as an hors d'oeuvre served with dipping sauces or fruit glazes.

At Lafitte's Landing Restaurant, we have incorporated tasso into our cream sauces and compound butters to create a new taste unheard of in classical cooking.

The recipe is from "The Evolution of Cajun & Creole Cuisine" by Chef John D. Folse, published by Wimmer Brothers, Inc. If anyone wants it you can enclose your return address and your check payable to "The evolution of Cajun & Creole Cuisine" in the amount of $19.95 per book plus $2½ postage and handling (La. residents add $1⅕ for state sales tax). This is a brand new book, having been published in January, 1990.

From : Bill Birner, Date: 03-22-94 05:50, Area: Home_cooking Here is John Folse's Tasso recipe. Most folks make tasso with the fresh ham but he does his with a pork butt. Again it is not my favorite for the same reason. We buy ours but everything Folse does is quality.

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