Cajun food is more than adding a few spices to a dish or maybe a roux, it’s a way of life to many folks who live in Southwestern Louisiana. One very distinguishable people who have established their culture for more than 200 years in Southwestern Louisiana and in some parts of Southern Texas, who have contributed one of the most recognized and celebrated cultures of cultures in the United States are the Cajuns.

The name “Cajun” comes from the region of Canada called Acadie, that the French-born immigrants, or Acadians, lived before they were forced out of Canada into the United States. In the early 18th Century, the Acadians led one of the largest exiles ever known in North America, being forced out of a part of Nova Scotia called Acadie, and into Louisiana between 1755 and 1763, where they would remain for the next 2 centuries, taking their culture of family, music -- and food -- proudly by their sides.

The Acadians, who traveled to Louisiana by the thousands as early as 1755 ended up making their home in the southernmost part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, and extended their boundaries to east Texas, which is all still referred to as “Acadiana” by some today. It is here that most of the first Cajun French immigrants would claim their territories as Cajun Country, and by doing so would also begin to intermarry among other Louisiana settlers, even adopting some of their traditional Spanish, German and Creole influences in their cooking that can still be seen today.

Cities such as Lafayette, Erath, Eunice, Rayne and Lake Charles are some of the most Cajun of cities that keep Cajun culture alive in Acadiana, all of which have a vibrant culture consisting of many festivals, restaurants and Cajun families who carry on Cajun traditions today.

Cajun food has made and exceptionally great impact on Louisiana’s culture for many years, and has made an even bigger splash on the presence of ethnic influences on mainstream American cuisines as well. Cajun cuisine is commonly known for its spicy seasonings, delicious seafood and comforting menus in the South, but it is often mistaken for New Orleans style, Creole or soul food on menus elsewhere.

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New Orleans cuisine has its own flavors and ingredients because of its deep history of French Creoles, not French Acadians, who came to Louisiana not as exiles from Canada, but majorly as slaves from the then French-colonized Caribbean Islands, of Martinique, Haiti and Mauritius. These Creoles were mostly blacks, many of whom practiced the religion of voodoo or black magic as the Acadians were mostly white Catholics. Creole is as non-synonymous with Cajuns as their culture and cuisine is with Cajun Cuisine. Because of both of their presence in Louisiana, three generations of Acadians and Creoles have assimilated their cultures’ presence in both culture and food, thus some similarities can be detected between the two.

The main difference between Cajun and Creole cuisines lay in their spices and ingredients. Cajun dishes mainly utilize cayenne pepper, bay leaf, black and white pepper, celery, garlic and thyme. Creole dishes use spices common to the Caribbean, which add sweeter and more tropical elements than traditional Cajun recipes. Cajun seasonings also include Tabasco pepper sauce, which originated in Avery Island, Louisiana, as well as using smoked sausage or Tasso, to flavor dishes. Creole dishes use seafood, tomatoes and okra, which they brought here from the islands, in several variations and in most of their dishes. One can often judge by the reddish color of a dish its Creole, not Cajun influences.

The emphasis of spices unique to Cajun cuisine is one of Cajun Cuisine’s distinguishing points, however simply adding Cajun spices such as cayenne pepper won’t make it technically Cajun. Cajun food is based around using the ingredients that are available into a few main categories of preparations: gumbo or stewing, smothering or étouffée, grilling, smoking, frying, boiling, or mixing with rice in some manner.

The most common Cajun ingredients are ingredients that are found in Louisiana, namely meats like beef and pork; seafood such as freshwater and saltwater fish, shellfish such as shrimp, oysters, crawfish and crabs; and game that can be hunted in season like deer, wild boar, rabbit or squirrel. True Cajuns were survivors and took advantage of every opportunity to hunt. This is also why there has been a presence of alligator, rabbit, even nutria on some Cajun menus throughout their history. Cajuns also used the natural terrain and landscape of Louisiana along with their French backgrounds in incorporating the plentiful Louisiana frogs into delicious treats that are still enjoyed today – fried frog legs. Cajuns have been known to take what is available and using it in their diets. Even recently in Louisiana in 2000, there was a brief attempt to glorify the nutria as a meat source, publicizing nutria burgers, steaks or sausage to help control the overpopulation of the species on the delicate Louisiana ecosystem. Although popular for some, the nutria staple was relatively short-lived.

Other ingredients usually take a secondary, but necessary role in Cajun meals. Rice, grains and locally-grown ingredients made up the remainder of the Cajun diet and were necessary to the Cajuns’ survival when hunting wasn’t successful. Before they could establish a successful and stable cattle industry, Cajuns depended on fresh ingredients and vegetables to tide them over between hunts. These vegetables were bell pepper, onion, sweet potato, tomato, green onion or scallions, eggplant, corn, cabbage, squash and whatever else would grow in Louisiana’s semi-tropical environment. Even today, Louisiana farmers produce much of what ends up on Cajun menus in Southwestern Louisiana.

Some of the more famous chefs in the area like Chef John Folse or Tony Chachere have popularized both Cajun and Creole dishes, putting their names on menus across the nation, from Baltimore, Maryland to San Francisco. Dishes such as chicken and sausage gumbo, or shrimp po’ boys have become more commonplace since chefs from the area began to prepare their dishes for restaurants and audiences around the world in the last 20 years or so. More popular local Cajun dishes are crawfish étoufée, sausage jambalaya, boiled crawfish or crabs and boudin (pronounced BOO-Dan), which will all be explained in articles to follow.

As the focus of this series is to discover and celebrate Cajun Cuisine, I will also be pointing out both the similarities and differences between Cajun and Creole cuisines. In my upcoming series, “Flavors of the Bayou: Real Cajun Cuisine,” I will also take the mystery out of preparing great Cajun dishes, and help readers recognize authentic Cajun and Creole cuisine and learn how to incorporate Cajun-inspired traditions into their favorite meals and menus. Together, we will discover the secrets of cooking delicious meals for you and your family, which you can enjoy for many generations to come.