Jambalaya

Jambalaya (pronounced /ˌdʒʌmbəˈlaɪə/ or <jum-buh-LIE-uh>) is a Louisiana Creole casserole-style dish of Spanish and French influence. Jambalaya is traditionally a one pot dish, with a variety of meats and seafood, vegetables and spicy seasonings. The dish is completed by adding raw rice to the pot's stock, and the rich stock flavor is absorbed by the grains as the rice cooks.

Jambalaya with chicken, sausage, rice, tomatoes, celery, and spices.

Preparation

There are two primary methods of making jambalaya, Creole and Cajun.

The original and more common method, Creole jambalaya, is also called "red jambalaya" because it includes tomatoes. First, meat is added, usually chicken and sausage such as andouille or smoked sausage. Next vegetables and tomatoes are added to cook, followed by seafood. Rice and stock are added in equal proportions at the very end. The mixture is brought to a boil and left to simmer for 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the recipe, with infrequent stirring. Towards the end of the cooking process, stirring usually ceases.

Creole Jambalaya with shrimp, ham, tomato, and Andouille sausage.

The second style, more characteristic of southwestern and south-central Louisiana, is Cajun jambalaya, which contains no tomatoes. The meat is browned in a cast-iron pot. The bits of meat that stick to the bottom of the pot are what give a Cajun jambalaya its brown color. When cooked, the meat is removed to a separate plate. A little vegetable oil is added if there is not enough fat in the pot. The trinity (of onions, celery, and green bell pepper) is added and sautéed until soft. Stock and seasonings are added in the next step, and then the meats are returned to the pot. This mixture is then simmered, covered, for at least one hour. Lastly, the mixture is brought to a boil and rice is added to the pot. It is then covered and left to simmer over very low heat for at least 1/2 hour without stirring. The dish is finished when the rice has cooked.

A third method is less common. In this version, meat and vegetables are cooked separately from the rice. At the same time, rice is cooked in a savory stock. It is added to the meat and vegetables before serving. This is called "white Jambalaya." This dish is rare in Louisiana as it is seen as a "quick" attempt to make jambalaya, popularized outside the state to shorten cooking time.

History

Until very modern times, Louisiana cooking was largely confined to the local region. The result is a meager written record of the area's food history, and folklore has often became “fact.”

Jambalaya originated from the original European sector of New Orleans and likely was an attempt by the Spanish to make paella in the New World. Saffron was not readily available, so tomatoes became a substitute. Over time, French influence and spices from the Caribbean changed this New World paella into a unique dish.

Rice stews have a long lineage in the culinary traditions of the French, Spanish, African, and Native Americana, and the quintessential melting pot of New Orleans owes some of its culinary distinction to these influences. But jambalaya (and many local cousin dishes) has a distinct Louisiana parentage in the mélange of native bayou creatures and plant spices melded into the dish. The flexibility of ingredients and the stimulating flavors made Jambalaya a satisfying favorite of cooks and diners both affluent and poor, ensuring its enduring popularity.

The Cajun version originates from Louisiana's rural, low-lying bayou country where crawfish, shrimp, oysters, alligator, duck, turtle, boar, venison, and other wild game were readily available. Cajun Jambalaya has more of a smoky and spicy flavor than its cousin Creole Jambalaya. It was adopted after absorption of white French Creoles into the Cajun population following their fall from power in New Orleans after the Civil War.

Nutrients

Jambalaya is teeming with nutrients, but the variety, quantities and ratio of ingredient makes nutritional breakdown subject to the creativity of the chef, who has full license to make each preparation different from one another. In general, the dish is heavy on proteins and spice, with starch and vegetables running behind. There are low-fat recipes that limit meat and emphasize turkey sausage and chicken. Some recipes do offer nutritional breakdown, but many if not most, do not. One standard jambalaya recipe offers this breakdown :

Nutrition Facts per Serving

Yield: 8 large servings

Calories: 691

Fat. Total: 26g

Fiber: 4g

Carbohydrates, Total: 67g

Sodium: 1778mg

% Cal. from Fat: 34%

Cholesterol: 151mg

Protein: 44g

Cultural Significance

Starting with church fairs, which were the largest public gatherings during the 19th and 20th centuries, Jambalaya emerged from small quantity indoor cooking to become the ideal dish for outdoor cooking over hardwood fire. Big black cast iron pots made preparation so easy and economical for church use that Jambalaya was rapidly adapted for political rallies, weddings, family reunions and other affairs.

