CMAST Seafood Lab Develops Boudin Sausage Recipe for Area Processing Company

The NC State Seafood Lab at the Center of Marine Sciences and Technology has been working on a project titled, “Adding Value to Smoked Salmon Byproducts,” obtained from a local seafood processor.  In this project, the Seafood Lab has been creating a recipe for Boudin sausage, using smoked salmon by products from ACME Smoked Fish Company.

NC State Semester at CMAST student, Bruno Pittella, who has been involved in the project, says, “ACME, is the largest smoked salmon processing facility in North America. Their main product is cold smoked salmon, using Atlantic Salmon and Sockeye.  They have been providing the Lab with about 60 tons of smoked salmon by-products a week for the Lab to use while developing its Boudin sausage recipe.” 

The Seafood Lab team recently visited Acme’s state-of-the-art processing facility in Wilmington to present the recipe and conduct a taste test.  Pittella says company representatives were “pleasingly surprised by the taste and the quality of the sausage, and are planning to fine-tune the recipe on their own.”  Pittella says in the next phase of the project, he, Dr. Alex Chouljenko, director of the Seafood Lab, and Greg Bolton, research assistant, will test and  analyze various cooking methods to determine which one yields the best Boudin sausage.

When asked what he has learned through his Semester at CMAST experience, Pittella says, “Through my specific project with the Seafood Lab, I have learned that across many industries there are largely discarded products can be useful and eliminate waste.  I’m glad to have been a part of that.  In addition, the Semester at CMAST program itself is a great way for students to get introduced to research and pursue connections to their future careers.”