At dawn 175 masked men on horseback appear down the county road.

An electrified Cajun band riding on a trailer pulled behind a Dodge truck brings up the rear of the team.

They’re sawing out an old DL Menard song as a few people begin dancing in the dirt parking lot where we’re all standing.

Welcome to Evangeline Parish.

Big Mamou, Louisiana is home to T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse, one of the finest charcuterie parlors in all of Acadiana.

T-Boy Berzas and his wife Laurie opened their business 22 years ago in 1995. Young T-Boy was already a seasoned hand on the meat saw, and grinder/extruder so when he saw an opportunity to become his own boss he seized it.

A typical day of business at T-Boy’s sees 900 pounds of meat packaged up and sold across the counter before it’s trundled out to the patron’s pick-up truck or station wagon. On a busy day Berzas sells 1500 pounds of boudin, pork sausage, cracklins and tasso ham.

On a recent visit T-Boy met me in the parking lot and shepherded me out back to the slaughterhouse where a few hogs were warily circling about in their pens while a brace of young lambs craned their necks inquisitively.

They were not long for this world.

Berzas cracks open a vast smoking chamber where 400lbs of sausage is slowly cooking over pecan wood. It’s all in a day’s work when you’re a rural Louisiana meat man.

Last Fall I picked up a whole, freshly-killed 50lb shoat but I’m traveling light on this run and don’t have enough cooler space for a young hog.

On request one of T-Boy’s workers will grab a steaming link of boudin out of a countertop crockpot and snip it into bits for you before carefully wrapping it and passing it across the counter.

Buy an ice cold Miller Lite from the cooler and take your meal just outside the door in the parking lot. Berzas’ rich, hot boudin, taken out of doors, is one of Louisiana’s great eating experiences.

T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse

2228 Pine Point Rd

Ville Platte, LA

70586

(337) 468-3333

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