About Bouillie

Bouillie is an intermittent account of the onoing search for good things to eat, in the kitchen and all over south Louisiana (with occasional forays beyond).  Bouillie (french, pr. boo-yee) refers in general to porridgey mush; specificially, in cajun french, to soft, delicious things like egg custard or hogshead cheese before it gels to a firm texture.

Contact the author at cnuzee@gmail.com.  Copyright © 2008-2013, PHOTOS and TEXT with exceptions noted, Celeste Uzee.  All rights reserved.  Republication of copyrighted materials prohibited without express written consent.

36 thoughts on “About Bouillie”

  1. Hi there HC – I’ve read your reviews on Chowhound, and just clicked this blog. Very interesting. I was wondering if you had a cookbook or something like that out? Any kind of recipe depot? In short, you make me hungry. Thanks!

  3. I am looking for the recipe for what we call Boo yee it was made by my mother-in-law and we have misplaced the recipe.
    I can recall milk, cornstarch eggs vanilla and sugar. It was cooked on the stovetop in a boiler until thick. we would dip it into a bowl and eat with a spoon or dip homemade bread. Help!!

    • I know, I title my blog “bouillie” and then neglect to post a single bouillie recipe. I’ll remedy that in the coming days….

    • Hi,

      I’m looking for recipe for a different sort of Bouillie. It sometimes called Gumbo bouilli or Debris stew. I know that it is an organ meat stew (heart, liver, spleen) but I can’t find much information beyond that. Any ideas?

      • Hmm, you need to talk to people who still do traditional butchering. I’m sure someone still makes the dish. Try contacting the town of St. Martinville’s tourist information office. St. Martinville hosts the “Grand Boucherie des Cajuns” each year around Mardi Gras. You might be able to find some specialists who still recall all of the traditional dishes made at a hog-killing. City of St. Martinville, (337) 394-2230 – CITY HALL; (337) 394-2233 – TOURIST INFO. CENTER
        Office hours 8:00am – 4:30pm
        Tourist Center Open daily 10:00am – 4:30pm
        info@stmartinville.org
        Good luck!

      • KEVIN
        MY GRANDFATHER SPOKE SO FONDLY OF THIS SORT OF STEW CALLED BOUILLIE. I NOW OWN A CATERING COMPANY NAMED BOUILLIE BUT HAVE NO IDEA AS TO WHAT THIS INTERPTRETATION OF BOUILLIE IS. PLEASE SEND ANYTHING YOU KNOW REGARDING IT AS IT WOULD BR GREATLY APPRECITATED.
        THANKS,
        JOSH
        970 708 2451
        JOSH_KLEIN@ROCKETMAIL.COM

      • Making a mock bouee as I type! It indeed to make a real bouee, it requires beef heart, beef kidneys, and other debris meats. It is 4cups water, 1 can tomato sauce (Medium), onion tails, onions, parsley, garlic (all to your liking!). Always put in 2 tablespoons of brown sugar into the bouee to cut the acid taste of the tomato sauce. Season to taste as it boils for minimum 2 hrs. on low-medium heat. It;s a very forgiving soup that you can tinker with (this is a poor mans supper dish, therefore use what you got!). Serve with rice that is drowned with bouee. French bread toasted is nice dipped while feasting. My mock bouee is simple cut up country ribs(pork), all I got, but smelling like true bouee……boy I wish i had some heart and kidneys, and tripe for this! God Bless!

        • Precisely what part of LA are you from, or the person who taught you to make the dish? I’m curious bc it is not common in SE LA.

          • Hi, I am from Eunice , La. Bouee (bo-ee) is a tomato based soup made with debris meats, eaten with rice. Very common in my area. Debris was used by the poor people, slaughterhouses didn’t fool with these meats and they were discarded, or given away by the crate full to anybody who wanted them. Bouille (bo-au-lait) is a boiled milk (custard type) breakfast , usually french bread broken into pieces or dipped into it. Both of these passed on generation to generation, I am 72, and my grand parents passed these to our family, so the recipe is quite old; by the way my grand parents spoke French, no school, no english. Feel free to contact me if any other questions.

