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Cajun cuisine
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Everything about Cajun Cuisine totally explainedCajun cuisine originates from the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine — locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation is simple. An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, skillet cornbread, or some other grain dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available.
The aromatic vegetables bell pepper, onion, and celery are called by some chefs the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine. Finely diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mire poix in traditional French cuisine — which blends finely diced onion, celery, and carrot. Characteristic seasonings include parsley, bay leaf, "onion tops" or scallions, and dried cayenne pepper. The overall feel of the cuisine is more Mediterranean than North American.
Cajun cuisine developed out of necessity. The Acadian refugees, farmers rendered destitute by the British expulsion, had to learn to live off the land and adapted their French rustic cuisine to local (for example Louisiana) ingredients such as rice, crawfish, and sugar cane. Many households were large, consisting of eight to twelve people; thus, regardless what other vocations may have been followed by the head of household, most families also farmed. Feeding a large family, all of whose members did hard physical work every day, required a lot of food. Cajun cuisine grew out of supplementing rice with what meat, game or other proteins were available such as crawfish or any other type of river creature.
Cajun methods of preparation
- Barbecueing - similar to "slow and low" Texas barbecue traditions, but with Cajun seasoning.
- Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, in seasoned liquid.
- Deep frying
- Étouffée - cooking a vegetable or meat in its own juices, similar to braising or what in New Orleans is called "smothering".
- Frying, also known as pan-frying.
- Grilling - faster than barbecueing.
- Injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large cuts of meat.
- Smoking - for flavoring, cooking or preserving meats.
- Stewing, also known as fricassee.
Deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana cuisine more recently. Also, blackening of fish or chicken and barbecuing of shrimp in the shell are excluded because they were not prepared in traditional Cajun cuisine. See Misconceptions below.
Cajun ingredients
The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Cajun cuisine and some of the staple ingredients of the Acadian food culture.
Grains
Corn
Rice — long, medium, or short grain white; also popcorn rice » Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in early Acadiana. With an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the region, and grew feral in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, easy to grow, store, and prepare. The oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia.
Wheat (for baking bread)
Fruits and vegetables
Bell peppers
Blackberries
Cayenne peppers
Celery
Cucumbers
Figs
Limes
Lemons
Mirlitons (also called chayotes or vegetable pears)
Muscadines
Okra
Onions
Pecans
Satsuma Oranges
Scallions (also known as green onions or onion tops)
Strawberries
Sweet potatoes
Tomatoes
Meat and seafood
Cajun folkways include many ways of preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration and mass-produced meat at the grocer. Smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or duck confit (preserved in poultry fat, with spices) are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities.
Game (and hunting) are still uniformly popular in Acadiana.
The recent increase of catfish farming in the Mississippi Delta has brought about an increase in its usage in Cajun cuisine in the place of the more traditional wild-caught trout and redfish.
Seafood
Freshwater
Saltwater or brackish water species
Shellfish
- Crawfish- either wild swamp or farm-raised
- Shrimp
- Oysters
- Blue Crab
Also included in the seafood mix are some so-called "trash fish" that wouldn't sell at market because of their high bone to meat ratio or required complicated cooking methods. These were brought home by fishermen to feed the family. Examples are garfish, gaspergou, croaker, and bream.
Poultry
Farm Raised
- Turkey (and turkey confit)
- Turducken (deboned turkey stuffed with deboned duck stuffed with deboned chicken)
- Chicken (and Guinea Hen)
Game birds
Pork
Andouille - a spicy dry smoked sausage, characterized by a coarse-ground texture
Boudin - a fresh sausage made with green onions, pork, and rice. Pig's blood is sometimes added to produce "boudin rouge".
Chaurice, similar to the Spanish chorizo
Chaudin - a pig's stomach, stuffed with spiced pork & smoked. Also known as ponce.
Ham hocks
Head cheese
Gratons - hog cracklings or pork rinds; fried, seasoned pork fat & skin, sometimes with small bits of meat attached. Similar to the Spanish chicharrones.
Pork sausage (fresh) - not smoked or cured, but highly seasoned. Mostly used in gumbos. The sausage itself doesn't include rice, separating it from boudin.
Salt Pork
Tasso - a highly seasoned, smoked pork shoulder
Beef and dairy
Though parts of Acadiana are well suited to cattle or dairy farming, beef isn't often used in a pre-processed or uniquely Cajun form. It is usually prepared fairly simply as chops, stews, or steaks, taking a cue from Texas to the west. Ground beef is used as is traditional throughout the southern US, although seasoned differently.
Dairy farming isn't as prevalent as in the past, but there are still some farms in the business. There are no unique dairy items prepared in Cajun cuisine. Traditional southern US and New Orleans influenced desserts are common.
Other
Alligator
Frog legs
Nutria
Rabbit
Turtle (farm-raised)
Seasonings
Individual
Bay leaf
Bell peppers (green or red)
Black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Celery
Garlic
Onion (bell pepper, onion, and celery used together are known as the "holy trinity" of Cajun cuisine.)
