A Ramble Through Jambalaya Land

In March 2006 I was inspired by an article from Bethany Ewald Bultman Who Saved Jambalaya? in Petit Propos Culinare, PPC 80 (a venerable publication on culinary history).  Ms. Bultman proposed that the recipe for Jambalaya among the Cajun population didn't come into general use until the middle of the 20th century. In my limited, but familiar, knowledge of Louisiana cookery and the literature about regional foods of the Creoles and Cajuns, I just knew that Bethany must not have had enough literature of the kitchen at hand when she came to some of her conclusions. Careening through some two dozen books, I assembled a list of citations forwarded to her via email. She thanked me and that seemed to be it.

On a hunch one day when reading Eugene Walter, a devilishly engaging Mobile food writer (one of the many skills of this Renaissance Man. Author Joan Noble rather aptly described Eugene as, "a cross between Winnie-the-Pooh and Huckleberry Finn"), I remembered the Gulf City Cook Book, published in 1878 by The Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Mobile, Alabama. Now according to Eugene, Mobile is the most Creole city, if not the first, in the United States, more Creole than even New Orleans! They have the esteem of having the first Creole citizen born in the US (Jean Francois LeCan 1705), the first Mardi Gras, etc. I hadn't thought outside the Louisiana area to look for a jambalaya recipe, and, lo and behold, there it was! Jam Bolaya!

As it turns out, this is the earliest recipe (so far) published in a cook book  for jambalaya. Boy, was I excited. I then turned to other Gulf regional cookery books to see where it took me. There it was in several other early books, but none earlier than Mobile's.

In the December 2007 issue of PPC 84, Andrew Sigal wrote an article Jambalaya By Any Other Name in response to Ms. Bultman's earlier article. Mr. Sigal's work paralleled much of my work on jambalaya with the addition of etymological research. He did not have some of my more obscure references within the old cook books, so, I tried to find him on the Internet, to no avail.

Sitting in a Food History meeting at the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) in, where else, Old New Orleans, in April this year, right there behind me was Andrew Sigal! I leaned over and mumbled to him, "You're probably going to want to talk to me. I have something for you about Jambalaya."

Since then, Andrew and I have had a lively email correspondence. He has been preparing his Jambalaya paper for the Association for the Study of Food & Society. You can read some of what his paper will contain at Jambalaya. I am grateful to Andrew for acknowledging my sources and the link to this food blog. Thanks Andrew!

January 7 2009 Post Script:  I noticed this little cookbook at the shop and had not previously searched for a Jambalaya recipe and sure enough, there is one. The booklet was published for the 1892 Louisiana Rice Festival.

Another search I conducted today at books.google.com (great resource) uncovered another recipe for Jambalaya in the 1896 Manual for Army Cooks. The Barnhardt Dictionary of Etymology (1988)  places the word jambalaya evolving in Louisiana in a story in The New-Orleans Times dated 28 June 1872, "Those who brought victuals such as gumbo, jambalaya, etc., all began eating and drinking." Update 2 July 2010, in Cupboard Love, states that jambalaya was introduced to Louisiana in the late 18th century by the Spanish, noting the similarity in the word for ham known as jamon, with which the dish was originally made.

Comments

[Lynn Nelson]

Are you in Mobile? You’re my neighbor! I’m just over here in the Florida Panhandle, just east of Destin, if you know the area. By golly, I am sure impressed that a dining companion of my hero, Eugene Walter, has contacted me. What did you eat when you were together?

You know, I am wondering if I read about the first Creole, Bienvenu, in his oral biography, Milking the Moon? I have read just about everything Eugene wrote. Read it, and then again. In fact just yesterday, I received the April 1962 Gourmet Magazine in which Eugene wrote The Gumbo Cult. Also, I have a signed copy of Delectible Dishes from Termite Hall where he wrote, “with unsalted butter and freshly ground black pepper.” What style!

My all time favorite description of Eugene is by Joan Marble, who he knew in Rome. Joan explained to her husband that Eugene Walter is “a cross between Winnie the Pooh and Huckleberry Finn.” Sure wish I could have known him. It’s possible the reference about the Creole may have been in her book, Notes from an Italian Garden.

I do have the Gulf City Cook Book, but don’t have any restaurant items. Am I understanding correctly that the first restaurant in Mobile was founded in 1702? Whew!! That’s incredibly early. And, who was the baker that went to New Orleans? I am real interested in your book about Mobile restaurants. Will you please keep me posted about your progress?

There is a possibility that I gleaned the Creole reference from somewhere else. WPA Federal Writer’s Program about Alabama? I think I sold my copy but will look when I get to the book store.

[Malcolm Steiner]

I am working a book about Old Mobile Restaurants. I knew Eugene and had many a dinner with him. Just Sunday I was reading 'cooking southern style' and he was talking about being given the Gulf City Cookbook. I looked it up and found sigal.org and you.
What can you tell me of the reference to (Bienvenu), "the first Creole citizen born in the US "? where did Eugene write this? And do you have and Restaurant stuff, pictures ,menus, advertisements etc of Old Mobile Restaurants from 1702 till today? By the way the first New Orleans baker came from Mobile also.
Thank You
Malcolm Steiner