See below for recipe
The History of Gumbo
Of all the dishes in the realm of Louisiana cooking, gumbo is the most famous and, very likely, the most popular. Gumbo crosses all class barriers, appearing on the tables of all social classes. Although ingredients might vary greatly from one cook to the next, and from one part of the state to another, a steaming bowl of fragrant gumbo is one of life’s cherished pleasures, as emblematic of Louisiana as chile is of Texas.
Gumbo is often cited as an example of the melting-pot nature of Louisiana cooking, but trying to sort out the origins and evolution of the dish is highly speculative. The name derives from a West African word for okra, suggesting that gumbo was originally made with okra. The use of filé (dried and ground sassafras leaves) was a contribution of the Choctaws and, possibly, other local Indian groups. Roux has its origin in French cuisine, although the roux used in gumbos is much darker than its Gallic cousins.
Types of Gumbo
The gumbos people are most familiar with are seafood gumbo and chicken and sausage gumbo. But that merely scratches the surface of gumbo cookery, both historical and contemporary.
- Lafcadio Hearn’s La Cuisine Creole, published in 1885, contains recipes for several gumbos made from a variety of ingredients—chicken, ham, bacon, oysters, crab, shrimp, and beef, among them. Some of the recipes are made with okra, others with filé. Although there is no mention of a roux in any of the recipes, some of them call for the addition of flour or browned flour as a thickener.
- The Creole Cookery Book, published by the Christian Woman’s Exchange of New Orleans in 1885, calls gumbo making an “occult science” that “should be allowed its proper place in the gastronomical world.” A New Orleans gumbo, the book maintains, “Can be made of scraps of cold meat or fowl, a few oysters, crabs or shrimps, and with a couple of spoonful of well cooked rice, is a very satisfying and economical dinner.” The editors include several recipes for gumbo, one of which incorporates filé (spelled “fillet” in the book). All the ingredients are useful, natural and completely nutritious. Some of the recipes are made with various greens and herbs, but, curiously, there is no mention of okra as a gumbo ingredient, although the book includes three recipes for okra soup.
- The Picayune’s Creole Cookbook, published in New Orleans in 1901, includes recipes for a variety of gumbos. Among the principal ingredients are chicken, ham, oysters, turkey, wild turkey, squirrel, rabbit, beef, veal, crabs, soft-shell crabs, shrimp, greens, and cabbage. Some of the gumbos are made with okra, others with filé.
Traditionally, gumbos have been divided into two large categories—those thickened with okra and those thickened with filé. According to some accounts, before the advent of refrigeration and freezers, okra was the preferred thickening agent for gumbo, while filé was a substitute used only in the off-season when okra wasn’t available. That sounds plausible, but references for dried okra as an ingredient in 19th-century gumbos. By drying okra, cooks could use it in their gumbos year round.
In some respects, putting gumbo into either an okra or a filé category is still valid, but for many cooks, a brown roux is the only thickener, and filé has virtually disappeared from their recipes. Often roux-based gumbos do incorporate filé. Filé is used both for thickening and for flavor. It is usually added to a gumbo just before serving, or at the table. Many okra gumbos also incorporate a brown roux and some roux-based gumbo contain a small amount of okra, often cooked until it virtually dissolves.
If all those variations aren’t confusing enough, there are also raging controversies over what constitutes a proper gumbo roux. Roux, of course, is flour that has been browned in oil or some other fat. Both cooks and consumers have their own opinions on how dark the roux should be and how much should be used in a gumbo. There is no agreement on these matters, as anyone who has tasted gumbos from different cooks can attest.
A good place to sample an astonishingly wide range of gumbos is the World Championship Gumbo Cook-off that is held each October in New Iberia, Louisiana. Although the New Iberia event requires that contestants cook their own roux on site, it’s preferable to dissolve them in hot liquid before adding to the gumbo pot.
Modern Gumbo Variations
Contemporary gumbos are made with all manner of ingredients in a variety of combinations. Seafood and non-seafood gumbos are two primary types, and they may be made with or without okra. But some gumbos include ingredients from both the land and the sea. Duck, smoked sausage, and oyster gumbo is one delicious example. Some cooks add hard-boiled eggs to chicken and sausage gumbos, and quail eggs find their way into other versions. A very atypical version is the Lenten gumbo z’herbes, which is made with a variety of greens.
Seafood gumbos often include crabs, shrimp, and oysters. Shrimp and okra gumbo is a perennial favorite, as is chicken and okra gumbo. Chicken and sausage gumbo is extremely popular, and in the households of hunters, ducks and other game birds often wind up in the gumbo pot. Turkey and sausage gumbos appear frequently during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. An unusual but delicious combination is a gumbo of beefsteak, smoked sausage, and oysters. Some cooks use ham or tasso in their gumbos, and others use fresh sausage in place of the smoked variety. The possible combinations are virtually endless.
