Hog Wild

Tracing the plump history of pig roasting

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In 1960, the small Creole town of Mansura celebrated its centennial as we often do in Louisiana: with a pig roast. That same year, an act of legislature deemed Mansura “Cochon de Lait Capital of the World.” Folks had such a good time, and so enjoyed the cochon at that centennial celebration, that Mansura made the Cochon de Lait Festival an annual event that would grow in size every year thereafter—in attendance as well as number of roasted pigs. By 1972, an estimated ten thousand people flocked to Mansura for the festival’s four days. (The 1970 census marked Mansura’s total population at just 1,699.)

“You had the free spirit people, the hippies, [and] motorcycle gangs. Civil rights boundaries were being really tested, the Vietnam War was winding down …” said Cochon de Lait Festival Director Nicky Bordelon. “So you had a number of social issues that were taking place at that time in 1972. But when you bring all those cultures together in our little, quaint French-speaking town, it’s not without some recourse.”

According to Bordelon, who had just graduated from high school in 1971 and parked trailers and directed traffic for the festival at the time, the 1972 festival was so wild, people were dancing on top of buildings. “People would wake up Saturday morning, or Sunday morning, and people were sleeping on their front porch, in their front yards. The Catholic church was never locked—go to Mass, there’s beaucoup people passed out in the pews,” said Bordelon. This degree of rowdiness was more than the residents of Mansura had bargained for. That year, they passed a petition to end the Cochon de Lait Festival as it were. 

Fourteen years later, in 1986, the Mansura Chamber of Commerce was formed. Nicky Bordelon was a member, and when the question of fundraising arose, he said, “There’s only one fundraiser I can think of that we can do.” The Cochon de Lait Festival was poised for a comeback, but not before it was “reinvented, in a sense.” This time, the festival was concentrated to the area around City Hall, with a focus on family. “And the times were different. It’s been doin’ real well since,” said Bordelon. 

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Though some aspects changed, the organizers of the festival continue to prize its popular traditions. The contests offered at this year’s festival will be the same contests offered at its inception in 1961: a hog-calling contest, a boudin-eating contest, men’s and ladies’ beer-drinking contests, a cracklin cook off, and a “greasy pig contest,” wherein participants as young as preschool-age attempt to catch and sack a pig that has been dipped in grease before the other contestants in their age group. If the contender can do this successfully, their prize is taking the pig home. 

“Those have been, for forty-two years, extremely popular and fun, so we haven’t messed with our attractions,” said Bordelon. “And music. Y’know, it all centers around music as well.” This year’s Saturday evening itinerary moves from Mass, to street dancing, to performances by the Charlie Rivers Band and headliner Lil Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers. And, of course, there is the festival’s titular attraction: the cochon de lait. Bordelon claimed the pigs they roast are between 150 and 200 pounds, and that there have been as many as thirty-eight swine hanging to roast at one time. 

“I always invite people to come out and experience our culture, which I think is unique,” said Bordelon. “The way we celebrate the joy of living, the joie de vivre…we’re in the rat race of life every day, but let me tell you, we do it a little bit different.”

Though Mansura claims the honor of cochon de lait capital, people have roasted pigs for as long as the animals have been domesticated, and even a bit prior. “I think people have been roasting pigs since people and pigs have found themselves in the same place,” said Mark Essig, author of Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig and self-professed “pig guy.” Pigs were first domesticated in two cultures, said Essig: in China and in what is now Turkey. 

“That probably got started about ten thousand years ago, when people settled down into villages and would leave trash around—butcher scraps, spoils, that sort of thing—and the Eurasian wild boar would come into town to scavenge,” said Essig. “People quickly adopted them because they were so useful. You could feed them on garbage, they reproduce quickly, they produced a lot of meat and a lot of fat; and that was a very rare and valuable commodity.”

While people have likely been roasting pigs since they first encountered one another, Essig said the Romans are our earliest point of reference for the practice, since they were the first to leave behind evidence in the form of recipes. In the earliest collection of recipes attributed to Roman foodie Apicius, Essig cites a couple of lamb renditions and dozens for pork—seventeen for suckling pig alone. 

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In centuries since, countless cultures have joined in the practice. Chef Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who opened the restaurant SoBou in the French Quarter five years ago, has vivid memories of his family having pig roasts in Puerto Rico, where he grew up. “There’s a lot of Spanish and French influence in New Orleans and in Puerto Rico as well. So our food and our ingredients are very similar,” said Gonzalez. “And pig roasts, cochon de lait and all that, the same way we do it here was the same way I used to do it back home with my uncles and dad.” 

While Gonzalez laments that he is unable to roast whole pigs in his restaurant because of lack of space, cochon de lait is a major feature of his menu, and by smoking pork butts at 210 degrees for twenty-four hours he is able to expertly replicate the flavor of a whole roasted hog.

“That thing comes out a day later, and it’s nice, charred, smoky on the outside, but the inside is falling apart like pork debris … and it’s just unbelievable. With that we make all kinds of different things,” said Gonzalez. Among the menu items into which he incorporates cochon de lait are a Creole twist on the Cuban sandwich, Surf & Turf steam buns with fried oysters, and even Apple Pie Pancakes that combine the smoky, savory flavors of the pork with the sweet notes of caramelized apples and caramel sauce. 

“When it comes to just cooking pigs, man, there’re so many parts of that animal that you can get creative with,” said Gonzalez. “Whether it’s street food or fine dining or whatever it is, I think pork is so friendly to cooking and different techniques. And it just tastes great.” 

Whether you prefer your cochon de lait in a restaurant setting, at a festival, or in a backyard, pork enthusiasts from a wide variety of cultures and culinary backgrounds have agreed for centuries that nothing beats slow-roasted swine when it comes to bringing people together. “Going back in time, I think pigs were one of those animals that people just celebrated,” said Gonzalez. “And clearly it hasn’t stopped.” 

The Cochon de Lait Festival will be held in Mansura, LA, from May 11—14. cochondelaitfestival.com.

To try Chef Juan Carlos Gonzalez’s take on the delicious tradition, visit SoBou in New Orleans. sobounola.com.