Editing Cajun cuisine (section)

==Cultural aspects==
According to political scientist [[Kevin V. Mulcahy]] writing on cultural identity, Cajun cuisine today is different from that of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but still defines Cajun culture for many people within and outside Acadiana. Its heritage reflects French, Spanish, American Indian, German, and Afro-Caribbean influences. Cajun food is the result of this assimilation or "cultural blending".<ref name="Ten Eyck2001">{{cite journal |last1=Ten Eyck |first1=Toby A. |title=Managing Food: Cajun Cuisine in Economic and Cultural Terms |journal=Rural Sociology |date=June 2001 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=231–233 |doi=10.1111/j.1549-0831.2001.tb00065.x}}</ref> Rural Cajun cuisine is distinct from the urban [[Louisiana Creole cuisine|Creole cuisine]], having arisen by economic necessity among the Acadian immmigrants<ref name="Mulcahy2016">{{cite book |last1=Mulcahy |first1=Kevin V. |title=Public Culture, Cultural Identity, Cultural Policy: Comparative Perspectives |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-43543-9 |pages=167–168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hORDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA168}}</ref> who came to Louisiana in the 18th century. These settlers lived off the land and survived on foods they could obtain by hunting, fishing, ranching, foraging, or growing crops.<ref name="Poche2023">{{cite book |last1=Poche |first1=Dixie Lee |title=Cajun Mardi Gras: A History of Chasing Chickens and Making Gumbo |year=2023 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4396-7679-0 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7ypEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |access-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428225635/https://books.google.com/books?id=j7ypEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although there is a large variety of dishes within the regions that make up Cajun country in Louisiana, rural Cajuns generally prefer strong dark roast coffee, highly seasoned foods, hot peppers, vegetables smothered in brown gravy, and one-pot dishes served with rice. Each region has its own specialties, such as ''andouille'' sausage on the west bank of the Mississippi River above New Orleans, formerly known as the [[German Coast]]; barbecued shrimp in [[Terrebonne Parish]]; [[tasso ham]] made from [[Boston butt|hog's shoulder]] in the area around [[Opelousas]]; and crawfish all across the parishes of southern Louisiana, where they are abundant in the fresh water wetlands and waterways.<ref name="Gutierrez1985">{{cite web |last1=Gutierrez |first1=Charlotte Paige |title=Louisiana Traditional Foodways |url=https://folklife-media.si.edu/docs/festival/program-book-articles/FESTBK1985_05.pdf |website=Festival.si.edu |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=26 April 2024 |pages=14–16 |date=1985 |archive-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428225634/https://folklife-media.si.edu/docs/festival/program-book-articles/FESTBK1985_05.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many Cajun recipes are based on rice and the "holy trinity" of  onions, celery, and green pepper, and use locally caught [[shell fish]] such as shrimp and crawfish. Much of Cajun cookery starts with a ''roux'' made of wheat flour cooked and slowly stirred with a fat such as oil, butter or lard,  known especially as the base for [[étouffée]], gumbo and sauce piquante.<ref name="Mulcahy2016"/> Cajun cooks in south Louisiana historically have cooked meals in single pots, and still cook meats by [[braising]]. Almost all Cajun households had gardens up until the latter years of the 20th century, and lifted regional culinary standards by adding the fresh vegetables they grew to their dishes.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005">{{cite book |last1=Bienvenu |first1=Marcelle |last2=Brasseaux |first2=Carl A. |last3=Brasseaux |first3=Ryan A. |title=Stir the Pot: The History of Cajun Cuisine |year=2005 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |isbn=978-0-7818-1120-0 |pages=112–115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGnt3Bb_VeYC&pg=PA112 |access-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428225627/https://books.google.com/books?id=sGnt3Bb_VeYC&pg=PA112 |url-status=live }}</ref>

There was continuity in cuisines between the southern [[Bayou Teche]] area and the northern boundary of Cajun country in [[Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana|Avoyelles Parish]]. Fresh sausage, pork, and the use of salt and pepper as the main seasonings were universal in the region's foodway traditions, north and south. The role of seafood in the cuisine of the southern parishes distinguished it from that of the prairies, where more wild game was consumed instead.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005"/>