The Tomato Controversy
One ingredient that does arouse controversy is the tomato. Some cooks use it in their gumbos, others wouldn’t be caught dead putting tomato in theirs. In that respect, the situation is analogous to jambalaya, where the question of the appropriateness of tomato is a burning issue. Tomatoes are most often found in okra gumbos, but I’ve had roux-based seafood gumbo that also contained tomato. Gumbos containing tomato are more common on the eastern side of Bayou Lafourche than they are farther west.
One point everyone can agree on is that gumbo is always served with rice. But that was not always the case. C.C. Robin, a Frenchman who published an account of his travels in Louisiana in 1803-1805, reported that gumbo was served with corn meal mush.
For some reason, gumbo is one of those dishes that men often prepare. It has some of the same appeal as game cookery or barbecuing, and it is a favorite dish at hunting camps. When men who cook only occasionally make a gumbo the event takes on a heightened significance. Some men use the phrase “build a gumbo” to describe what they are doing, and the occasion demands a good supply of iced beer. If there is an audience, so much the better. On the other hand, for people who cook on a daily basis, making a gumbo is more routine, if no less important.
Gumbo’s virtue, aside from its deliciousness, is that the dish is very forgiving of the cook. Measurements do not have to be exact, ingredients may be changed to use what is on hand, and unless the diners are so set in their ways that they can’t appreciate change, the result will be quite good.
New Orleans Chicken and Sausage Gumbo – Recipe
Adapted by chef john coletta
This recipe came from Paul Prudhomme, the New Orleans chef who put Louisiana on the American culinary map. It is a hearty, rich Creole stew generously seasoned with black and white pepper, cayenne, paprika and filé powder, a spice made from the leaves of the sassafras tree. Filé powder is readily available in most North American grocery stores and online, and while it’s not 100 percent necessary, it lends a distinctive, earthy quality to the dish.
Yields 6-8 servings
Ingredients
1.5 kg – 2 kg. Organic Chicken cut into 10-serving pieces (ensure that the wish bone is removed and reserved for future stock making.)
10g. Sea Salt; Fine Grind
7g. Sarawak White Pepper, Finely ground
5g. Tellicherry Black Pepper, Ground from a mill
5g. Mustard Powder
7g. Cayenne Pepper
7g. Paprika
5g. Garlic Powder; Granulated
7g. File Powder (dried sassafras leaves and ground into a powder)
180g. Manitoba Flour
600 ml. Corn Oil, Peanut Oil or Vegetable Oil
150g. White or Yellow Onions: Finely Chopped
170g. Celery; Stalk; Finely Chopped
130g. Green Bell Pepper: Finely Chopped
2125 ml. Chicken Broth
250g. Smoked Andouille Sausage or Kielbasa Sausage; Rough Chopped
1 Bay Leaf; Fresh
5g. Garlic; Finely Minced
320g. Rice: Long Grain White Rice: Cooked
Method
- Place chicken pieces into a non-reactive bowl.
- In a spice blender, add the sea salt, white pepper, black pepper, mustard powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, granulated garlic and file powder and pulse mix well to form a unified spice mixture.
- Rub 25 grams of the spice mixture onto the chicken. Allow the seasoned chicken to rest for 30-minutes.
- Set aside the remaining spice mixture.
- Place the flour in a non-reactive bowl and add 15 grams of the reserved spice mixture. Blend well to form a unified mixture.
- Place a 25-30 centimeter deep heavy bottom cast iron skillet onto a low-medium heat. Add the oil.
- Dredge the chicken pieces into the seasoned flour mixture to coat well, shaking off excess. Reserve the leftover flour.
- When the oil is hot (150 C degrees), add the chicken pieces skin side down. Cook about two minutes on one side until golden brown. Turn and cook about three minutes on the second side until nicely browned. Do this in batches so as to not crowd the pan. Place the browned chicken onto absorbent paper towels.
- Pour off all but 240 ml. of oil from the skillet. Strain the oil thru a fine mesh strainer and place into a heavy bottom 5 liter pot. Place the pot onto a low-medium heat. In a slow and steady stream add the reserved seasoned flour. Stir rapidly and constantly with a wire whisk until the mixture is golden brown. This should take 1-hour. Ensure that the roux mixture does not burn during the developing process.
- Add the onions, celery and green peppers to the golden brown roux and stir to ensure a unified mixture. Remove from the heat.
- Meanwhile, bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large heavy bottom saucepan.
- Add about half of the roux mixture to the broth, stirring rapidly with the whisk. Continuously adding the roux mixture, always stirring rapidly and constantly.
- Add the smoked sausage and stir. Cook over medium heat, stirring often from the bottom, about 15 minutes.
- Add the chicken pieces, bay leaf and finely minced fresh garlic. Cook for about 40 minutes, on a medium-low heat, slowly stirring.
- Remove the chicken pieces from the pot. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and discard the skin, bones and cartilage. Shred the chicken and add it back to the pot. Simmer for another 15-minutes or until the gumbo evenly coats the back of a spoon.
- Ladle the completed gumbo into a warm preferred serving vessel and serve with white rice spooned into the gumbo.
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