Cajun versus Creole...
Friday, 7. March 2008, 21:06:08
Many people assume that these two words are interchangeable. I'd like to dispell that nasty rumor and explain the differences. The history of these two peoples is vast and cumbersome so I'll try to make it as short as possible.
"Cajuns" are the descendants of a group of French people who were exiled from the Acadia region of Nova Scotia for political reasons, starting in 1755. The first Acadians were French-speaking Catholics who made a living by fishing, farming and trapping. They settled the Acadian Peninsula in Nova Scotia in the early 1600s. In 1713, Acadia was ceded to Great Britian by France. The Acadians would not swear alliegence to the King. The British tried to impose their Protestant religion on the Acadians, who refused to give up their beliefs.
In 1753, the notoriously cruel Charles Lawrence took over as governor of Acadia. In 1755, Lawrence rounded up the French Acadians at gun point and shipped them to ports along the Eastern Seaboard. In all, approximately 10,000 Acadians were arrested, imprisoned and deported over an eight-year period, starting in 1855.
The Protestant, English-speaking British colonists along the East Coast were not receptive to the French Acadians. Therefore, many of the Acadians headed for Louisiana, which was populated largely by French and Spanish people. Fifteen years after the Acadian exile began, approximately 1,500 to 1 ,600 exiles had settled in Louisiana. This group was later joined by another wave of exiles in 1785. I should point out that a contingency of these "Cajuns" found refuge in Canada and a smaller number still populate parts of Texas.
Once in Louisiana, the “Cajuns” found peace and an abundance of fish and wildlife to turn into the down-home cooking they are famous for. But they populated mainly the outlying areas of the state where they could live off of the land.
Being a sea-port, New Orleans attracted people from many lands. African slaves, Native Americans, and Caribbean seamen added their flavors to the cuisine of the melting pot that became New Orleans.
The first settlers were French, usually the second-born sons of aristocrats who left France to seek adventure in the New World. They brought their traditional style of cooking from the continent, and being rich aristocrats, they also brought along their chefs as well! These Frenchmen came to be called Creoles, and made up the upper crust of New Orleans. Their descendents can still be found in the French Quarter today.
When I was a child most people in these parishes spoke French. It was not the traditional language of France but a Patois...although without a formal definition in linguistics, it can be used to describe a language considered as nonstandard. Depending upon the instance, it can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but is not commonly applied to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.
Class distinctions are embedded in the term, drawn between those who speak patois and those who speak the standard or dominant language used in literature and newscasts—the "acrolect" in professional jargon. In the small town that my father was born in, Abbeville, LA, he had to start school to learn to speak english. My grandparents never did conquer english. And though I spoke it as a child, I am hard pressed to remember it now. This is a shame because the language is dying out and before long, it is thought that it will disappear.
Cajun vs. Creole Cooking
In general, Cajun dishes are the country cooking of Louisiana, highlighted by dirty rice, gumbos, jambalaya, andouille (pronounced ahnd-wee or ahn-do-wee), it’s a spicy smoked sausage and simple foods such as fried catfish. Cajun cooking traditionally uses pork fat and simpler ingredients.
Creole is the food of the city, a more refined cuisine represented by Oysters Rockefeller, Shrimp Remoulade and Bananas Foster. It traditionally used the butter available to the wealthy Creoles, and more expensive ingredients.
Some people will tell you that if a dish has tomatoes, it’s Creole, not Cajun. That isn’t always true. Tomatoes have been known to turn up in jambalaya or gumbo, which are both Cajun.
Both Cajun and Creole use the “Holy Trinity” of New Orleans cooking: green peppers, onions and celery. They both also rely on the roux (pronounced ‘Roo) as the base of the dish. A Roux is simply flour cooked in fat, either pork fat or butter, until it browns. This adds flavor and thickness to the dish.
Blackened What?
There has been a trend lately that started when some hapless cook burned a piece of meat, then to cover up his mistake, smothered it in pepper and tried to pass it off as “Cajun Blackened Moose” or whatever. If you serve this mess to a Cajun, he’ll laugh in your face, smack you upside the head, and tell you to get back into the kitchen and cook him some real food. There is no such thing as blackened anything in real Cajun cuisine. There are also people who believe that if you add cayene pepper to anything from steak to potato chips it automatically makes that dish "Cajun". Not so. Cajun and Creole foods are both spicy but not necessarily burning hot. If a Cajun wants his meal that way he will add Tabasco or some other hot sauce at the table.
If you'd like a taste of the south, try these...
PECAN PRALINES
(In New Orleans, they are pronounced PRAW-leens, NOT PRAY-leens)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup pecans
Combine the sugar and milk and cook slowly in a heavy pot over a low flame until it reaches the soft ball stage (238 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and pecans.
Beat mixture with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonsful onto waxed paper. If the candy does not harden within 10 minutes, it may be cooked some more.
