The difference Between Gumbo and Etoufee,

[bowriter]

Gumbo is a soup. Etofee is a stew. The difference is in the consistency. The classic etoufee usually contains more tomatoes and a more varied array of vegetables It is thicker. A gumbo is more liquid. Both start with a roux and to some degree contain the same ingredients. Gumbo, in my opinion, must be served with rice. Etoufee is optional.

Etoufee, if you want to offend a Cajun, is excellent served over pasta. When I make etoufee, I like a blonde roux. For gumbo I like a copper penny roux. For me, the veggies for an etoufee are more finely chopped and I would never make one with anything but a shell fish or crustacean. I'll gumbo out of anything.

 

[TennesseeRains]

Thanks BW...Cajun and Creole cooking is something I know very little about. In fact, until this week, between your posts - and those of Jim and WTM...I hadn't ever even heard of 'etoufee'!!!

 

[JimFromTN]

I am not insulting your ettoufee but I have never had any ettoufee with tomatoes in it that I liked. Mostly because it was basically a thick version of a creole sauce with crawfish in it rather than shrimp. I guess thats why I associate tomatoes as creole vs a roux as cajun which I know is wrong. ettoufee is a cajun dish not creole regardless of the base. The ettoufee that I make has no tomatoes. Every time I go to a Cajun restaurant and its on the menu, I get it. When I got it in LA, I don't think any of them had tomatoes in it or if it did, they were unnoticeable. Here around the middle TN area, I have had it. Bros on charlotte makes it that way as does Papa Bordreauxs in Fly TN. There was a place in Bell Meade called Gumbo Ya Ya that made it that way also. The worst I have ever had was at Cajun Steamers in Cool Springs. It was like they took a can of cream of tomato soup and dumped crawfish in it. I am not saying those are bad restaurants and you should not go, I just don't like their ettoufee. You just have to know whats good on the menu.

The best I have had to date is a recipe out of the Gumbo Shop Cookbook which I cook. Sadly enough, some of the best I have had at a restaurant was off of the Shoneys seafood buffet on friday nights. They have since discontinued putting it on their buffet since it was not very popular. Most people go there for the fried food and when they see it, they won't bother trying it. I used to go just for the crawfish ettoufee. I have not been back since I found out they stopped serving it. I bet there are allot of people on this site who have eaten the seafood buffet that would have loved it, saw it and never tried it.

 

[bowriter]

Finely chopped tomatoes is a staple of Cajun etoufee. But you have to keep in mind, all Cajun cooking is a blend of whatever is available at the time. It can be seafood (shrimp or crab or oysters) or it can be chicken or crawfish. Many people think an etoufee is strickly crustacean. That is not true. I have had rabbit etoufee. The etoufee is the blend of vegetables. The meat if any, is added from whatever is available. A pork sausage etoufee is enough to make you swoon.

True Cajuns, were mostly people of the land. They learned to make do with what they had. That was the origin of gumbo and jambalya and etoufee all come from makiing do with what you had. It was how you fed your family. You took rice and whatever you had and made it fit to eat. That is why see okra in so many dishes.

One of the finest jambalays (correctly pronounced jumbalye) I ever ate was a squirrel jambalaya with the heads in the pot. My personal favorite is shrimp and andoulie sausage. But you can make any of the dishes with any meat or any ingredient.

The difference between the three is nothing more than consistency. The exception being, most jambalyas do not start with a roux.

True Cajun cooking should not be hot. That's Mexican. It should be seasoned but not hot. Many of the dishes start with a couvillion. That's a fish sauce or fish gravy and I keep some of it in the freezer at all times. I also always save the water from anything I boil including shrimp or crawfish. Those are my base sauces.

I learned to cook from two uncles who made their living making moonshine. They taught me that, too. But they lived in and off the swamp. They had nets and fish baskets out all year. They could make anything fit to eat. All they did was hunt and fish and laugh a lot.

If you travel through Cajun country, you will find the recipe varies mostly in the seasoning and by personal taste. I learned to cook in the Saline Swamp area. The Cajuns there were excellent cooks. But they don't make their dishes the same as those in deep South LA. That is more Creole and has the touch of black cooking and Spanish cooking. You will find more varied meat in central LA due to the lack of seafood.

 

[pulplip fiction]

Gumbo, in my opinion, must be served with rice. Etoufee is optional. Etoufee, if you want to offend a Cajun, is excellent served over pasta. When I make etoufee, I like a blonde roux. For gumbo I like a copper penny roux. For me, the veggies for an etoufee are more finely chopped and I would never make one with anything but a shell fish or crustacean. I'll gumbo out of anything.

A friend of mine here in mid tn, who is from deep in the bayou, makes an excellent gumbo. He keeps trying to get me to try it over potato salad. sounds awful to me.

 

[bowriter]

Now that is one I never heard of. I don't believe I'm going to try it anytime soon.

 

[moondawg]

I LOVE cajun food! Unfortunately, there's not many cajun restraunts around the Memphis area.

Bowriter, I didn't know the difference between gumbo and etoufee. I was wondering why my gumbo was more liquid/soupy; I like it to be a little thicker. Thanks for clearing this up!

There's a guy who I camp with that says the same thing--gumbo is basically a "throw what ya got in the pot" kind of dish.

Funny thing about shrimp--I don't care for it. But if it's added to cajun cooking, I don't mind it at all.

Too bad I didn't grow up in the bayous of LA...I'd LOVE to learn the tricks of Cajun cooking from real Cajun people.

