Louisiana's Cajun and Creole cooking share a roux, the onion-celery-pepper trinity, cayenne, thyme and bay, and file powder, but differ in their origins and in their use of tomato and butter.
Overview¶
Louisiana has two related cooking traditions that outsiders often merge. Creole cooking developed in New Orleans among the city's mixed population — French and Spanish colonists, enslaved and free West Africans, Caribbean migrants, Germans, Italians and others — and is often described as "city" cooking, with butter, cream and tomatoes. Cajun cooking belongs to the Acadians, French settlers expelled from Canada by the British in the mid-eighteenth century, who settled the bayous and prairies of south-west Louisiana. It is sometimes called "country" cooking, with more pork, game, rice and darker roux. The line between them has always been blurry, and many dishes exist in both.
Both use cayenne, black and white pepper, thyme, bay leaf and garlic, and both rely on the "holy trinity" of onion, celery and green bell pepper — a Louisiana adaptation of the French mirepoix, which uses carrot rather than pepper.
The core palette¶
- Cayenne: dried, ground red chilli, the main source of heat. Louisiana also grows tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens) for the famous vinegar-based sauce, and other hot sauces like Crystal and Louisiana Hot Sauce are standard on tables.
- Peppers: black, white and cayenne together are a signature trio, each hitting the palate differently.
- paprika, garlic and onion powder in seasonings.
- Filé powder: dried, ground sassafras leaves, a Choctaw contribution. It thickens and flavours gumbo and has an earthy, slightly eucalyptus note. Filé is made from leaves, which contain little or no safrole compared with the root bark once used in root beer.
- Herbs: thyme, bay, parsley, spring onion tops, and oregano.
- Crab boil: a pickling-style mix of mustard seed, coriander, allspice, cloves, bay, cayenne and celery seed, compare pickling-spice.
- Cajun and Creole seasonings: commercial blends of salt, cayenne, paprika, garlic, onion, black pepper and herbs, widely sold from the 1970s and popularised nationally in the 1980s.
Regional differences¶
New Orleans Creole cooking gives shrimp Creole, grillades, courtbouillon, bread pudding, and the restaurant classics — oysters Rockefeller, shrimp rémoulade — as well as the everyday red beans and rice. Acadiana (Lafayette and the surrounding parishes) gives boudin, cracklins, andouille, crawfish étouffée and dark-roux gumbos without tomato. North Louisiana cooking is closer to the wider American South.
Key techniques¶
- The roux: flour cooked in fat until blond, peanut-butter brown or dark chocolate-coloured. Darker roux has more flavour but less thickening power. Cajun gumbos often use very dark roux; Creole gravies lighter ones. Stir constantly — a burnt roux cannot be saved.
- Sweating the trinity: onion, celery and green pepper go into the roux as soon as it reaches colour, which also stops it cooking further.
- Seasoning in layers: cayenne, pepper and thyme at the start; filé or hot sauce at the end.
- Boiling: crawfish, shrimp and crabs boiled in heavily seasoned water with potatoes, corn and garlic.
- Blackening: fish or meat coated in butter and a spice mix, then seared in a very hot cast-iron pan — a technique popularised by chef Paul Prudhomme in the 1980s.
⚠️ Filé goes in last
Add filé powder off the heat, just before serving or at the table. Boiled, it turns stringy and ropy.
Landmark dishes¶
Gumbo (seafood, chicken and andouille, or z'herbes), jambalaya (red Creole with tomato; brown Cajun without), crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, shrimp Creole, boudin, dirty rice, blackened redfish, crawfish boils, po'boys, muffulettas, and beignets.
Stocking the cupboard¶
- Ground cayenne
- Black and white pepper
- Dried thyme and bay leaves
- paprika and garlic powder
- Filé powder
- Cajun or Creole seasoning — or make your own and control the salt
- A Louisiana-style hot sauce
- Crab boil, if you plan to boil seafood