By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 16:17

.....the difference between Cajun and Creole food please?

Replies

By Meatloaf

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 16:47

Cajun and Creole are the opposite ends of the distinctive south Louisiana cuisine. The cuisine changes subtly as you drive from Ville Platte – a tiny country town in south Louisiana - to New Orleans, the sophisticated city on the Mississippi River. You'd find the same culinary differences between any two points at an equal distance apart in France or Italy or China or India or any other place with a powerful food culture.

Creole and Cajun are much more alike than they are like anything else. But that answer doesn't satisfy you, does it? Okay, make me write a bunch more about the roots of the respective cultures of New Orleans and the Cajun country. There we do find a difference. Although both are strongly French, the Creoles and the Cajuns came to Louisiana by different paths. And once they got here, they lived differently. The Creoles were much more cosmopolitan, and blended with the Spanish, American, African, German, and Italian people, all of whom came to town in large numbers. The Cajuns, on the other hand, were isolated for most of their history. A Creole is one born in south Louisiana of parents who immigrated from Europe--most particularly France, Spain, and Portugal. In New Orleans, that became important when the Americans took over. The French Quarter became the Creole sector, while the Americans built their homes and businesses on the other side of Canal Street, the main thoroughfare and dividing line between the French Quarter and the rest of the city.

The observation that there was a distinctive Creole cuisine was first made in 1880 by the writer George Washington Cable. His book "Old Creole Days" created such a sensation that it crystallized the culture and its cuisine. A few years later, around the time of the Cotton Centennial Exposition (New Orleans' first World's Fair), Cable and Lafcadio Hearn wrote the first guidebook to New Orleans. It included highly recognizable descriptions of the food, and pointed out that it was different from the food anywhere else.

The Cajuns are descendents of the French-speaking Acadians who were banished from Nova Scotia in the early 1700s. They settled in southwest Louisiana and lived in isolation until modern times. Until the oil boom came, they had to fight to survive; the Cajun farmers, fishermen, and hunters sold the best of their gatherings and subsisted on the worst. That necessity inspired Cajun cooking, which can make a great meal out of poor ingredients.

But Acadiana, also known as Cajun country, spreads out over a large area--right up to the outskirts of New Orleans, in fact. (You can tell you're in Cajun country if you can get a piece of “hot boudin” – Cajun sausage made from rice and pork - in any gas station or grocery store you stop in.) Acadiana is a big enough place to show regional differences in its food. The most robust and interesting cooking comes from Opelousas, Henderson, Breaux Bridge and Ville Platte – all small towns in south Louisiana. The cooking gets milder but no less delicious as you move down the swampy wetlands of the Atchafalaya Basin and its bayous (the great mother lode of crawfish) to the south and east.

Unalloyed Cajun food is almost never found in restaurants, not even in Cajun country. I suspect the reason for this is that Cajun cooking, for all its glorious flavor, is not much on looks. Much of it is pot food from very big pots. Showing off the very finest ingredients with a polished presentation--essential for pleasing restaurant customers—goes against the grain of authentic Cajun cooking.

Now that we know where it all came from, what defines Creole and what defines Cajun? The answer is: nothing. And everything. I can tell you about a roux – a mixture of oil and flour that darkens and thickens gumbos--but that's in both. Salt and pepper and cream and butter and fat? More of all of them in both Creole and Cajun than in most other cooking styles, but now more than there used to be in both historically. You can pick on a few dishes. Creole jambalaya tends to be reddened with tomato, while Cajun jambalaya tends to be brown and lack tomato. Gumbo is smokier in Cajun country than in New Orleans. But you do see oysters Rockefeller (a traditional Creole dish) in Lafayette, and crawfish etouffee (a traditional Cajun dish) in New Orleans. There's been so much cross-fertilization of the styles over the decades that the merger has been consummated.

I say, stop thinking about it. Just eat it.

By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 16:55

A cookery book is going on my wish list Meatloaf. Thank you for that. Am I likely to find a cookery book that covers both and if so, what will I be looking for? How come you know so much?

By Elpe

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 17:05

Phew, Meatloaf! I can tell you've been on tabasco.com -LOL! Fascinating stuff! x x

By Meatloaf

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 17:06

The New Orleans Cookbook: Creole, Cajun, and Louisiana French Recipes Past and Present (Paperback)

By Rima Collin: Available from amazon.

The history lesson was courtesy of www.tabasco.com

Cut & paste.

The book I have got and is recommended.

Xx

By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 17:16

Wow - going on my wish list definitely. Love trying out new stuff from around the world don't you?

By Meatloaf

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 17:29

TDS- Yes I do too. I'm slowly working my way around the world. Vietnamese cooking is the next on my agenda, and with my birthday a few months away I have made it known to my daughters a book would be loved.

BTW the Cajun, creole cookbook I have mentioned can be bought on www.bookdepository.co.uk for £7.17 including free delivery.

By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 17:33

Can't afford it at the moment but if I get this Cook's job, will get them to pay for it. Research purposes of course.

By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 18:12

Vietnamese will be fab I'm sure. How exciting. xxx

By Liz from Cumbria

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 20:19

Aw shucks Meatloaf, I thought you'd called that up from your head! It was interesting though. Have to admit I love CajunCreole cooking although I'd be hard-pressed to tell you which was which.

By YELLOWTOES

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 20:46

I"VE BEEN going to new orleans for years now. i eat in every top restaurant they even speak french in certain areas of s, louisiana have french speaking radio stations
to have brunch at "court of 2 sisters" on sunday is like heaven live jazz music out on the patio ubder large trees
when a bird goes on your clothes they claim it's good luck i can't tell the difference of the food just enjoy it

By The Dinner Service

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
20 Jul 2008 21:02

Green...green...green...

By Essex Girl

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
21 Jul 2008 07:36

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

By elbokeron

Re: Can anyone tell me.........
21 Jul 2008 10:02

This all takes me back. We did a tour of the deep south in 1999 - Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisanna - The last leg was from Nachez (Mississippi) to Lafayette, St. Martindale, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Had cajun and Creole food.