 

[bowriter]

Moondawg- If you want your gumbo a little thicker add a tablespoon of file(feelay) roux you can buy it in any grocery store, it is nothing but sassafrass used as a thickening agent. Be sure to bring your gumbo to a boil or you won't know how thick it is. You can also use a little massa flour and do the same thing. You can always thicken as you cook by adding a roux.

A roux is nothing but thickening agent and a liquid, usually unsalted butter. But you must bring it to a boil after you add it to see how thick it will be. If it is too thick, just add some liquid. Gumbo should be soupy. Etoufee thicker and jambaya almost dry.

There are a million recipes for Cajun or Creole food but there are no set in stone ingredients except for the trinity-onion, celery and bell pepper.

Dirty rice, my specialty is a combination of grouond pork, beef and chicken livers. My sister adds three egg yolks. The rice is seasoned and then added, then a quart of stock. I have probably seen dirty rice cooked 100 different ways.

 

[LA man]

Gumbo, in my opinion, must be served with rice. Etoufee is optional. Etoufee, if you want to offend a Cajun, is excellent served over pasta. When I make etoufee, I like a blonde roux. For gumbo I like a copper penny roux. For me, the veggies for an etoufee are more finely chopped and I would never make one with anything but a shell fish or crustacean. I'll gumbo out of anything.

A friend of mine here in mid tn, who is from deep in the bayou, makes an excellent gumbo. He keeps trying to get me to try it over potato salad. sounds awful to me.

THATS HOW MY WIFE EATS HER GUMBO, MIXED WITH TATER SALAD

 

[LA man]

YALL MAKIN ME HUNGRY SHA

 

[bowriter]

Me too, wish I could eat. Man I droolim, me, at thought of a good gumbo. Seriously, your wife eats it over tater salad? Man that don't sound good to me, no.

Since I lost my sense of taste, I been livin on soup and yogurt. Blahhh.

 

[moondawg]

I made Savannah Gumbo yesterday, which is in one of Paula Deen's cookbooks. My wife is a Paula Deen fan.

It has roux, chicken, chicken broth, smoked sausage, onion, bell pepper, garlic, okra, tomatoes, thyme, cayenne pepper and bay leaves in it. I used file powder at the end. Served it over rice.

It was a little soupy yesterday, but a tad thicker today. It's not authentic gumbo, but it was still good.

 

[JimFromTN]

If the cajuns can adopt shrimp and grits from the Savannah and Carolina Coast people, I think its ok for them to adopt gumbo from the cajuns.

 

[WTM]

cajuns probably adopted gumbo from the african slaves when the cajun people arrived in LA. but etoufee is definately their own.

 

[bowriter]

Actually, the gumbo came from Nova Scotia. The slaves just brought the seasoning. Etoufee is a bayou/swamp dish that orginated from having to make do with what you had. There is a very old book, "Living on Cane River" that kinda-sorta chronicles some of the old Acadian recipes.

Keep in mind, when many of these recipes, unlike the Creole dishes originated, the people had nothing. They worked with what they could kill or catch or grow. Creole cooking came about many years later when the two were blended with several cultures. That came about in New Orelans area when French and Indian and Spanish and negro mixed.

The true Acadians-Cajuns- moved inland. They did not mix cultures as much. They took over Oak Island and Grand Isle and such places and then began to move north to get away from the storms. Even today, in LA there are several different dialects spoken. All are French based but they are distinct in their intonation and pronouciation. Some I can understand. The ones from deep south LA I can't. There is an accent in NO that is identical to Brooklyn. There is an accent in Nachitoches that is Spanish.

Go figure.

Where I was raised, it was a mixture. Many of the cooking habits were pure Cajun. The language was a jumble of English and Cajun French. You quickly learned to say Cha.

I let LA man explain. That is the Cajun version of cher. In New O. it would be Whey you at, man? They are called Yats. A few miles south, at Pilots Island, it would be $$%%&*( (*(*&$#$ you Coonasse #$%&*(())_

 

[WTM]

actually, the origin of gumbo is a great mystery. some say africa, some say indian, and the rest say acadian. who knows really, but it is interesting that okra came from africa with the slaves and there is an african version of gumbo stew. the west african word for gumbo is ki ngombo wich means okra, but on the other hand kombo is the choctaw word for sassafrass or filet.

there where a few slaves in 1699-1704 when the french landed, and they also took some of the indians as slaves. the bulk of the african slaves landed in 1717, a few thousand. most african slaves were males and the indian slaves were mostly women which catered to the french men. the Acadian people didnt arrive until about 1759, 3000 i think. and shortly after 1500 were exiled to france.

now here is the interesting part, the first documented appearance of gumbo wasnt until 1803 in new orleans, then a year later at an Acadian reunion. you could say that it is a more french dish with the roux and all, but according to the documentation, roux wasnt orginally used at all, but okra was used and sometimes filet(which was introduced by the indians). the africans and indians were allowed to intermingle, in fact, they had a big party so to speak every sunday, the only day they were allowed. so it may very well be, this intermingling party, was were the gumbo really got started, 40 years before the arrival of the Acadian people.

but who knows really.. who said food had to be boring!! lol.

 

[ShaneHallum]

Interesting reads....

 

[moondawg]

Anyways, gumbo is good!

 

[bowriter]

Dam straight I just made 1.5 gallons of pork and sausage gumbo.

 

[moondawg]

Dam straight I just made 1.5 gallons of pork and sausage gumbo.

Sounds good!