Now Proudly Serving Chairman’s Reserve 100% USDA Angus Choice Beef
“Chefs and cooks across the Gulf Coast rely on us for the best quality at the best price. Chairman’s Reserve® products live up to our exceptional standards. I know you’ll be impressed.” – Donny Rouse, CEO, 3rd Generation
Chairman’s Reserve USDA Angus Choice Beef is sourced from independent farmers and ranchers. Selected by strict standards to ensure you’re getting the very best. Beautifully marbled. Juicy. Delicious. It’s like bringing the steakhouse home.
A COMMITMENT TO QUALITY SINCE 1960
Each Rouses Market features a full-service butcher shop with master butchers who still cut meats to order, and are available to answer your questions about cuts, grades and cooking. Beef and pork are cut by hand, and dozens of fresh sausage and Cajun specialties are crafted in store using Rouse Family Recipes that go back generations. We also offer handmade entrées, like whole stuffed chickens and beef pinwheels, and grill-ready burgers and kabobs. Along with high quality, fresh and frozen Sanderson Farms poultry, and our own no-antibiotic, no-hormone, vegetarian fed Rouses Market brand is tender, great-tasting chicken.
ASK A ROUSES BUTCHER
What Is Dry Aging?
Most of our stores have humidity- and temperature-controlled dry-aged beef lockers, where we age Chairman’s Reserve USDA Angus Choice beef for at least 25 days. The dry-aging process draws moisture out of the meat, giving it a richer, beefier flavor. (This is also the reason why dry-aged steaks cook faster than fresh.) Because enzymes break down most of the collagen during the aging process, a dry aged steak isn’t as chewy as fresh. It’s so tender, in fact, that you may not even need a knife.
Why Is Marbling So Important to Red Meat?
Marbling, or fat, doesn’t just add flavor; as it melts during cooking, it also makes your steak richer, juicier and more tender. A well-marbled steak is going to be your best eating experience. You can be sure that all Chairman’s Reserve beef will have beautiful, ample marbling.
Why Do You Hand-Cut Your Steaks?
Our butchers hand-cut and hand-trim our steaks to guarantee the quality. With hand-cut, you get just the right thickness and just right the amount of exterior fat, which adds extra juiciness and flavor.
So, What Is the Best Thickness for Steak?
It depends on the cut, but thick is almost always better than thin. With a filet, you want at least 1½ inches, if not a full 2 inches. For a ribeye or strip, I’ll cut it somewhere between 1 inch and 1½ inches so it stands up to the heat, and you can be very precise when it comes to doneness. A thinner steak — less than 1 inch — is easy to overcook. There are some cuts, like flank and skirt, that are naturally thinner. The trick is keep the cooking time to a minimum so the heat doesn’t have the time to penetrate much further than the surface.
OUR CAJUN RECIPES GO BACK THREE GENERATIONS
You don’t need to hold a boucherie to enjoy sausage, boudin and other Cajun meats. That’s what Rouses Markets are for!
Andouille
An import that originated in France, Andouille — pronounced ahn-doo-wee — is a dense, highly seasoned, heavily smoked sausage combining pork chunks or pieces — or coarsely ground pork (usually from the shoulder), garlic, onion and pepper. Despite its French ancestry and name, andouille actually owes its spicy flavor and peppery heat to the sausage traditions of another South Louisiana immigrant group — the Germans, who brought their boucherie and distinctive sausage-making traditions with them.
Boudin
Rice, pork, spices and usually liver stuffed into a natural pork sausage casing. Rouses boudin is made from a family recipe that goes back to the store’s founder, Anthony Rouse, which means its flavor has stood the test of time.
Fresh Sausage
Pure ground pork or poultry is mixed with seasonings such as red, black and white peppers; onions; and usually a bit of fresh green onion tops. Rouses butchers make several kinds, including a fresh Italian sausage spiced up with peppers and anise seed or fennel, and a fresh green onion sausage flavored with green onion tops and Cajun seasonings.
Salt Meat and Pickle Pork
Salt meat comes from the belly of the pig, while pickled pork comes from the front leg or picnic (lower part of the shoulder). But both meats are salt cured, meaning they’re preserved with a mixture of salt, sugar and nitrates, and both are a great flavoring for lima beans, white beans, red beans and mustard greens.
Smoked Sausage
Ground beef, pork or chicken are mixed with Rouses seasonings and green onions, then stuffed in a casing and smoked. Smoked sausage, with its distinctive smoky flavor and smell, is a must for several Cajun dishes — gumbo, jambalaya, and white or red beans and rice.
Tasso
Tasso is not a true ham, because it’s made from the front shoulder, rather than the rear leg, of a pig. Brined for preservation and smoked until flavors are highly concentrated, tasso is used to flavor jambalaya, as well as just about any slow-cooked stew or vegetable dish — think greens and beans.
Hogshead Cheese
Is hogshead cheese really cheese? No. It’s sausage-like, kind of gelatinous and similar to a classic countrified French terrine. Tender meat from a long-boiled pig’s head (hence the name) is ground and cooled into a jellied loaf and served cold. It is usually eaten on crackers or bread.
