cooking with charbonneau: boudin blanc

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   captain meriwether lewis of the lewis and clark expedition wrote at length about toussaint charbonneau's famous white pudding sausage:

 may 9th, 1805

from the [buffalo] cow i killed we saved the necessary materials for making what our wrighthand cook charbono calls the boudin blanc, and immediately set him about preparing them for supper; this white pudding we all esteem one if the greatest delacacies of the forrest.

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about 6 feet of the lower extremity of the large gut of the buffaloe is the first mosel that the cook makes love to, this he holds fast at one end with the right hand, while with the foreringer and thumb of the left he gently compresses it, and discarrges what he says is not good to eat, but of which in the squel we get a moderate portion; the mustle lying underneath the shoulder blade next to the back and fillets are next saught, these are needed up very fine with a good portion of kidney suit [suet]; to this composition is then added a just proportion of pepper and salt and a small quantity of flour; thus far advanced, our skillful opporater charbono siezes his recepticle, which has never once touched the water, for that would intirely destroy the regular order of the whole procedure; you will not forget that the side you now see is that covered with a good coat of fat provided the animal be in good order; the operator sceizes the recepticle i say, and tying it fast at one end turns it inward and begins now with repeated evolutions of the hand and arm, and a brisk motion of the finger and thumb to put in what he says is bon pour manger....all is compleatly filled with something good to eat, it is then tied at the other end....it is then baptised in the missouri with two dips and a flirt, and bobbed into the kettle; from whence after it be well boiled is taken and fryed with bears bears oil until it becomes brown, when it is ready to esswage the pangs of a keen appetite, or such as travelers in the wilderness are seldom at a loss for."

- meriwether lewis