Parsley, flat leaf
Sassafras leaves (dried & ground into the spice known as filé for gumbo)
Sugarcane, also cane syrup, brown sugar and molasses
Thyme
Blended
"Cajun spice" blends such as Tony Chachere's are sometimes used in Acadiana kitchens, but don't suit every cook's style because Cajun-style seasoning is often achieved from scratch, even by taste. Whole peppers are almost never used in authentic Cajun dishes — ground Cayenne, paprika, and pepper sauces predominate.
Hot sauce
Seafood boil mix
Vinegar seasoned with small, pickled, hot green peppers is a common condiment with many Cajun meals.
Cooking bases
Dark roux: The Acadians inherited the roux from the French. However, unlike the French, it's made with oil or bacon fat and more lately olive oil, and not butter, and it's used as a flavoring, especially in gumbo and etoufée. Preparation of a dark roux is probably the most involved or complicated procedure in Cajun cuisine, involving heating fat and flour very carefully, constantly stirring for about 15-45 minutes (depending on the color of the desired product), until the mixture has darkened in color and developed a nutty flavor. A burnt roux renders a dish unpalatable. The scent of a good roux is so strong that even after leaving one's house the smell of roux is still embedded in one's clothes until they're washed. The scent is so strong and recognizable that others are able to tell if one is making a roux, and often infer that one is making a gumbo.
Stocks: Acadian stocks are more heavily seasoned than Continental counterparts, and the shellfish stock sometimes made with shrimp and crawfish heads is unique to Cajun cuisine.
Cajun dishes
Noted by the popular Hank Williams' Jambalaya song, three of the primary dishes in Acadiana are "Jambalaya and-a crawfish pie and filé gumbo." One variation is that crawfish boils are more popular today than crawfish pies.
Primary favorites
Boudin
Boudin (sometimes spelled "boudain") is a type of sausage made from pork, pork liver, rice, garlic and green onion, and other spices. It is widely available by the link or pound from butcher shops. Boudin is usually made daily as it doesn't keep well for very long, even frozen. Boudin is typically stuffed in a natural casing and has a softer consistency than other, better-known sausage varieties. It is usually served with side dishes such as rice dressing, maque choux, or bread.
Gumbo
High on the list of favorites of Cajun cooking are the soups called gumbos. Gumbo exemplifies the influence of African and Native American food cultures on Cajun cuisine. The word originally meant okra, which is a word brought to the region from western Africa. Okra, which is a principal ingredient of many gumbo recipes, is used as a thickening agent and for its distinct vegetable flavor.
A filé gumbo is thickened with sassafras leaves, a practice borrowed from the Choctaw Indians. The backbone of a gumbo is a dark roux, which is made of flour, toasted until well browned, and fat or oil, not butter as with the French. The classic gumbo is made with chicken and the Cajun sausage called andouille, but the ingredients all depend on what is available at the moment.
Jambalaya
Another classic Cajun dish is jambalaya. The only certain thing that can be said about a jambalaya is that it contains rice and almost anything else. Usually, however, one will find green peppers, onions, celery and hot chile peppers. Anything else is optional.
Food as an event
Crawfish boil
The crawfish boil is a celebratory event where Cajuns boil crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn over large propane cookers. Lemons and small muslin bags containing a mixture of bay leaves, mustard seeds, cayenne pepper and other spices, commonly known as "crab boil" or "crawfish boil" are added to the water for seasoning. The results are then dumped onto large, newspaper-draped tables and covered in spice blends. Zatarain's, Louisiana Fish Fry and Tex Joy are popular commercial blends. Cocktail sauce, mayonnaise and Tabasco are common condiments. The seafood is scooped onto large trays or plates and eaten by hand. During times when crawfish are not abundant, shrimp and crabs are prepared and served in the same manner.
Attendees are encouraged to "suck the head" of a crawfish by separating the abdomen of the crustacean and sucking out the abdominal fat/juices. The practice is known by the common phrase is "Pinch the tail, suck the head." Other popular practices include kissing the tail section of a soon-to-be-cooked crawfish, leading to the vulgar phrase: "Kiss my ass, suck my head, eat me." The phrase has been printed on shirts and posters in years past.
Often, newcomers to the crawfish boil or those unfamiliar with the traditions are jokingly warned "not to eat the dead ones." When live crawfish are boiled, their tails curl beneath themselves. When dead crawfish are boiled, their tails are straight and limp.
Seafood boils with crabs and shrimp are also popular.
Boucherie
The traditional pig-slaughtering party, or Boucherie , where Cajuns would gather to socialize, play music, dance, and preserve meat does still occur in some rural communities, especially St. Martinville, but the exploitation of every last bit of meat, including organs and variety cuts in sausages such as 'boudin' (sometimes spelled boudain) and the inaccessible bits in the head as head cheese is no longer a necessity.
