Sydney Satori, Kaleigh Wright, Leah Krupczak

Dr. Welborn and Dr. Pascoe

Southern Foodways

25 February 2022

Recipe Report: Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a popular cajun dish from Louisiana, with even one of the cities in the state

named the jambalaya capital of the world. This dish is made up of the holy trinity of cajun food

(celery, bell peppers, and onions), rice, seasonings (garlic powder and cayenne pepper), tomatoes

and some kind of meat. The meat traditionally is either seafood like shrimp and crawfish, or

chicken and sausage. Jambalaya actually comes from many different cultures, has a cultural

history tied to the farming of rice, and represents the southern foodways.

Jambalaya has geographic and agricultural origins in many different cultures. It can be

related back to French cuisine by the type of pots used. They would use “two basic types of pots

to prepare their meals.''1 These two pots were cauldrons that were suspended by hooks. They

were used for foods that needed to be cooked slowly like soups. There was also a deep skillet. It

was used for frying foods. This also worked as a dutch oven once a lid was added. Jambalaya

also has an African descent because it is cooked in a style where everything is done in one pot.2

It also has roots in Croele and Cajin cuisine. These two cultures both relate back to New Orleans

which has influences from Africa, Europe, and the New World.3

1 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 33
2 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 83
3 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 188
 The ingredients that were used have agricultural history from many different parts of the

world. The andouille sausage that is typically found in most traditional jambalaya came from

French Normandy and Brittany. Once the French people came over, they were forcibly moved

from Nova Scotia to French Louisiana.4 The sausage was such a popular ingredient at that time

because it imitated the texture of a dish called “bish meat”. The rice that is used is called Jollof

rice which is an African delicacy. It is a local rice that resembles paella rice which has a Spanish

heritage. Jambalaya changes color based on how it is being cooked. It becomes brown when the

dish absorbs the sauce it is cooked in; it turns red once tomatoes are added. Tomatoes are an

ingredient in jambalaya that is either added or subtracted based on where it is cooked. In Creole

cuisine, tomatoes are a staple. The rural south is where the jambalaya is brown and in New

Orleans it has a more red color.5 The dish also has influence from the Caribbean Island. The

ingredients that were brought over are cayenne pepper, “the okra, sweet potatoes, squashes, and

beans''6 These ingredients were originally from Africa or the West Indies. Native Americans also

contributed corn and sassafras. The leaves of this plant were then ground to become filé to

thicken food.7 Jambalaya has been influenced by many heritages that span from Central and

Latin America to Europe and Africa.8 It brings all these influences together to create an iconic

dish.

Jambalaya can be traced back to two different dishes. The first dish is Paella which dates

back to the 18th century and Louisiana’s Gallic community. Here the dish was found to be

4 Ibid, 84
5 Ibid
6 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 188
7 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 33
8 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 33
consumed in the areas settled by hispanic immigrants like Gonzales, which is near the Canary

Islands. This dish would become rural jambalaya which is a brown jambalaya. It is brown as the

rice that made up the body of the dish absorbs the sauce it is cooked in. This was traditionally

cooked in a cast iron pot which would achieve high cooking temperatures which resulted in more

complete caramelization of sugars in the meat and vegetables which created the brown sauce.

The second dish that jambalaya comes from is Jollof rice from West Africa. This dish has a

heavy use of tomatoes, an ingredient that hallmarks creole cuisine. It is similar to paella as it is

cooked in a single pot and includes whatever is had around. This dish would evolve into red

jambalaya or New Orleans Jambalaya.9 Pork started to be seen in jambalaya during the

antebellum period where slaves would add pork in with the chicken of rural jambalaya.10 Seafood

would have been more common in Jambalaya along the gulf unto; the 20th century, when

refrigeration was introduced and the highway system improved allowing seafood to move

inland.11

Rice and rice based dishes almost fell out of style after the civil war and did not start

making a comeback until the great depression. After 1869, most rice plantations were abandoned

in Louisiana. Then in the 19th century a German immigrant came down to Louisiana to duck

hunt and started back up rice growing. He saw the flat marshy lands and knew with the

Mccormick harvester and binder he could grow rice. After that several German immigrants came

to Louisiana to grow rice through the Southern Pacific Railway. Then the Great Depression

started and Cajun people started to grow rice again seeing the profit and usability of it. Then in

9 Ibid, 35
10 Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by
John T. Edge, vol. 7 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 36
11 Bultman, Bethany Ewald. Who Saved Jambalaya? No. 80 (Petits Propos Culinaires, March
2006), 79–92. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=hjh&AN=21471940&site=eds-live&scope=site, 84
the 20th century small white farming communities in Baton Rouge restarted the tradition of

slaves cooking in one cast iron pot in order ot feed the community during events. Eventually,

Jambalaya would gain popularity as the skill of one pot cooking turned into a competition for

fundraising called the Gonzales Jambalaya festival.12

Jambalaya, as a staple Cajun dish, is a representative of southern culture and foodways.

