Jambalaya

• 1. Introduction

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  Jambalaya is a savory Louisiana rice dish of meat, vegetables and spice, yet the earliest printed trace of its name comes from a poem. In 1837, Fortuné Chailan published Leis amours de Vanus; vo, Lou paysan oou théâtré in Provençal dialect. That book holds the first known appearance of any version of the word, in any language. It is an odd starting point for a dish so tied to the American South. How did a Provençal word end up attached to a pot of rice in Louisiana? Who first cooked it, and with which grains, spices and memories? Why do cooks in one part of the state add tomatoes while cooks in another refuse them? And what separates this dish from gumbo and étouffée, which share so much of its pantry?

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• 2. Where the Name Comes From

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  The Oxford English Dictionary traces jambalaya to the Provençal word jambalaia, which meant a mish mash or a mixup. The same word could also mean a pilaf, the rice dish known as pilau. A popular folk explanation takes a different route and says the name joins two Spanish words, jamón for ham and paella for the rice dish. The evidence for that idea is thin. Ham is not a defining ingredient, and a Spanish speaker would say paella con jamón rather than jamón paella.

  Louisiana chef John Folse offers a third account in The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine, published in 2004. He reads the name as a contraction of jambon à la yaya, meaning ham with rice. The phrase pairs French jambon with the Yoruba word yaya. Researchers who study the cooking rather than the word often begin somewhere else entirely, with the rice fields of Senegal.

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• 3. Senegal and the One-Pot Rice

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  Rice has long been a staple in West Africa, where cooks made mixed one-pot dishes such as thiéboudienne, benachin and jollof rice. Researcher Kayla Stewart describes jollof as apparently growing out of thiéboudienne, a Senegalese dish of red rice, fish, cassava and carrots. Author Kelley Fanto Deetz also sees jambalaya's roots in jollof. A related dish called dafa takes its name from a phrase meaning to cook everything. Meat, fish and shellfish go into one pot, and the rice soaks up their juices.

  A statistic gives the argument its weight. About sixty percent of the enslaved captives brought to Louisiana came from Senegal, a rice-growing region. They arrived with knowledge of rice cultivation and of cooking rice alongside meats. Ibraham Seck, director of research at the Whitney Plantation Slave Museum in St. John the Baptist Parish, suggests jambalaya began on the Senegalese coast.

  Taharka Adé, an associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies at San Diego State University, adds the tomato. The tomato is native to the Americas, and the French introduced it to Senegal and to the Akan people in West Africa's rice-growing regions. West Africans then improved jollof with it. At the same time, West Africans in southern Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, made another rice-and-tomato dish. That dish was jambalaya. Adé reads the timing as a sign of a shared relationship and a West African foundation.

  An article from the United Nations lists jambalaya among dishes "re-adapted from Senegal, Nigeria, Guinea and Benin." It adds, "You will find variations of these dishes in America and the Caribbean region." The Encyclopedia of African American History points to the dish's spicy heat as a West African mark, and West Africans still season one-pot rice meals with hot spices. The oldest Louisiana evidence of the dish itself, though, comes from the people who cooked it under slavery.

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• 4. Recorded in Slave Narratives

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  Slave narratives preserve some of the earliest firsthand mentions of jambalaya. Formerly enslaved people in Louisiana described making it from rice, pork or chicken, red pepper, onion, lard, salt and pepper. Historians who studied these records say they point to a possible Caribbean and African origin. Black Americans in the Southern United States adapted West African dishes using North American ingredients. Those meals were cooked to survive the era of slavery.

  A Smithsonian Institution folklife article calls jambalaya a syncretic blend of West African, French and Spanish influences. The French and Spanish colonized the territory of Louisiana and imported enslaved West Africans who understood rice cultivation. Author James McCann traces Creole, Cajun, West African and Caribbean roots. Today the dish is prepared and eaten in African-American, Cajun and Creole communities, and each of them has its own variations.

  Enslaved Africans also served the dish to their French and Spanish slaveholders. The Spanish already had a rice dish of their own, which brings paella into the story.

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• 5. Paella and Pilau

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  Historian Karen Hess sees French and Spanish influence in jambalaya. The French contribution, in her account, is pilau, rice cooked with seasoning. French pilau, however, does not add seafood and meat. Spanish Valencian paella does, as do West African and Caribbean cooking traditions.