Yield: Approximately one dozen
History source: http://www.chefrick.com/index.html
"Cajuns" are the descendants of a group of French people who were exiled from the Acadia region of Nova Scotia for political reasons, starting in 1755. The first Acadians were French-speaking Catholics who made a living by fishing, farming and trapping. They settled the Acadian Peninsula in Nova Scotia in the early 1600s. In 1713, Acadia was ceded to Great Britian by France. The Acadians would not swear alliegence to the King. The British tried to impose their Protestant religion on the Acadians, who refused to give up their beliefs.
In 1753, the notoriously cruel Charles Lawrence took over as governor of Acadia. In 1755, Lawrence rounded up the French Acadians at gun point and shipped them to ports along the Eastern Seaboard. In all, approximately 10,000 Acadians were arrested, imprisoned and deported over an eight-year period, starting in 1855.
The Protestant, English-speaking British colonists along the East Coast were not receptive to the French Acadians. Therefore, many of the Acadians headed for Louisiana, which was populated largely by French and Spanish people. Fifteen years after the Acadian exile began, approximately 1,500 to 1 ,600 exiles had settled in Louisiana. This group was later joined by another wave of exiles in 1785. I should point out that a contingency of these "Cajuns" found refuge in Canada and a smaller number still populate parts of Texas.
Once in Louisiana, the “Cajuns” found peace and an abundance of fish and wildlife to turn into the down-home cooking they are famous for. But they populated mainly the outlying areas of the state where they could live off of the land.
Being a sea-port, New Orleans attracted people from many lands. African slaves, Native Americans, and Caribbean seamen added their flavors to the cuisine of the melting pot that became New Orleans.
The first settlers were French, usually the second-born sons of aristocrats who left France to seek adventure in the New World. They brought their traditional style of cooking from the continent, and being rich aristocrats, they also brought along their chefs as well! These Frenchmen came to be called Creoles, and made up the upper crust of New Orleans. Their descendents can still be found in the French Quarter today.
When I was a child most people in these parishes spoke French. It was not the traditional language of France but a Patois...although without a formal definition in linguistics, it can be used to describe a language considered as nonstandard. Depending upon the instance, it can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but is not commonly applied to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.
Class distinctions are embedded in the term, drawn between those who speak patois and those who speak the standard or dominant language used in literature and newscasts—the "acrolect" in professional jargon. In the small town that my father was born in, Abbeville, LA, he had to start school to learn to speak english. My grandparents never did conquer english. And though I spoke it as a child, I am hard pressed to remember it now. This is a shame because the language is dying out and before long, it is thought that it will disappear.
Cajun vs. Creole Cooking
In general, Cajun dishes are the country cooking of Louisiana, highlighted by dirty rice, gumbos, jambalaya, andouille (pronounced ahnd-wee or ahn-do-wee), it’s a spicy smoked sausage and simple foods such as fried catfish. Cajun cooking traditionally uses pork fat and simpler ingredients.
Creole is the food of the city, a more refined cuisine represented by Oysters Rockefeller, Shrimp Remoulade and Bananas Foster. It traditionally used the butter available to the wealthy Creoles, and more expensive ingredients.
Some people will tell you that if a dish has tomatoes, it’s Creole, not Cajun. That isn’t always true. Tomatoes have been known to turn up in jambalaya or gumbo, which are both Cajun.
Both Cajun and Creole use the “Holy Trinity” of New Orleans cooking: green peppers, onions and celery. They both also rely on the roux (pronounced ‘Roo) as the base of the dish. A Roux is simply flour cooked in fat, either pork fat or butter, until it browns. This adds flavor and thickness to the dish.
Blackened What?
There has been a trend lately that started when some hapless cook burned a piece of meat, then to cover up his mistake, smothered it in pepper and tried to pass it off as “Cajun Blackened Moose” or whatever. If you serve this mess to a Cajun, he’ll laugh in your face, smack you upside the head, and tell you to get back into the kitchen and cook him some real food. There is no such thing as blackened anything in real Cajun cuisine. There are also people who believe that if you add cayene pepper to anything from steak to potato chips it automatically makes that dish "Cajun". Not so. Cajun and Creole foods are both spicy but not necessarily burning hot. If a Cajun wants his meal that way he will add Tabasco or some other hot sauce at the table.
If you'd like a taste of the south, try these...
PECAN PRALINES
(In New Orleans, they are pronounced PRAW-leens, NOT PRAY-leens)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup pecans
Combine the sugar and milk and cook slowly in a heavy pot over a low flame until it reaches the soft ball stage (238 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and pecans.
Beat mixture with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonsful onto waxed paper. If the candy does not harden within 10 minutes, it may be cooked some more.
Yield: Approximately one dozen
History source: http://www.chefrick.com/index.html
