What Scott eats
Scott sits on the prairie just off Interstate 10, on the west side of Lafayette. It grew up around a railroad depot built in 1880 and named for J.B. Scott, the construction superintendent. Because it was the first stop for westbound trains, which then paid western rates, it took the slogan Where the West Begins. These days most people stop for one reason, and it comes in a casing.
In 2012 the Louisiana Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 41, naming Scott the Boudin Capital of the World. The resolution put numbers behind the title: five Scott businesses were making more than 1.3 million pounds of boudin a year, about $5 million in sales, with around 83 people on the payroll. The first Scott Boudin Festival followed in 2013.
Boudin here is everyday food, not a special occasion. It comes out of meat markets, grocery stores and gas station warming trays, sold by the pound and eaten on the spot, often with a handful of cracklins on the side. It started at the boucherie, the communal hog butchering, where the scraps went into red and white boudin and the skins became cracklins. Today you will also find it smoked, rolled into balls, baked into kolaches and, during Lent, made with crawfish or other seafood.
Several stops on Lafayette Travel's Cajun Boudin Trail are in Scott, including Don's Specialty Meats, The Best Stop, Billy's Boudin and NuNu's. Each one makes it differently: more liver or less, more rice or more pork, more pepper or more green onion. Trying three in an afternoon is the best way to find your favorite.
