A Brief History of Creole Cuisine Its Origin and Progress
The term Creole comes from Latin creare, which means to breed or to procreate. The term was first used to describe the Acadians (French Canadians) who came to United States, and settled down in Louisiana, first travelling to New Orleans (where they were met with a Spanish government eager to set them off to their way). The first instance of Creole cuisine can be recorded in New Orleans in 1682, by Robert de LaSalle, the famous explorer, who organized a grand fete in New Orleans after naming the Mississippi basin La Louisiane.
The Acadians settled near the river Mississippi, and started growing familiar crops like wheat and oats, noting that the Louisiana heat did not support most of the crops they had originally got. Corn was added to their diet, and rice began to be extensively cultivated, and these were the grains with which the new settlers began their own blend of language and culture, using the local dialect and combining them with their rich French heritage. As cotton and sugar became chief cash crops produced in this area, Louisiana broke apart into two parts the Creole, who formed the upper crust of the society, and the poorer Cajun, who were considered to of much lower grade. Creole food was a combination of the cuisine of the French mingled together with generous sprinklings of Dutch, Greek, Albanian, Spanish, and English cooking, and liberally seasoned by locally available items like file powder, which was powdered sassafras leaves, made by the Choctaw Indians.
Creole cooking is therefore a bastardized version of French, where different strands of the original cuisine end up in different section of the globe, because a huge part of the cooking was done by African slaves who were captured off the coasts of Africa and sold off to the Americans by Portuguese and Spanish slave traders who made quite a tidy sum in the process. The Africans brought the gumbo, or okra as we now call it, from their homeland, and it grew in the moist Louisiana climate with abundance. The gumbo eventually ended up becoming a version of the famous Bouillabaisse, the rich French fish soup, and okra became a star player in the gumbo game.
Because the Creole people were from a lowly descent consisting of Frenchmen who wanted to make a living, they were considered to be degenerate in the eye of the Europeans, and their language, cuisine and culture were considered inferior. The Creole cuisine evolved in the houses of the rich, who tried to imitate their French counterparts. Therefore, this kind of cuisine is considered to be a rich, delicate combination of different flavors, which gave Creole cuisine a definite turn away from its poorer Cajun version, where cheaper ingredients and quick methods were applied. As far as Creole cuisine was considered, time and good quality ingredients were the key to cooking a good meal. During the late 1800s, Sicilians began to immigrate to Louisiana and settle down.
They added a huge array of new ideas that were incorporated by Creole cuisine. The rich sauce piquante, which is a sumptuous tomato gravy, was made with ripe tomatoes and added to the menu, and the addition of fishes and shellfishes were abundant, thanks to the Italian and Sicilian immigrants. One thing was clear the riches liked the Creole food, while the poor stuck to Cajun cooking which was much easier. The African slaves cooked Creole for their masters while sticking to Cajun themselves. Crawfish, or mudbugs, crabs, oysters, frog legs, and a myriad other ingredients were used in Creole cooking, and a flavorful mix of flour and oil, heated to color to the right consistency, was made to flavor.
This concoction was known as a roux, which formed the base of many a Creole dish, including the Gumbo and the Crawfish touffe, not to mention the ever-famous Jambalaya, which combines a number of different items to make a one-dish hot pot, and is Louisianas answer to the Spanish Paella. Also, red beans and rice was a wash day preparation, cooked all day long, while the women of the house worked on the weeks clothes from the morning. The dish was designed to cook for a long time, imparting its flavors to the beans. Served over rice, and kept overnight, this dish was accompanied by sausages like Andouille and Boudin, and fried catfish.
African notes in Creole cuisine can be found in different levels. Generally, the food in Louisiana was partly responsible for citrus notes and simple tones from the Africans. The grits, which is a way of cooking cornmeal, is decidedly similar to the African fufu, as well as the Italian Polenta. Also, different kinds of pepper were added to the cuisine by the Africans and Spanish for that extra zing in the cuisine.
The rich fields of sugarcane yielded something called cane syrup, which formed the base of the famous syrup cake and molasses formed the base of the fig pudding and pralines. The beignets are a puffed French fritters served with rich Caf au Lait, a beautiful milky brew that takes coffee making to another level by adding ground chicory to it. All these food forge a deep bond between the heritage of several different countries to Louisiana, and it is interesting to note how several different cuisines can fuse into one single, thanks to the unavailability of a huge number of items, and a willingness to adapt to the natural products available to the place. The Acadians took the advantage of the place and the steamy bayou, and settled in. a way that can definitely be laudable.
