French Cuisine in North America

in the 18th C,. Britain was dealing with the French population in Canada. The Quebecois surrendered in 1760 and became a British colony, but the French in Acadia refused to pay allegiance to the British crown and were largely expelled to Louisiana (remember that this was pre-revolutionary war and America was still a British possession, so was available as a dumping ground for undesirables).

That resulted in two distinctive cuisines based on French cooking, one akin to 18th C. rural French, the other rather more novel as it gradually incorporated local ingredients in Louisiana.

The Cajun cooking includes much more local content - in spicing, onions, celery, and green bell peppers, along with paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and oregano, and in meats, much more shellfish, fish and pork.

Quebec cooking was based more on traditional European cooking and ingredients including root vegetables, beef, cheddar cheese, and potatoes, so we saw poutine, tourtière (meat pie), pea soup, and maple syrup-based desserts in place of gumbo, jambalaya, and crawfish étouffée, plus the influence of Spanish and African elements.

I noticed the difference in language when a friend who headed a zydeco band here in B.C had some guests from Louisiana come to visit. My school taught Parisian French is adequate to the job when in France but the Cajun guests were speaking what sounded like a very different language - all the difference in language and cuisine having happened in a couple of hundred years.

I thought that I'd post this to see to what degree our American members are familiar with and perhaps utilize Cajun cuisine in their cooking repertoire. I suppose that is like asking Americans from New York if they make Mexican food, but I wondered how widespread the culinary interest in regional Louisiana food might be.

I can't tell you exactly when it was, but I (like many others in North America) first became aware of Cajun cuisine in the mid-80's when Paul Prudhomme's first cookbook came out. Justin Wilson's Cajun cooking show was also on the local PBS station around then (probably not coincidentally) and I really enjoyed watching him, My first experience with one of Prudhomme's dishes was when my brother made blackened redfish at my parents' house when we were all back there for Christmas. He got the skillet appropriately hot, dropped the well-spiced fish fillets into it, and immediately filled the house with the kind of smoke that SWAT teams use to force barricaded suspects out of fortified buildings. (To my bother's credit, he somehow hung in there through the tear gas and we had a lovely meal.) I picked up Prudhomme's book and have made various Cajun and Creole dishes over the years, but never in any sort of regular manner. This is at least partly because my wife is not all that fond of gumbo, jambalaya, and some of the other more common Cajun dishes. I like them, though,

Regarding language: my father learned to speak Parisian French while growing up in pre-WW2 Germany. After emigrating to the US in 1936, he ended up in Quebec City for a couple of years. He discovered much to his dismay that the local Quebecois disdained his weirdly accented French and he had to learn the local argot in order to get by there. One byproduct of his time there was his attachment to the Montreal Canadiens: we watched many of their games during their heyday of the '60s and '70s.

I suppose that is like asking Americans from New York if they make Mexican food, but I wondered how widespread the culinary interest in regional Louisiana food might be.

I think Mexican food is currently MUCH bigger in the US than Cajun cuisine. Bigger diaspora, bigger region, etc. You can now find very credible Mexican food all over the country, not just the border regions. But, maybe it is time in the cycles for Cajun food to have a resurgence.

What Mike Filigenzi said regarding when and why Cajun cooking gained national recognition. In the 1980s Paul Prudhomme's blackened redfish took the US culinary world by storm in much the way that Buffalo wings later did. I don't eat fish so I had no interest in blackened redfish, but I bought Louisiana Kitchen for its other recipes such as the gumbos and jambalayas. I've been making them regularly ever since.

-Paul W.

Regarding language: my father learned to speak Parisian French while growing up in pre-WW2 Germany. After emigrating to the US in 1936, he ended up in Quebec City for a couple of years. He discovered much to his dismay that the local Quebecois disdained his weirdly accented French and he had to learn the local argot in order to get by there.

Canadian schools teach Parisian French but the French spoken in Quebec varies considerably in all aspects - vocabulary pronunciation etc. The language spoken by Quebec university students is quite different from the patois spoken by the average Quebecois, and I imagine that speaking proper French in a Montreal beer hall would get you labelled as a bit of a prig.

One useful thing about having one carefully tended language was apparent when I was in France doing wine things. I phoned a small winery near Bergerac and spoke with the owner in French. We carried on a discussion about me coming to the winery to taste the wines, When we got there later, it turned out that we were both Anglophones, he being a Brit and me a Canadian, so the standardization of the French language worked for us in that case.

Love gumbo, etouffee, and jambalaya, and make them from time to time. As a non-Creole and non-Cajun, I always think I do a better job of it when I can get my hands on any of the specialty ingredients e.g., tasso ham, crawfish, good andouille.

I'm a patient cook and can make a dark chocolate roux.

...the other rather more novel as it gradually incorporated local ingredients in Louisiana.

In Louisiana, they also have that division: the Creole style is more refined and was practiced by the better-heeled so included fancy new ingredients like tomato and okra. The Cajun style was largely made over an open fire and was catch-as-catch-can.

The Cajun cooking includes much more local content - in spicing, onions, celery, and green bell peppers, along with paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and oregano, and in meats, much more shellfish, fish and pork.

The Trinity derived from mirepoix but carrots don't grow well in marshy lowlands, hence the bell peppers coming in.

As to meats, don't forget squirrel, duck, possum, just about whatever someone could catch....

in the 18th C,. Britain was dealing with the French population in Canada. The Quebecois surrendered in 1760 and became a British colony, but the French in Acadia refused to pay allegiance to the British crown and were largely expelled to Louisiana (remember that this was pre-revolutionary war and America was still a British possession, so was available as a dumping ground for undesirables). .

Bill, wasn't the America of 1760 the 13 colonies, which became the first. 13 states of the USA? As I understand it Louisiana was variously a French or Spanish possession before France sold it to the USA. So Louisiana wasn't a British possession. Disaffected French Canadians might have gone there because it was French speaking

in the 18th C,. Britain was dealing with the French population in Canada. The Quebecois surrendered in 1760 and became a British colony, but the French in Acadia refused to pay allegiance to the British crown and were largely expelled to Louisiana (remember that this was pre-revolutionary war and America was still a British possession, so was available as a dumping ground for undesirables). .

Bill, wasn't the America of 1760 the 13 colonies, which became the first. 13 states of the USA? As I understand it Louisiana was variously a French or Spanish possession before France sold it to the USA. So Louisiana wasn't a British possession. Disaffected French Canadians might have gone there because it was French speaking

Peter, your history is better than Bill's, but you've omitted a step: the British simply expelled the Acadians, first to the colonies, and a second wave to Spain and France. It is members of this latter group that re-migrated to Louisiana.

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Acadians