Historical:
On April 28th, 1928, the Times-Picayune published an article entitled “Green Herb Gumbo Recipes Show Pride of Housewives in Dish First Served Here:
“Recalling the days of old time cookery in the Creole kitchens when favored mammies displayed their culinary skill and bragged of their superior knowledge in mastering the intricacies of French cuisine, the ‘gumbo des herbes’ offered in many enticing forms…will bring back fond recollections to many a reader.”
Note, these are white women that learned and claimed this particular recipe from their African American maids. However, the past truly claims this recipe as a Black recipe through the slave trade. From Africa through the Caribbean to New Orleans, Herb Gumbo became a hybrid of multiple recipes through generations of slaves. “The region of West Africa, which includes countries from Southern Senegal to Sierra Leone and Liberia, is noted for rice cooking” (Harris 9). The rice would be “topped with soupy stews prepared with meats ranging from guinea hen to bush rat and supplemented with onions, garlic, gourds, and a wide variety of leafy greens” (Harris 7). In the Caribbean, the idea of putting a soup on top of rice continued, but the recipe slightly changes with what ingredients are available. The aspect of putting more leafy greens in dishes came from Callaloo, a “leafy, spinach-like vegetable” became a prime ingredient for the dish of the same name. Callaloo (dish) is a dish “created by enslaved Africans using ideas of the indigenous people along with both African (okra) and indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants” (Callaloo). It would seem that Callaloo plus African stews equals a form of Herb Gumbo that presents itself in New Orleans, but New Orleans adds their own twist on the dish.
The late Chef Leah Chase explained the how Native American added their input to gumbo recipes:
“So when that gumbo came down all the way from Africa through the islands, it was made with okra…But when it gets here [New Orleans], we begin to live among American Indians, who have sassafras, which is what we call filé. They grind the sassafras leaves, and that makes the thickener. We leave the okra out and we use the Indian sassafras to thicken the gumbo. So, we have what we call filé gumbo…If you cook okra down, you don’t need to put thickener into the gumbo, because it is already thick” (Rowell).
The different thickener decides the roux and depending on the roux could determine what meats or seafood pair better in the mix. In the case for Chase’s version of Herb Gumbo, Gumbo Z’Herbes, a filé thickener is used, meaning that this particular recipe has roots with Louisiana Native Americans, not just African American.
Traditional:
“According to some of the old black mammy cooks, there should, properly, be seven distinct kinds of “greens” including in the making” (Times Picayune 4/28/1928).
Within the Times Picayune Creole Cookbook, the following greens should be used in order for a “proper” Herb Gumbo: young cabbage, radish tops, turnips, mustard, spinach, and watercress (pg 74). However, within the 4/28/1928 article other substitutions could include beet tops, lettuce, and sorrel. Majority of the ingredients can be grown in Louisiana in a garden or farm, but certainly in 1928, commercial food production and transportation allowed the price of these ingredients to be affordable in a middle class Louisiana society. Cheaper cuts of meat such as ham or brisket are used as the protein of the meal.
Within Leah Chase’s modern version of the recipe, Gumbo Z’herbes, there are nine different greens: Mustard Greens, Collard greens, Turnip Greens, Beet Tops, Cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Watercress, Spinach, and Carrot Tops. She joked about the uneven number of greens and how it could date back to voodoo superstition: “You can’t put two kinds; you can’t just put mustards and collards in, and call it a day. That’s bad luck. You can’t put four greens. You’ve got to go with the uneven numbers…so you don’t take a chance” (Rowell). Indeed, there was a strong presence in Voodoo practices and culture in New Orleans so there is a possible connection when this recipe was formulated (I have yet to find a correlation.). She, also, not only chose to include ham and brisket, but also included two types of sausage, andouille and smoked.
What makes this recipe such a staple dish in the city of New Orleans would be due to the large Catholic population. This was a dish traditionally served on Good Friday, a day of fasting from meat, since meat could be easily omitted, and it could still serve as a hearty meal. Additional lagniappe regarding Herb Gumbo dictates that for “every green that was put into the gumbo, a new friend would be made in the new year” (TPCC pg 74).
Ambrosial:
There is not much of a difference between how to cook the recipe. If following the recipes within the Times Picayune articles and within the Times Picayune Creole Cookbook and comparing to Leah Chase’s recipe, the differences are minute. It all comes down to ingredients rather than a mode of cooking. All recipes just require that the meat, if including it, be cooked in a pan and to know boiling points. Therefore, my mode of cooking with a 6 burner gas stove is not off the path; as well, gas stoves were in production in 1928. I am also choosing to create Leah Chase’s recipe as it represents the history it combines and the knowledge that it was passed down from slave to servant to a world class female chef.
Without further ado, my process of Leah Chase’s recipe…Good Friday edition… so no meat.
Note: For whatever reason, watercress and carrot tops could not be found in the grocery stores I went. Therefore substitutions I chose were arugula for the carrot tops and radish micro-greens for watercress.
The recipe was quite straightforward: acquire 7 kinds of greens (washed and chopped), a medium size onion (chopped), 2 cloves of garlic (chopped).
I would argue that the hardest part of this recipe is cleaning each leaf of the greens thoroughly.
After all the ingredients are chopped and look like the world’s best salad, the next step that was to stick it in a stock pot to let boil covered for 20 mins and uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally with my big wooden spoon.
Once the time is up, drain out the liquid into a separate container for cooking liquid. I purposely added bit more water to the stock pot and split the liquid and saved some stock to freeze for a later dinner endeavor. Once that is done, I did something quite sneaky.
Since this is the Good Friday version of this gumbo, and I still wanted a protein. As a Louisianan who never truly fasted for Good Friday due to the the exceptions of seafood, alligator sausage was a prime solution.
I did use the oil drippings from the sausage to create my roux then added it to my stock pot along with my stock, greens, and now cut sausage. Let it combine then add other accoutrements such as the gumbo file, salt, thyme, and red pepper flakes. I dashed in Tony Chacheres for an extra kick and served it with brown rice.
I do not mean to brag, but it was delicious. Perfect for the senses especially for a cool winter night. Overall, this historical meal was rather simple in cooking skills, but carries a much more complex background. It was a pleasure to grow closer to the history that is close to home.
Citations:
Harris, Jessica B.. Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim. United States, Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Rowell, Charles Henry, et al. “Leah Chase on Callaloo/Gumbo Z’herbes: An Interview.” Callaloo, vol. 30, no. 1, 2007, pp. 182–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30135892. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
Callaloo – Chefs for Development, chefs4dev.org/index.php/local-products/callaloo/index.html. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
Times-Picayune, 28 Apr. 1928, p. 20. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.loyno.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0EC0867F69DD4264B2A05A5BD70B9924&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A1223BCE5B718A166%2540EANX-128B64C245A9914E%25402425365-128564D74CCB6A00%254019. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
digital Humanities studio 