Other dishes and sides
Potato Salad, almost always served with gumbo, and usually in it (generally plain, for example egg, potato,and mayo solely)
Gumbo z'Herbes
Couche Couche (Cajun corn mush)
Boiled Crawfish
Maque Choux
Tasso (meat product)
Catfish (or Redfish) Court-Boullion
Crawfish Étouffée
Crawfish Bisque
Hog's Head Cheese
Various types of Sauce Piquante (Shrimp, Alligator, Turtle, etc.)
Cochon de Lait
Crawfish Pie
Andouille sausage
Dirty rice
Rice and Gravy - usually a brown gravy based on pan drippings, which are deglazed and simmered with extra seasonings and served over steamed or boiled rice.
Fried Frog Legs
Beignets
Pecan Pralines
Tarte à la Bouillie (sweet-dough custard tarts)
Seafood-stuffed Mirliton
Brochette
Tabasco Sauce
Misconceptions
Authentic Cajun food...
isn't fancy.
isn't extremely hot from pepper.
doesn't use wine as part of the cooking.
doesn't require expensive or exotic ingredients.
isn't available from a box.
is often simple and brown.
doesn't contain cream or pasta as an ingredient.
isn't often seen on restaurant menus.
doesn't frequently use blackened meat.
can be successfully made in areas outside of Cajun Country
There is a common misconception outside of south Louisiana that Cajun food is hot and spicy. An authentic Cajun dish will usually have a bit of a "kick" but won't be eye-wateringly hot. The Cajun cook doesn't seek to overpower the dish with simple heat — this is done by the diner at the table if they so wish. Cayenne pepper is the predominant choice of heat during preparation, though ground black pepper, and to a lesser extent white pepper, are used as well.
Cajun dishes prepared outside of Louisiana, are often hotter and more heavily seasoned than their Louisiana counterparts, missing the flavor of the original dishes. Even andouille sausage, mild and smoky in Louisiana, gets the pepper treatment elsewhere. This is partially a result of the "Cajun" foods craze of the 1980s, when Cajun-style seasoning was popularized by chef Paul Prudhomme's creation of the very spicy dish called Blackened Redfish at his New Orleans restaurant "K-Paul's". It is also a result of recent "extreme" food fads, where many items are hotter than the originals.
Outside of southern Louisiana, foods prepared using Cajun-style seasoning are called Cajun, including some decidedly non-Cajun dishes such as red beans and rice, and blackened redfish. Sometimes the label is applied incorrectly to any dish including traditional Cajun ingredients such as cayenne pepper, or merely as a slogan, as in McDonalds' "Spicy Cajun McChicken".
Chefs trained in Louisiana, as well as Louisiana raised chefs can and do duplicate the original tastes successfully elsewhere, especially since the advent of mail-order ingredient deliveries. However, the buyer should beware that what may be a perfectly palatable dish may not be strictly "authentic".
Cajun cuisine is sometimes confused with Creole cuisine, and many outside of Louisiana don't make the distinction. Creole is more city – urban, cosmopolitan, and inspired by the French, Spanish, African, and Italian influences of New Orleans – while Cajun dishes have more of a French influence, filtered through common (to Louisiana) ingredients and techniques. This matter is complicated by the sharing of several dishes between the cuisines, including gumbo, gumbo z'herbes (a vegetarian gumbo), seafood à l'étouffée, and jambalaya, although New Orleans jambalaya and gumbo are prepared differently from their Cajun counterparts.
Further complicating this is that the term Creole is used to designate several somewhat distinct New Orleans food cultures. So-called 'haute-creole' cuisine was influenced in the past few decades by Cajun food as Creole restaurants such as Commander's Palace and K-Paul's created a distinct "Cajun-Creole fusion" cuisine combining Cajun flavors with Creole ingredients and preparation. Dishes rooted primarily in the New Orleans metropolitan area such as po'-boys, barbecued shrimp, or red beans and rice are in general Creole, not Cajun, as are most dishes involving a cream sauce or the French mother sauces.
Non-Cajun dishes
This is a listing of dishes sometimes mistakenly called or thought to be Cajun but having origins elsewhere, usually in New Orleans or in northern Louisiana, and sometimes are relatively unadopted in Acadiana:
Bananas Foster
Anything blackened (for example chicken, shrimp, or fish)
Bread pudding
Cajun fries
Cajun sausage (other than andouille, etc.)
Calas
Chicken and Dumplings
Deep fried turkey - deep frying of whole turkeys outdoors in a large pot.
Oysters Rockefeller or Casino
Popeye's Fried Chicken (a US chain founded in New Orleans, was intentionally "Cajunified".)
Red beans and rice
Spicy Cajun McChicken
Cajun or Cajun-influenced chefs
Frank Brigtsen
Tony Chachere
John Folse
Jonathan Henderson
Emeril Lagasse
Alex Patout
Paul Prudhomme
Jamie Shannon
Jason Sherritt
Justin WilsonFurther Information
Get more info on 'Cajun Cuisine'.
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