You might have noticed pictures on Big Lou’s twitter feed over the last few weeks giving a look behind the scenes into some new items that have been in development. Now that all the sweat and testing has gone into perfecting them, we’re proudly launching our Big Lou’s turducken and 1lb pastrami sandwiches this week.

Turducken was the first new item that we started playing with after we opened the butcher shop and we’ve put a couple of months of experimentation into getting this beauty just right. It’s made with the best products we can get: fresh turkey from Fraser Valley, Polderside duck and our own housemade Polderside chicken sausage. The sausage gives it a twist on the classic turducken recipe but it gives us the chance to play with the seasoning and texture to make it the best turducken we’ve ever had.

It’s available now as a sandwich served on fresh ciabatta with cranberry orange preserve and our own herb butter. Turducken is also a great option for big occasion meals and we can make turduckens to order with 48 hours notice. Whether it’s for Easter, a Canucks’ playoff party or just a get together, stop by and let us know how many people you’re serving and how big a turducken you’ll need and we’ll get to work on yours.

The other new sandwich that we’re launching this week is our 1lb pastrami. We’ve been working on our housemade pastrami for a while as it’s a deli classic and it was important to get it perfect before we started selling it. Because of the limited space in our shop, we only have a small in-house smoker so we went to our good friends at Peckinpah and worked out a deal to have the pastramis smoked in their big BBQ smokers—what a difference! As a bonus, we’re now selling some of their products out of our butcher shop, so it’s a win all around for our customers.

We’re serving the pastrami on rye with our own housemade sauerkraut, pickles and hot mustard. The whole works weights 1lb, so bring an appetite for this instant Big Lou’s classic! We’re also selling the pastrami out of our display case if you want to use it at home.

Big Lou’s Butcher Shop is located at 269 Powell Street at the corner of Gore and is open 10-6, seven days a week. Find us online at www.biglousbutchershop.com <http://www.biglousbutchershop.com> .