All about Louisiana cooking > A Short Glossary of Cajun and Creole Cooking

Before beginning your gastronomic adventures in Louisiana cooking, it's important to familiarize yourself with some Creole and Cajun terminology since it may not always correspond to terms and techniques with which you're familiar.

In Louisiana you'll never find spices labelled "Cajun" or "Creole." They like them both but blend them individually.

Here you'll find rice and hot red peppers growing abundantly.

Andouille
spicy smoked pork sausage typical of Louisiana - not to be confused with French andouille or andouillette which is a cooked charcuterie product packed in pork intestine. You can replace it with another kind of hot sausage, although the taste will be different.

Beignet
a pastry square covered in sugar, served with chicory-flavoured coffee - an unchanging tradition that reflects the hospitality of the people of Louisiana

Bouillabaisse
a fish soup found in Provence, particularly in Marseilles. This French tradition served as the foundation on which gumbo was developed.

Crawfish
a Louisiana favourite, nicknamed mudbugs, hillbillies or crawdads - only Yankees and tourists call them crawfish. If you go to a New Orleans restaurant and ask for crawfish, they'll automatically ask, "Where are you from?" Its flavour is delicate and its fat enriches sauces. It achieves greatest renown in the "étouffée." Crawfish do not keep well. If they take on a fishy flavour, they're no longer good; it's best to buy them live, or else purchase frozen tails.

Spicy Creole Sausage
a pork sausage looked on here as an ordinary everyday sausage

Tasso
a piece of lean, highly seasoned and intensely flavoured pork used to season a dish

Cane Syrup
sugar cane syrup has a distinctive taste and, like maple syrup, can be pale or dark depending on its length of reduction and its concentration of flavour

Cayenne Pepper
a very hot red pepper made from ground cayenne chilies. It is used in large amounts in Louisiana, especially combined with white pepper and freshly ground black pepper.

Crab, Shrimp or Crawfish Concentrate or Powder
this powder or liquid concentrate is sold to flavour the cooking water for shellfish. It is strong, piquant and spicy. There is also a granular form available, to sprinkle on fish just before serving.

Creole Mustard
a local coarse-grain mustard, thick, piquant and spicy, used in many dishes. The seeds are marinated before the mustard is made. Substitute: Meaux or another strong French coarse-grain mustard

Okra
a vegetable of primary importance in Cajun and Creole cooking because of its flavour and its thickening properties

Pecan
the pecan tree is native to the southern United States. The nut is used in breakfast muffins, pies and sauces.

Sassafras - Filé Powder
made from dried ground sassafras leaves, filé powder is used as a condiment and to thicken gumbo. It has a piquant aromatic flavour.
Note: filé powder is never used in cooking gumbo. It is added to each plate individually. Cooking or reheating a dish to which filé powder has been added will turn the liquid gluey.

Tabasco
Down here Tabasco is king of all hot sauces. Made in Louisiana (on Avery Island) by the McIlhenny family since 1880, it is used as a table sauce and as a flavouring in cooking. But there are also almost 60 other kinds of hot sauce in Louisiana, including Louisiana Red Hot. Take your pick!

Bon appétit from southern Louisiana!