img 0123 150x150 In search of the mythical ponce deep in the heart of AcadianaHowever you choose to spell it, ponce (also spelled pounce/paunce and called chaudin)  is one of those items that you don’t hear much about unless you have a few too many beers with someone from Ville Platte or Eunice.  The Cajun version of haggis, ponce is essentially ground pork and usually a binder, stuffed back into the stomach of the animal that you got your meat from.  That’s right, sausage stuffed pig stomach.  For the faint of heart, this is your warning… if you don’t like to see loosely grounds bits of meat and fat recongealed in a natural intestinal casing, stop here.  For the rest of you, read on!

Ponce is not a dish you’ll find at any restaurant.  Usually relegated to the kitchen and cooked for a family, the cooked versions of ponce are usually only served as a meal to people that go to Elks dinners, VFW halls, or special order it like others do a BBQ plate lunch from their local church.  Made much like a loosely ground andouille in the Eunice area, they put everything into the stomach and then hard smoke it.  A friend and I went on the hunt for these gems on a recent weekend excursion, and being the local that he is, he led me straight to the stomach of the beast.

Mel’s Quick Stop in Eunice is famous for all things entrail-like.  Stomach, tongues, trotters and ears await the curious and adventurous.  My buddy said their smoked ponce was the best and I was in no position to argue.  I tried to find the smallest ponce they had, being that I knew the wife was not going to partake in this culinary adventure.  It is kind of hard to find a small pig stomach though if you know what I mean.  I brought home something akin to a brown balloon complete with the little umbilical cord like tie off at the end.

I was told to brown it well, put in a liquid and just let it simmer in the pot for a couple hours, so that’s what I img 0124 150x150 In search of the mythical ponce deep in the heart of Acadianadid.  A few hours later, it appeared done and I was hungry so I took it out to rest a while so as to not let all of the juices loose.  Twenty minutes later, I couldn’t wait anymore so I sliced in and…it was like taking a bit out of your first Manda Sausage poboy at an LSU game, you know, where you bite in and a stream of oil comes flying out and lands on the guy next to you.  Rivers of grease poured from this things, so I was constantly trying to sop it up as it ran down the cutting board.  When it stopped hemorrhaging, I cut a nice slice for myself.

Now I’m told the traditional way is to serve slices over rice and gravy much in the same way you would serve a meatloaf, but I was hungry.  Grabbing my trusty Evangeline Maid thin sandwich bread, I put a dab of Tabasco mayo on one side and plopped my slice of ponce right on there.  Biting into it, the ponce gave way easily and was actually quite tasty, very similar to a mild andouille in flavor.  A couple more bites, img 0125 150x150 In search of the mythical ponce deep in the heart of Acadianathis stuff was pretty good!  Really, I had visions of this becoming a guilty secret of mine for a few blissful moments.  Then I looked back down and saw the puddle of grease that had formed underneath the ponce on the cutting board.  It reminded me of back in the day when I worked at Chili’s and some guy asked us to put his soon to be fiancee’s ring underneath their Awesome Blossom.  I can assure you, that ring easily slid on her finger after coming out of approximately a half inch of fat that accumulated on the plate.  There is a reason Chili’s took that item off the menu and I dare say “the puddle” is the primary one.

Had I not had that flashback, I could probably report to you that I do indeed love ponce and eat it quite frequently.  It really had a great taste.  However, I think this will be one of those one and done dishes that I will never revisit unless it is to take a small bite for comparison purposes.    You know me…pork fat rules!  Maybe too much of a good thing actually can be a bad thing though, and that my friends, makes me sad.

Contact info:
Mel’s Quick Stop
1894 Veteran’s Memorial Hwy.
Eunica, LA
(337) 457-1958

Update!!!  I’ve found a way for you to get your very own!  If you would like to try one for yourself and have it shipped to you, Poches Market in Breaux Bridge sells the green (unsmoked) variety which they call a “chaudin” and will ship it to you.  Check it out!