Cajun Food Facts

The Cajuns of southwest Louisiana are descended from the Acadian exiles that left Eastern Canada in the mid to late 1700s and settled along the swampy coastline and bayou country west of the Mississippi River. Originally from French peasant stock, the new arrivals quickly became dependent on farming and trapping for survival and developed a local cuisine that reflected this basic lifestyle.

The "Holy Trinity"

Common ingredients that can be found in many Cajun main dishes include the three popular vegetables of bell peppers, onions and celery. So common are these locally grown ingredients in this style of cooking that they have been nicknamed the "holy trinity" of Cajun cooking. Today, almost any main dish will include some meat or seafood along with a healthy dose of these three common vegetables.

Protein

Fish and wild game are important ingredients of Cajun cooking, as are the domesticated meats of beef, chicken and pork. The local abundance of fish and wild game, as well as the near-survival conditions that the early Cajun settlers experienced, might help explain the unusual meats that go into Cajun main dishes. Nowhere is this better illustrated than with the crawfish etouffee and rabbit jambalaya dishes that are popular in the Cajun restaurants of southern Louisiana.

Starch

Rice is the most common starch used in a Cajun dish. Although perhaps not common at the original time of arrival for the Acadian settlers, this grain grows well in the region and has developed into a large agricultural product not only for Louisiana, but also for neighboring Texas and Arkansas. As a result, regionally grown rice can be found as a part of many Cajun dishes.

Spices

Although spices, especially cayenne pepper, are plentiful in Cajun cooking, they are almost never allowed to dominate a dish. Even with something like a crab or shrimp boil, the spice is absorbed by the shell and not necessarily prevalent in the meat. When thoroughly cooked, the meat of the shrimp or crawfish will contain some spiciness in taste. However, if the diner desires more spice in his food, it is readily available on the shell.

File

File is a Native American contribution to both Cajun cooking and its urban cousin, Creole cooking. File, pronounced "fee-lay," is a common cooking ingredient that is used as a seasoning and thickener for gumbo. File is nothing but ground up and dried sassafras leaves and comes in the form of a dark-green powder. Sometimes this popular item is used in other types of soup or as part of a roux or soup base common in Cajun cooking.

References

• Cajun Food History
• How To Make File
• Origins of Southern Foods

Resources

• A Guide To Cajun Cooking