Many of the street names are French — Rue Bourbon, par exemple — and corner bistros send aromas of pralines, beignets, and bread pudding wafting across the neighborhood. Yes, New Orleans is a French place. But, they are French by way of Acadia, the area colonized by France in North America what is now the Canadian Maritimes in the 16thth centuries.
When the Acadians were expelled from Canada during the French and Indian War, many made their way south to Louisiana, eventually settling in an area that became known as Acadiana. Cajun people pride themselves in their unique food, dialect, celebrations, and culture — all of which are separate from what many French New Orleanians identify as Creole.
But as many purely French New Orleanians call themselves Creole, defining the term can be complicated. According to LaFleur, the term Creole originally applied to the children of the first colonists to indicate that they had been born in the New World.
Marriages between French and Spanish colonists and extra-marital contact with black residents — both slave and free did occur, which caused the word to become almost synonymous with mixed descent.
But something similar can be heard in Acadiana. During the first and second World Wars, French was stigmatized as un-American and banned from Louisiana schools.
There has even been a Cajun French revival movement in recent years. The difference between the two cultures can be observed in their respective Mardi Gras celebrations. Parades with large, colorful floats and flashy, avant-garde presentation are typical of New Orleans Carnival , while in Acadiana, the festivities are more pastoral. Groups travel from house to house, begging for food that will be used to make a communal gumbo at the end of the route.
Ingredients collected may include anything from flour to a live chicken. LaFleur said Cajun Carnival is steeped in old European tradition. Society, she said, is turned upside down. If it gets too dark, however, it will lose its ability to thicken your sauce. The darker your roux is, the more time it will take to thicken your sauce.
The Creole version of roux borrows from France, typically using butter and flour. Because dairy products were not as common in the Acadiana region in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was and still is more common for Cajun roux to use vegetable oil, lard or other animal fats duck, bacon, etc.
While roux is often cooked on the stovetop, the process can understandably be somewhat tedious and time-consuming. Below is a recipe for an oven-made Cajun roux from the chefs here at The Gregory that will still need some attention, but not quite the constant stirring of a stove top recipe. It might take a bit longer, but it is also less likely to burn.
The trinity is the Cajun and Creole version of mirepoix. The traditional version of mirepoix calls for two parts diced yellow onions, one part diced carrots and one part diced celery. A trinity for Cajun or Creole cooking omits the carrots and instead uses green bell peppers. Garlic and parsley are often added to trinity as well. The combination of roux and trinity is the base of most Creole and Cajun stews and gumbos.
Some also use it as a base for other non-Louisiana foods, such as spaghetti sauce. While both are delicious options, a common debate in Louisiana pits Creole gumbo vs. Cajun gumbo. Here are recipes for both Cajun and Creole Gumbo that you can try at home. The main difference from this dish and gumbo is the rice is prepared with the dish, where gumbo is poured on top of white rice. There are many different ways to make jambalaya, all based on your personal preference.
Here are two basic recipes for Cajun and Creole jambalaya:. So, is Creole the same as Cajun? If you want the whole Baton Rouge experience, visit The Gregory with a group of friends or family so you can all order the Cajun- and Creole-inspired dishes to share with each other.
After learning about the differences between Creole and Cajun food, you can see for yourself if you can pick up on the unique ingredients and styles of each dish. You can also impress your tablemates with your knowledge about what trinity is and how Cajuns and Creoles used it in various recipes. By Kevin Farrell March 6, On the surface, the simplest way to discern between the two is to think of Creole as city food and people , and Cajun as country food and people. Creole historically refers to the descendants of the French and later, Spanish colonial settlers of New Orleans.
As Africans were eventually introduced to the city by wealthy slave owners, the definition of Creole expanded to include Black New Orleanians as well. French Creole is sometimes used to identify people that trace their roots primarily back to European ancestors in the city, while Louisiana Creole is used at times to describe mixed-race or Black descendants today.
Creole food was prepared in the kitchens of colonial New Orleans, one of the most thriving port cities in the world. As such, Creoles had access to ingredients and appetites first grown in the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, in addition to what had been cultivated in the area by Native American tribes. Vanilla, whiskey, okra and limes are just some of the foods brought into New Orleans from ports across the world that then made their way into Creole cooking.
Creole food is therefore considered to be somewhat more varied and cosmopolitan than its Cajun cousin. Cajun history has perhaps a few more twists and turns than the relatively New Orleans-centric Creole culture. Following a British takeover of the land, a large population of Acadians headed way, way south to Louisiana.
Much like Creole has cultural subgroups within it, Cajuns are also often able to trace their heritage back to distinct communities based on the primarily rural area of Louisiana that they resettled in.
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