The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Creole cuisine and some of the
staple ingredients.
Grains •
Corn •
Rice—long, medium, or short grain white :Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in Creole cuisine. With an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the region and grew wild in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, as it was easy to grow, store and prepare. The oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in
New Iberia. Recently, LSU has released two types of "high-yielding, conventional" rice from their agricultural center. •
Wheat (for baking bread)
Fruits and vegetables •
Bell peppers •
Blackberries •
Cayenne peppers •
Celery •
Collard greens •
Cucumbers •
Figs •
Limes •
Lemons •
Mirlitons (also called chayotes or vegetable pears) •
Muscadines •
Okra •
Onions •
Satsuma oranges •
Scallions (also known as green onions or onion tops) •
Squash •
Strawberries •
Sweet potatoes •
Tabasco pepper •
Tomatoes
Meat and seafood Creole folkways include many techniques for preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration and
mass-produced meat at the grocer. Smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or
duck confit (preserved in poultry fat, with spices) are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities.
Game is still uniformly popular in Creole cooking. The recent increase of
catfish farming in the
Mississippi Delta has increased its usage in Creole cuisine, replacing the more traditional wild-caught trout (the saltwater species) and
red fish.
Seafood • Freshwater •
Bass—commonly known as green trout in south Louisiana •
Catfish •
Sac-au-Lait—
white perch or
crappie •
Yellow perch • Saltwater or brackish water species •
Trout •
Redfish •
Pompano •
Drumfish •
Flounder •
Grouper •
Perch—many varieties •
Snapper—many varieties • Shellfish •
Crawfish () – either wild swamp or farm-raised •
Shrimp, or ( in Colonial Louisiana French) •
Oysters •
Blue crab Also included in the seafood mix are some so-called
trash fish that would not sell at market because of their high bone to meat ratio or required complicated cooking methods. These were brought home by fishermen to feed the family. Examples are garfish, black drum also called or just
goo, croaker, and bream.
Poultry • Farm-raised •
Turkey (and turkey confit) •
Chicken (and Guinea hen) • Game birds •
Dove •
Goose •
Quail •
Duck (and duck confit)
Pork •
Andouille—a spicy dry-smoked sausage, characterized by a coarse-ground texture •
—similar to the Spanish
chorizo •
Ham hocks •
Wild boar or feral hog •
Head cheese •
New Orleans hot sausage—a (usually) pork sausage spiced with cayenne and paprika. • Pork sausage (fresh)—not smoked or cured, but highly seasoned. Mostly used in gumbos. The sausage itself does not include rice, separating it from
boudin. •
Salt pork • Cracklin'—tender pork rinds • Chicharron—Boiled skin which breaks the cells of collagen. Fat is scraped off and pieces are dehydrated. Deep fried for a "puffy" consistency. • Gratons—Skin on pork belly, cured similarly to bacon for up to a week, cooked in its own fat and dehydrated. Deep fried until tender.
Beef and dairy Though parts of the Louisiana where Creole cooking is found are well suited to cattle or dairy farming, beef is not often used in a pre-processed or uniquely Creole form. It is usually prepared fairly simply as chops, stews, or steaks, taking a cue from Texas to the west. Ground beef is used as is traditional throughout the southern US, although seasoned differently. Dairy farming is not as prevalent as in the past, but there are still some farms in the business. There are unique dairy items produced in Creole cooking such as Creole cream cheese.
Other game meats •
Alligator •
Alligator gar, or gator gar •
Frog, usually bullfrogs (not just the legs, but the entire creature) •
Gros bec—commonly called night heron •
Nutria •
Squirrel •
Rabbit •
Skunk, or
mouffette •
Turtle •
Snake •
Virginia opossum, or
sarigue Creole seasonings Individual •
Bay leaf •
Oregano •
Black pepper •
Cayenne pepper •
Garlic •
Green onion • "
Holy trinity" —
bell pepper (green or red),
onion, and
celery used together •
Parsley, flat leaf •
Sassafras leaves—dried and ground into the spice known as
filé for
gumbo of the Choctaw •
Dried shrimp •
Sugarcane, also cane syrup,
brown sugar and molasses •
Thyme Blended • "Creole spice" blends such as
Tony Chachere's and REX King of Spice are sometimes used in Creole kitchens, but do not suit every cook's style because Creole-style seasoning is often achieved from scratch, even by taste. :Whole peppers are almost never used in authentic Creole dishes—ground cayenne, paprika, and pepper sauces predominate. •
Hot sauce •
Seafood boil mix • Vinegar seasoned with small, pickled, hot green peppers is a common condiment with many Creole meals. •
Persillade •
Marinades made with
olive oil,
brown sugar, and
citrus juices • Various
barbecue rubs similar to those in other states
Cooking bases Knowing how to make a good
roux is key to Cajun and Creole cooking. The technique was inherited from the French. A roux is "a mixture made from equal parts of fat and flour, used especially to make a sauce or soup thicker." The fat and flour are cooked together on the stovetop until the mixture reaches a certain level of brownness, or darkness. Creole roux in New Orleans are known to be lighter than Cajun roux and are usually made with butter or bacon fat and flour. But certain Creole dishes use a dark roux. Dark roux are usually made with oil or bacon fat and flour. The scent of a good roux is so strong that it stays in clothes until they are washed. The scent is so widely recognized in Louisiana that others can tell if someone is making a roux, and often infer that they're making a gumbo. The secret to making a good gumbo is pairing the roux with the protein, similar to pairing the right wine and protein. • Light
roux: A light roux is well-suited for seafood dishes, because the roux will not overwhelm the subtle seafood flavors. A light-colored roux does not support the heavier meat flavor of meat-based gumbos. For a light roux, the flour is cooked to a light golden brown. • Medium
roux: Medium roux are the most versatile and probably the most common among the Creole cuisine of the New Orleans area. They work well with most Creole dishes. A medium roux will turn the color of a copper penny or peanut butter. A medium roux begins to take on the warm, browned flavor widely associated with gumbo. • Dark
roux: A dark roux, with its strong (dense) nutty flavor will completely overpower a simple seafood gumbo, but is the perfect complement to a gumbo using chicken, sausage, crawfish or alligator. Chicken will just settle into the darker flavor, while sausage and dark roux balance each other well. A dark roux is approximately the color of milk chocolate. :Preparing a dark roux is complicated. It involves heating oil or fat and flour very carefully, constantly stirring for 15–45 minutes (depending on the darkness desired), until the mixture has turned quite dark and developed a rich, nutty flavor and smell. It is very easy to burn the flour as it moves toward a darker brown, and burnt roux renders a dish unpalatable. A heavy-bottomed pot can help protect the roux from burning. •
Stocks: Creole stocks may be more heavily seasoned than Continental counterparts, and the shellfish stock sometimes made with shrimp and crawfish heads is unique to Creole cuisine. • Fish stock and
court-bouillon • Shellfish stock • Chicken stock ==Creole dishes==