Anthropologist Charlotte Paige Gutierrez has written extensively on Louisiana's traditional [[foodways]]. She writes: "The term foodways, as it is now used by writers in various disciplines, has a broad definition. The study of foodways may include the production, distribution, preparation, preservation, serving, and eating of food, as well as the social, symbolic, psychological, and behavioral aspects of food."<ref name="Gutierrez1985a">{{cite book |last1=Gutierrez |first1=Charlotte Paige |editor1-last=Spitzer |editor1-first=Nicholas R. |title=Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State |year=1985 |publisher=Louisiana Folklife Program, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CTXAAAAMAAJ&q=%22serving%20and%20eating%20of%20food%22 |chapter=Louisiana Traditional Foodways |page=151}}</ref> Modern conveniences influenced Louisiana's culinary traditions: with the introduction of electricity and refrigerators, consuming freshly butchered meat immediately was not imperative as in the past, thus community events such as hog-killings (''boucheries'') occurred less frequently. Improved transportation and increased incomes made food stores more accessible and buying produce became more affordable for working families. Cajuns now bought their bread at a grocery store rather than baking their own. According to Gutierrez, when the economy of southern Louisiana boomed with the expansion of oil industry operations in the 1970s, Cajuns gained a renewed pride in their ethnicity.<ref name="Gutierrez1985"/>

Only those Cajuns who live near the coast are able to regularly harvest seafood such as crabs, oysters, shrimp, and saltwater fish directly from their habitats.<ref name="Gutierrez2009">{{cite book |last1=Gutierrez |first1=C. Paige |title=Cajun Foodways |year=2009 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62846-777-2 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeTjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41}}</ref>  Shrimping, crabbing, fishing, frog-gigging, and gardening have been practiced in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes as subsistence and commercial pursuits for many generations.<ref name="RegisWalton2024">{{cite book |last1=Regis |first1=Helen A. |last2=Walton |first2=Shana |title=Bayou Harvest: Subsistence Practice in Coastal Louisiana |year=2024 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-4968-4908-3 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2nPsEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT48 |access-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-date=April 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428225626/https://books.google.com/books?id=2nPsEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT48 |url-status=live }}</ref> Before the introduction of modern transportation and refrigeration, Cajuns who lived in the southwestern prairie parishes away from the coast had little opportunity to incorporate seafood into their diets. Today, fresh seafood is available all across Acadiana, so that now it is regarded as a regional food rather than one available only to coastal residents.<ref name="Gutierrez2009"/>

The cooking traditions of the western prairies and those of the Bayou country in southeastern Louisiana overlap in the lower and middle Bayou Teche region. The complicated network of lakes, streams, bayous, and the flood plains with their rich soil characterize the terrain of [[Iberia Parish, Louisiana|Iberia]], [[St. Martin Parish, Louisiana|St. Martin]], and [[St. Mary Parish, Louisiana|St. Mary]] parishes. The traditional cuisine uses those resources available in the area: pork from hog farms on the plains and seafood from the lowlands.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005"/>

Seasoning practices in the Teche country occupy a middle place between the salt and black pepper-based approach to spices in the Bayou country and the prevalent use of [[cayenne pepper]] in the Cajun prairies. People along the lower and middle Teche use cayenne more often than in the [[Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana|Laforche]] area. [[Hot sauce#Louisiana-style|Hot pepper sauce]] has a more dominant role in the Teche country cuisine than in other Cajun regions.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005"/>

In the upper Teche region, wild game, freshwater fish, and pork are important in the local diet, with rabbit, duck, and venison being eaten more often than among their neighbors to southward. [[Avoyelles Parish]], along the northern edge of Cajun country where cultural influences converge, shares some of these dietary features, although local cooking traditions are somewhat different than in the Teche country. Natives of the parish make fresh sausage, but cling to certain European customs, notably the preparation of ''[[cochon de lait|cochon de lait róti]]'', or roasted suckling pig. After the young pigs are [[Animal slaughter|slaughtered]], they are suspended vertically by a rope tied to a tree limb and hang over a hardwood fire. For even cooking of the pig, it is rotated with a stick. Halfway through the roasting, the carcass is turned end for end to assure even heating of the meat. Local cooks have constructed improvised rotisseries, some fitting theirs with small motors for mechanized rotation.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005"/>

The upper prairie, historically an area of small farms, ranches, and rice fields, has its own distinctive cuisine, well known for its smoked meats and ''[[Boudin#Types|boudin blanc]]'', white sausage made of pork, rice, and seasonings. Local hardwoods such as oak, pecan, and hickory are used to smoke sausages and tasso. Smoked meats are comparatively rare, however, in other Cajun communities.<ref name="Bienvenu et al 2005"/>