DUBACH, LA (AP) — Over the past few months, signs proclaiming "Fresh cracklins sold here" have been popping up across North Louisiana.
Adam and Chelsey Walker opened T-Red's Cajun Cuisine LLC, on Sept. 21 in Dubach. Since then, the wholesale cracklin provider has expanded sales to 53 stores that span the state from Lake Providence in the east to Frierson near the Texas border and as far south as Natchitoches.
Adam Walker said the bulk of the company's sales are west of Dubach, but stores in Monroe, West Monroe Bastrop and Farmerville also carry the pre-packaged cracklins, which come in brown paper and cellophane bags with the black, white and red T-Red's logo on the front.
For the uninitiated, a cracklin is similar to a pork rind — skin with meat and fat still attached that is fried until crunchy then spiced.
He said he and his wife love to cook, and the business came from shared loves of food and culture. Adam Walker is from Marksville, and he said his father and grandfather shared stories with him of old-time boucheries.
Boucherie is a Cajun tradition. Each family in a small community would purchase and raise a hog. One of the hogs would be slaughtered and the meat shared to sustain the community. The family expected to donate the hog would rotate to ensure equal contribution. The events were festival-like. Participants would cook cracklins and make boudin (a type of sausage) among other activities. Adam Walker has vintage family boucherie photos hanging behind the register.
The idea for the business came after a friend asked Adam Walker to boil crawfish commercially, which is seasonal. The Walkers settled on wholesale cracklins after spotting a market for fresh product. The only other business in the state making cracklins, based in Gonzalez, doesn't make them fresh daily. Adam Walker said it took "18 months and a lot of red tape to get us where we are."
Today, they process about 450 pounds of pork a week. He said his wife and father-in-law deliver the about 110 pound of cracklins to stores west of Dubach on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and about 60 pounds to stores toward the east on Tuesdays and Thursdays. T-Red's also sells cracklins by the pound at 4583 Louisiana 822, Dubach.
The cooking process takes two days. On the first, the meat is thawed, cut and pre-cooked at about 230 degrees then put in bins and stored on shelves overnight. Adam Walker said the product is shelf-stable and the business is inspected by the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The second day, the meat is dropped in 350-degree oil for about 10 minutes, which "pops" the skin and makes it fluffy and crunchy.
The business employs three people, and Adam Walker said his mother-in-law helps on heavy production days.
Ultimately, Adam Walker said the success of T-Red's will depend on how much work they're willing to do.
On Wednesday, the business started offering cooked and live crawfish for the season.
Walker said he hopes to add boudin as an offering and expand cracklin sales into chain gas stations and travel centers. To expand into other markets, he said they'd have to vacuum seal the product. All around them, he said, is potential to expand.
– by AP/ Reporter Bonnie Bolden with The News-Star
