CUDDIN EDDIE’S PEPPER RELISH
About Us:
Who we are –
We are Cindy & Eddie Darce of Centerville, Louisana...located about an hour east of Lafayette and an hour &
one-half west of New Orleans along US Hwy 90...deep in the heart of Cajun Country.
Our business is the people we meet and we wouldn’t have
it any other way.
Our goal
is to bring you products that you can enjoy on all types of food and be used in all or most recipes. We know you won’t
be disappointed.
How we got started
–
When I was a very young boy, oh say about 8 or 9 my father, Victor Darce, Jr. would grow jalapeño peppers
in his very small garden. He would take them and cut them up on his plate for his dinner each night. He would cut some for
me and over the years as I grew older I would grow my own jalapeño peppers and do the same thing my dad did.
Over those years I decided that if I would cut up a variety of peppers and
kept them in a jar then the work would be done for a while. So I decided to chop the peppers and jar them. As time went on
I knew I always liked the hot peppers (habanero) and I decided to experiment with the different types of peppers to get the
perfect blend of relish. Once I achieved this blend I would give the relish to family & friends as
gifts. My buddy, Jimmy Wilson, encouraged me to sell it. He ventured out calling the different Louisiana food manufacture’s
to see if they were interested in my product (we didn’t have a name for it back then, we just called it pepper relish).
None of the companies were interested in the relish and I just kept on making it and giving it away.
Well about 10 years later I finally listened to my buddy and decided to make the relish to sell.
How we got the name-
I have a cousin that
lives in Austin, Texas. His name is Phillip “Flip” Darce; I sent him the relish to try. He brought the relish with him to a
gathering of his college buddies and he said they just ate it all up. He told me that his college buddies asked him if he
had anymore of that relish and where did he get it from. Flip’s buddies told him to tell “Cuddin”
(cousin) Eddie to send more. Well the story goes and so does the name; and that is how we got the name for our products.
About Our Bar-B-Q Sauce:
Our Bar-B-Q Sauce
is made from my mother's recipe which we date back to the 1940's or earlier if it was passed down to her from her
mother (not sure).My mother was born and raised in Rayne, Louisiana in an area where there are a bunch of great Cajun
Style Bar-B-Q sauces. When I was a young boy growing up in South Louisiana I can remember that my mother was a great
Cajun/Creole cook. With six children in our house she always had great food cooked nightly and on Sunday's she would serve
fried chicken with all of the works...Boy was that great food!! One of her special items that she would cook all day
long was her Bar-B-Q Sauce, when we would return home from school on the day she would cook the sauce the house
would be filled with the most heavenly aroma...the onions, bell peppers and celery (the cajun trinity) cooked for several
hours along with the other seasonings... I would run to the bread box get a slice of bread and put some BBQ sauce on it and
munch it down!!
In 1977 on December 25th my mother passed away from heart disease at the tender age of 49,
I was 16 years old then. In 1986 I married my lovely wife Cindy and she heard of how great a cook my mom was
and she heard the stories of the Bar-B-Q sauce days and how we enjoyed those days so much. Thanksgiving Holiday in
1997 we went to visit my Uncle Roland & Aunt Jo (Cousin Flip's parents) in Pampa, Texas and the ladies were sitting
around talking of cooking and mom's recipes and my wife Cindy just so happen to ask about the Bar-B-Q sauce
and my Aunt Jo said that she had it and went to get it for my wife,sister's and sister in-laws. For Christmas that
same year Cindy made the sauce for the family as a surprise and she hit the recipe to the "T" and the family loved
it. We asked my siblings if we could use the recipe to add the product to our pepper relish line and they all gave their
blessing and here we are today bringing my Momma's recipe for Bar-B-Q Sauce to you!! Thanks go out to
my siblings...Johnny, Bobby, Margaret, Marie & Baby brother Victor who passed away on October 18, 2007, may
God keep you in his loving arms.