Southern culture is surprisingly diverse and southern food has many different cultural influences.

Cajun food and more specifically, jambalaya also has multiple cultural influences. There are two

dishes that likely influenced Cajun jambalaya, paella and jollof rice. Cajun culture and food

started with the Acadians, French settlers from Nova Scotia, who were exiled from their colony

and settled in Louisiana. The diet of the French peasants mixed with African slaves influence

created a unique food and culture of its own. Modern Cajun food today, like jambalaya, is an

evolved version of what started in the 18th century. “The evolutionary tract followed by Acadian

cuisine in North America was shaped by the variety of available foodstuffs, the accessibility of

gradually improving cooking technology, and the population’s pragmatism and willingness to

experiment with new modes of food preparation.”13 Cajun cuisine went through many changes as

it adapted to the foods available as well as the cooking technology that changed over time.

Seafood, like the shrimp found in jambalaya, is heavily associated with Cajun food, but it was

not always easily accessed. Prior to the 1920’s, seafood in Cajun food was a luxury that was

often only utilized on special occasions. That changed though, and ”Cajun cooks, previously

unable to use much seafood, became increasingly willing to experiment with these recipes as

12 Bultman, Bethany Ewald. Who Saved Jambalaya? No. 80 (Petits Propos Culinaires, March
2006), 79–92. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=hjh&AN=21471940&site=eds-live&scope=site,, 84-88
13 Forbes, Dean. “Jambalaya and the Songlines of New Orleans.” Asian Studies Review 15, no. 2
(1991): 226–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03147539108712794, 226
new highways, the establishment of municipal electrical systems, and the introduction of

iceboxes made seafood both readily available and affordable- but only in urban settings.”14

Crawfish also became more integral in Cajun foods for similar reasons. Also, in the early 20th

century crawfish was seen as the “poor man’s food.” It was not until the Breaux Bridge Crawfish

Festival in 1959 created popularity for the crustacean. Cajun food began receiving national

attention around the 1980’s. This caused some changes to the cuisine from a national point of

view since many people were confused as to what qualified as Cajun cuisine. This is likely

because most Cajun food was cooked in the home and recipes were not often shared outside of

the family. There were consistencies across the board such as the use of local seafood and certain

vegetables. Cajun food also changed more into the 21st century as more and more non-Cajun

chefs began adding their own style and culture to the dishes. “The resulting fusion, increasingly

called nouveau Cajun or simply Louisiana cuisine, is represented by such dishes as crawfish

fettuccine, Cajun enchiladas, crawfish cabbage rolls, and Cajun sausage spaghetti.”15 Cajun food

and jambalaya’s popularity across the southern United States shows the love for different

cultural foods in the region.

Jambalaya shows the many different influences of southern foodways in it. It shows

French cuisine as the dish ties back to the type of pot it is cooked in and one pot cooking

originally found in Africa. The ingredients used in jambalaya come from several different

countries including the Caribbean, Africa, and Spain. The dish itself pulls from a Spanish Gaellic

dish called paella and a West African dish called Jollof rice. Due to the heavy dependence on

rice it almost went out of style as the rice plantations got abandoned after the civil war until the

14 Harris, J. B. “Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine.” African Affairs 110, no. 441
(2011): 657–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adr054, 170
15 Harris, J. B. “Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine.” African Affairs 110, no. 441
(2011): 657–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adr054, 170
crop was restarted during the Great Depression. As a dish it represents the multicultural southern

foodways as it pulls from so many different cultures yet is a staple cajun dish which are dishes

cooked in home by cajun people until recently.

Wilson, Charles Reagan. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Foodways. Edited by John

T. Edge, vol. 7. University of North Carolina Press, 2007.

Forbes, Dean. “Jambalaya and the Songlines of New Orleans.” Asian Studies Review 15, no. 2

1991: 226–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03147539108712794.

Harris, J. B. “Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine.” African Affairs 110, no. 441

(2011): 657–58. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adr054,

McCann, James C. Stirring the pot: A history of African cuisine. Ohio University Press, 2009

Bultman, Bethany Ewald. Who Saved Jambalaya? No. 80. Petits Propos Culinaires, March 2006.

79–92. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=hjh&AN=21471940&site=eds-live&scope=site.