  6. You need a help section! I need help, if you have a way under sugared pumpkin banana pie what are your thoughts on cubing that up and making bread pudding out of it?

    Claire from across the street, by way of Virginia!

  8. Hi HC,
    Been a fan of your tastebuds for years. I hope you can help me. My favorite lentil soup was made at the Little Greek restaurant first on Met Road and then on Pink Street. It was slightly different from most lentil soups and I wondered if you ever had it or could think of someone that could help me with the secret ingredient they used in it. If I had a quarter for every batch of lentil soup I have tried to imitate, I could eat out in New Orleans every night for a month or two. thanks, koogle

    • Sorry, I never had the lentil soup at the Little Greek. Have you tried writing to Judy Walker at the Times-Picayune? Her Exchange Alley column has a wide audience–maybe somebody out there knows the secret. My only random suggestion: try toasting whole cumin in a little oil…toasted cumin has a wonderful, nutty flavor–completely different from non-toasted, ground cumin.

  9. I love food! I don’t understand cooking food though. When I actually get the guts to try, it takes FOREVER and is usually not very good. I love how intimate you are with food and the passion you have for it. What is the best thing to do to try to begin to understand how to do it?

  10. just discovered your site while looking for a BGE naan recipe. This is awesome, you have a ton of great recipes here. I am looking forward to trying everything on your big green egg page. Thanks!

    • Glad you’re finding the BGE stuff useful…it’s rather a specialty niche, but I can’t resist showing the Egg’s capabilities.

  13. Your gumbo sounds like it’s going to be a good one. I made a Turkey Andouille Gumbo with tasso in it this past Saturday and my meats were from Bailey’s in Laplace. The turkey was leftovers from a turkey I did on my grill last Wednesday and a stock made from that same turkey carcass. It came out really good.

    Fourty quarts is a nice big one but, so is the 100 qts. I did two weeks ago for a Red Cross fundraiser in north Alabama. That went well with the 30 gals. of Chicken Andoulle Jambalaya also.

    I hope to make it out there to try your gumbo but, if I don’t, I wish you good luck and thank you for what you and your friends are doing for such a worthy cause.

  15. We know this as a recipe for cracker pudding. My mom is from Gheens, Louisiana (a very small town) and she learned to make this when she was very young. Her family was very poor and made up food dishes with what was in the house. It’s very good.

  16. Thanks for confirming my ideas about cooking my fresh(never frozen) shelled Purple Hull Peas that I bought at the Shreveport Farmers Market this morning. fortunatley I had on hand some Tasso from Bourque’s in Port Barre- Hubby went down to BR about 3 weeks ago and brought back two lovely vaccumed sealed packs. The Country Style Pork Ribs have just come off the grill, the peas are ready- and he has made his own BBQ sauce!

  17. Enter Julia Child – her book “The Way To Cook” uses a bouillie as a souffle base rather than pastry cream. How did she hit on that?

    • I looked up the recipe, and Julia’s bouillie is an egg custard made with no cornstarch. I can see how it would make a nice soufflé base….I think the Cajun version with cornstarch is too thick and sets too solidly to incorporate into an egg foam for a soufflé. I made a butterscotch bouillie just a few days ago…substitute dark brown sugar for the white sugar and brown the butter a bit for a lovely caramel/butterscotch flavor.

  18. Looking for someone that knows what a casbanon is. that is probably not how it is spelled. It is a fruit that people used to put under the bed to ripe because of the darkness. They knew it was ripe when it started to smell. So says it has the sweetest smell. Just want to know how to cook it

    • You’ve got the name right…it’s a cassabanana, also known by a variety of other names such as melocoton or musk cucumber. Here’s a link to some info on the plant: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/cassabanana.html
      I have no recipes to offer, but some eat it raw when ripe. Try doing a web search using one of the alternative names and see what pops up. It is widely consumed in Puerto Rico and Central America….

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