  Some culinary scholars argue that jambalaya may have begun as a local version of paella. French influence was strong in New Orleans, and native spices from Louisiana, the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean may have transformed the pilaf or paella into something new. Author and professor Judith Carney puts it this way: "...jambalaya resulted from cooking raw rice in the broth of stew composed of ingredients from many cultural heritages."

  Folklore adds a claim about place. According to one story, jambalaya began in the French Quarter of New Orleans, in the original sector of the city.

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• 6. Inside the Pot

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  The trinity is the backbone of a Louisiana jambalaya. This sofrito-like base in Creole and Cajun cooking combines onion, celery and green bell pepper. Other vegetables often join it, including okra, carrots, tomatoes, corn, chilis and garlic. The meat traditionally includes sausage, often a smoked one such as andouille, along with pork or chicken. Seafood such as crawfish or shrimp is less common.

  The method is simple in outline. Cooks brown and saute the meat and vegetables, then add rice with seasonings and broth. Everything finishes cooking together in the same pot.

  Gumbo is a close relative, and it draws on similar sausages, meats, seafood, vegetables and seasonings. Gumbo usually includes filé powder or okra, which are uncommon in jambalaya. The real divide is the rice. Gumbo and étouffée are served over rice cooked separately, a bed beneath the main dish. In the usual jambalaya method, a rich stock is built from vegetables, meat and seafood. Raw rice goes into that broth and soaks up the flavor as it cooks.

  Étouffée is a stew that always contains shellfish such as shrimp or crawfish. It leaves out the sausage common to jambalaya and gumbo.

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• 7. Red, Brown and Everything Between

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  Two primary methods of making jambalaya divide on a single ingredient, the tomato. Creole jambalaya, also called red jambalaya, includes tomatoes. The cook adds meat to the trinity of celery, peppers and onions, usually chicken and a sausage such as andouille or smoked sausage. Tomatoes and other vegetables follow, then seafood. Rice and stock go in at the very end in equal proportions. The pot simmers for 20 to 60 minutes depending on the recipe, with infrequent stirring that usually stops toward the end. Some versions are baked afterward. Authors Abby Fisher and Karen Hess called Creole New Orleans jambalaya soupy, while other versions are dry.

  Cajun jambalaya belongs to southwestern and south-central Louisiana and contains no tomatoes. The idea is that the farther one travels from New Orleans, the rarer tomatoes become in dishes. The cook browns the meat in a cast-iron pot, and the bits that stick to the bottom, called sucs, give the dish its brown color. A little vegetable oil goes in if the pot lacks fat. The trinity here is 50 percent onions, 25 percent celery and 25 percent green or red bell pepper, though cooks adjust the proportions to taste. After the trinity softens, stock and seasonings go in and the meats return. The mixture simmers covered for at least one hour. Then it is brought to a boil, rice is added, and the pot sits covered over very low heat for at least half an hour without stirring.

  The names shift with geography. New Orleans style jambalaya is called red jambalaya in Acadiana but simply jambalaya in New Orleans. Acadiana style comes from rural, low-lying swamp country where crawfish, shrimp, oysters, alligator, duck, turtle, boar, venison, nutria and other game were close at hand. Cooks there may use any combination of meats, including chicken or turkey. Around Greater New Orleans it is called brown jambalaya, and people in Acadiana just call it jambalaya.

  Black communities in Louisiana have their own tomato-and-meat version. In rural south Louisiana, it turns brown by absorbing the sauce it cooks in. The cast-iron pots reach high temperatures, "resulting in a more complete caramelization of the natural sugars in meats and vegetables." One modern variation, documented in an African-American cookbook, uses ham, sausage, tomatoes and tomato sauce, seasoned with spices and bell pepper.

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• 8. Jambalaya in Print

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  In May 1849, the American Agriculturalist published the first English appearance of the word, on page 161. Solon Robinson mentioned a recipe for "Hopping Johnny (jambalaya)." He had made a mistake, because Hopping Johnny is an entirely different dish with different origins.

  The first cookbook recipe came in 1878. The Gulf City Cook Book, by the ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, was printed in South Mobile, Alabama. It spelled the dish "JAM BOLAYA."

  The 1920s and 1930s brought a brief jump in popularity, thanks to the flexibility of the recipe. The dish was little more than the rice and vegetables people could afford, and it grew from humble roots.

  In 1968, Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen proclaimed Gonzales, Louisiana, "the Jambalaya capital of the world." Every spring, Gonzales holds its annual Jambalaya Festival.

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