The Acadians settled near the river Mississippi, and started growing familiar crops like wheat and oats, noting that the Louisiana heat did not support most of the crops they had originally got. Corn was added to their diet, and rice began to be extensively cultivated, and these were the grains with which the new settlers began their own blend of language and culture, using the local dialect and combining them with their rich French heritage. As cotton and sugar became chief cash crops produced in this area, Louisiana broke apart into two parts the Creole, who formed the upper crust of the society, and the poorer Cajun, who were considered to of much lower grade. Creole food was a combination of the cuisine of the French mingled together with generous sprinklings of Dutch, Greek, Albanian, Spanish, and English cooking, and liberally seasoned by locally available items like file powder, which was powdered sassafras leaves, made by the Choctaw Indians.
Creole cooking is therefore a bastardized version of French, where different strands of the original cuisine end up in different section of the globe, because a huge part of the cooking was done by African slaves who were captured off the coasts of Africa and sold off to the Americans by Portuguese and Spanish slave traders who made quite a tidy sum in the process. The Africans brought the gumbo, or okra as we now call it, from their homeland, and it grew in the moist Louisiana climate with abundance. The gumbo eventually ended up becoming a version of the famous Bouillabaisse, the rich French fish soup, and okra became a star player in the gumbo game.
Because the Creole people were from a lowly descent consisting of Frenchmen who wanted to make a living, they were considered to be degenerate in the eye of the Europeans, and their language, cuisine and culture were considered inferior. The Creole cuisine evolved in the houses of the rich, who tried to imitate their French counterparts. Therefore, this kind of cuisine is considered to be a rich, delicate combination of different flavors, which gave Creole cuisine a definite turn away from its poorer Cajun version, where cheaper ingredients and quick methods were applied. As far as Creole cuisine was considered, time and good quality ingredients were the key to cooking a good meal. During the late 1800s, Sicilians began to immigrate to Louisiana and settle down.
They added a huge array of new ideas that were incorporated by Creole cuisine. The rich sauce piquante, which is a sumptuous tomato gravy, was made with ripe tomatoes and added to the menu, and the addition of fishes and shellfishes were abundant, thanks to the Italian and Sicilian immigrants. One thing was clear the riches liked the Creole food, while the poor stuck to Cajun cooking which was much easier. The African slaves cooked Creole for their masters while sticking to Cajun themselves. Crawfish, or mudbugs, crabs, oysters, frog legs, and a myriad other ingredients were used in Creole cooking, and a flavorful mix of flour and oil, heated to color to the right consistency, was made to flavor.
This concoction was known as a roux, which formed the base of many a Creole dish, including the Gumbo and the Crawfish touffe, not to mention the ever-famous Jambalaya, which combines a number of different items to make a one-dish hot pot, and is Louisianas answer to the Spanish Paella. Also, red beans and rice was a wash day preparation, cooked all day long, while the women of the house worked on the weeks clothes from the morning. The dish was designed to cook for a long time, imparting its flavors to the beans. Served over rice, and kept overnight, this dish was accompanied by sausages like Andouille and Boudin, and fried catfish.
African notes in Creole cuisine can be found in different levels. Generally, the food in Louisiana was partly responsible for citrus notes and simple tones from the Africans. The grits, which is a way of cooking cornmeal, is decidedly similar to the African fufu, as well as the Italian Polenta. Also, different kinds of pepper were added to the cuisine by the Africans and Spanish for that extra zing in the cuisine.
The rich fields of sugarcane yielded something called cane syrup, which formed the base of the famous syrup cake and molasses formed the base of the fig pudding and pralines. The beignets are a puffed French fritters served with rich Caf au Lait, a beautiful milky brew that takes coffee making to another level by adding ground chicory to it. All these food forge a deep bond between the heritage of several different countries to Louisiana, and it is interesting to note how several different cuisines can fuse into one single, thanks to the unavailability of a huge number of items, and a willingness to adapt to the natural products available to the place. The Acadians took the advantage of the place and the steamy bayou, and settled in. a way that can definitely be laudable.
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