Creole and Cajun

Where it comes from

Creole cooking is New Orleans's, and it was made by many hands: French and then Spanish colonists, the enslaved West Africans who did much of the cooking and brought okra and a way with one-pot rice, Choctaw neighbours who ground sassafras leaves into filé, and later Haitian, German, Irish and Sicilian arrivals. Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, but the kitchen kept its French words.

Cajun cooking comes from the Acadians — French settlers in what is now Nova Scotia and around it, whom the British expelled from 1755. Many were scattered for years before reaching Louisiana, where they settled the bayous and the south-western prairies and cooked what the land gave: crawfish, game, rice, and every part of the pig.

The two are often told apart by tomatoes — in the city, not in the country — and by the richness of the city's butter and cream. It's a rough line, and a century of shared kitchens has blurred it.

Where in it

1. New OrleansThe home of Creole cooking, in grand restaurants and corner shops alike — red beans on Mondays, po'boys and muffulettas at lunch, beignets and chicory coffee at any hour.Red beans and ricePo'boyBeignetsMuffulettaPralines
2. AcadianaThe Cajun heartland around Lafayette. Breaux Bridge calls itself the crawfish capital of the world, and Scott the capital of boudin.Crawfish étoufféeCrawfish boilBoudin
3. Gonzales and the river parishesBetween New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where the town of Gonzales calls itself the jambalaya capital of the world and cooks it by the cauldron for its festival.Jambalaya
4. Bayou countryThe coast and bayous around Houma, where prawns, oysters and blue crabs are landed — and where gumbo is more often made with seafood.Gumbo
5. The Cajun prairieRice and cattle country around Eunice and Mamou. At the Courir de Mardi Gras, riders go farm to farm begging for a chicken, and the day ends with a pot of gumbo.Gumbo

How it cooks

The roux

Flour and fat stirred over the heat — blond for étouffée, as dark as chocolate for gumbo. The darker it goes, the nuttier it tastes and the less it thickens.

The holy trinity

Onion, celery and green pepper, chopped and cooked down together at the start of nearly everything; garlic is sometimes called the pope.

Smothering

Meat, shellfish or vegetables cooked slowly, covered, in little liquid until they make their own gravy — étouffée means smothered.

The boil

Crawfish, crabs or prawns boiled in heavily seasoned water with potatoes and corn, left to soak, then tipped out on newspaper.

The boucherie

A communal pig killing, where everything is turned into boudin, sausage, cracklings and hogshead cheese.

Always in the kitchen