The ingredients and cooking techniques involved come from a remarkable array of cultures and traditions--all of which have combined over the centuries to create a uniquely American story.
Cajun or Creole?
Two major cultures specific to Louisiana are Creole and Cajun. Originally, Creoles were descended from the wealthy French and Spanish colonists who settled in southern Louisiana. “Creole” also includes the African and Caribbean heritage of the region. Creole cuisine was born in upper-class households and still carries the reputation of being more refined and fancy, and of using more expensive ingredients, than Cajun cooking.
Cajuns are the descendents of French colonists who settled in Acadia (modern-day Nova Scotia). The Acadians were driven out of Canada in the 1750's and many fled to southern Louisiana. They managed to survive with the help of Choctaw Indians who taught them how to hunt and fish and forage. Eventually their name was shortened from "Acadians" to "Cajuns," and the culture developed a strong foothold in the bayous and prairies of Louisiana. The food of Cajuns is the food of hardy people accustomed to extreme hardship and to making do with whatever they could grow or hunt. Traditional Cajun dishes are cooked in one pot--a throwback to when the settlers had no stoves and did their cooking over open fires.
Make it Your Own
Over time, Creoles and Cajuns began to borrow cooking techniques from each other too, and gumbo is one of the most famous dishes to result from this shared Creole-Cajun heritage. One of the most basic tenets of gumbo cookery is that every pot of gumbo is different. There's no such thing as a definitive gumbo recipe, because part of the enduring nature of the dish is that it's adaptable to whatever ingredients are available at the time. It's also expected that individual cooks will taste and season as they go along, making the recipe totally unique.
What Goes in Gumbo
As varied as the recipes can be, there are a few ingredients that give the dish its identity as gumbo. Apart from good homemade stock, the first is the "holy trinity" used extensively in both Cajun and Creole cooking: celery, onions and green peppers.
The Pot Thickens
Most gumbos use two distinctive ingredients to thicken and flavor them. The first is roux: a mixture of equal parts flour and fat cooked together gently. The fat in the roux can be butter, oil, bacon grease or lard. Roux can range in color from white to brown to black, depending on how long it's cooked. The darker the color of the roux, the deeper the flavor. Cajun gumbos tend to use very dark roux, usually made with oil or pork fat, whereas Creole gumbos might favor the more delicate flavor of a light roux made with butter.
The second thickener in a pot of gumbo can be either okra or filé (FEE-lay) powder. Interestingly enough, the word "gumbo" seems to have evolved almost simultaneously from two different sources--one closely tied to Creole cuisine, the other connected to Cajun--and both of them tied to these ingredients. Okra is a green pod-like vegetable native to Africa. Filé powder is made of ground sassafras leaves, native to the southern U.S. Okra was introduced to Creole households by the African slaves who were brought to work on the wealthy planters' estates. Filé was introduced to Cajun settlers by the Choctaw Indians who helped the settlers survive in the wilderness. In Umbundu (a language spoken in Angola, where many Southern slaves came from) the word for okra is ochingombo, which was eventually abridged to "gombo." And the Choctaw word for sassafras? Kombo.
A Few Gumbo Rules
Okra and filé powder are rarely used in the same batch of gumbo; some people say that using both will make the gumbo too thick, while others assert that the two flavors “cancel each other out.” If using okra, it should be cooked for long enough that it loses its slimy texture, about 45 minutes. Filé powder, on the other hand, should not be added until the very end of cooking; boiling filé will cause the whole pot of gumbo to become stringy and gummy. Some people wait even longer and add the filé to each individual bowl of gumbo (about ¼ teaspoon stirred into each bowl). This is a handy method to use if you plan on having leftovers to reheat later.
The Gumbo Grab-Bag
Common flavorings in gumbo include green onions, garlic, cayenne pepper, black pepper, dry mustard, paprika, sage, cumin, bay leaves, thyme and parsley. Many people use pre-mixed Cajun seasoning blends, available at most grocery stores. Gumbo can be a veritable grab-bag of ingredients, including sausage--especially Andouille and chaurice, tasso (cured pork shoulder), crawfish, crab, shrimp, oysters, chicken, duck, rabbit, dove, or other game. Most meats need to be cooked for a while in the gumbo, whereas seafood should be added near the end to avoid overcooking. Mirlitons (also known as chayote) sometimes show up in gumbo, as do tomatoes.