The country song, "Jambalaya," written by Moon Mullican and Hank Williams Sr. celebrates the dish. Hank Williams copied the Jambalaya musical melody from an earlier tune recorded in Cajun French called "Grand Texas". Cajuns have re-recorded Jambalaya with Hank Williams' words translated into Cajun French. Cajuns now consider the song to be one of their own songs.

Jambalaya experienced a brief jump in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s because of its throw-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-in-the-pot composition. The dish was little more than the rice and vegetables the populace could afford, but the recipe grew from humble roots.

In 1968, Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen proclaimed Gonzales, Louisiana, the Jambalaya Capital of the World. Every Spring (season), the annual Jambalaya Festival is held in Gonzales.

Jambalaya is also a popular dish in many MREs for the military. Also, Jambalaya was a popular MRE during the crisis of homelessness after Hurricane Katrina.

Etymology

Fittingly for a product of Cajun culture, the word "jambalaya" seems to have as many possible origins and authors as the complex dish has ingredients and variations — and most of these are easier to discredit than to verify.

The most commonly repeated folklore is that the word derives from the combination of the French "jambon" meaning ham, the French article "à la" a contraction of "à la manière de" meaning "in the style of," and "ya," thought to be of West African origin meaning rice. Hence, the dish was named jamb à la ya. However, ham is not the signature ingredient of the dish and there is no known African language in which "ya" means "rice."

Another popular source suggests that the word comes from the Spanish "jamon" (ham) + "paella," a noted Spanish rice dish. However, Spanish speakers would call a ham paella "paella con jamon," not "jamon paella."

A popular old wives' tale about the origin of the word "jambalaya":

Late one evening a traveling gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn which had little food remaining from the evening meal. The traveler instructed the cook, "Jean, balayez!" or "Jean, sweep something together!" in the local dialect. The guest pronounced the resulting hodge-podge dish as "Jean balayez."

The first print appearance of any variant of the word "jambalaya" in any language occurred in "Leis amours de Vanus; vo, Lou paysan oou théâtré," by Fortuné (Fourtunat) Chailan, first published in Provencal in 1837. This is an excerpt:

The upstairs neighbors were making a din

All kinds of people, rich and poor:

It was a mish-mash [jambaraya] of red inebriated faces*;

As in the song birds that we have in October,

All kinds of birds were singing

(*) Red faces, inebriated

It also was seen in a poem by Louis Charles Felix Peise, La Testo et la Coua de la Serp, from his book "Leis Talounados de Barjomau (1865.)":

Mathew said to me: He is a rioter!

James said to me: He was our safeguard;

But all that does not agree,

However each of us knows how the boat is going.

This rabble [jambalaia] reminds me

Of the arrival of an old snake,

When its tail wanted the air

To pass in front. Here’s the story;

The tail gave as argument

— It had been there for too long!

Both publications are French and neither example used the word in a culinary sense. In both cases it indicates a mish-mash, rabble or mixture — a meaning that lends itself well to Jambalaya.

The earliest appearance of the word in print in English occurs in the May 1849 issue of the American Agriculturalist, page 161, where Solon Robinson refers to a recipe for "Hopping Johnny (jambalaya)." An article in the 1875 “New Orleans Times” said it was “spelled in French jumbliade; but the dish is of Indian origin” and “originally made of zizania aquatica, or wild rice”. Jambalaya did not appear in a cookbook until 1878, when The Gulf City Cook Book, by the Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, was printed in South Mobile, Alabama. It contains a recipe for “JAM BOLAYA.”

The spoken language is normally in use for some time before it appears in print, leading to the assumption that the word Jambalaya was in the lexicon - somewhere - prior to its appearance in these publications.

Similar dishes

Rice is the ingredient that distinguishes Jambalaya from gumbos and étouffées, each of which is made without rice but is served over rice that has been prepared separately. Jambalaya is considered by most Louisianians to be a simple to prepare, yet filling, rice dish; gumbos, étouffées, and creoles are considered more difficult to perfect. “Hopping John” is a dish of Louisiana origin made of rice with peas, chickpeas or beans. Most often a long grain white rice is used in making jambalaya.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Mariani, John F. Dictionary of American Food and Drink. Hearst Books, 1994. ISBN 978-0688101398

External links

• Cajun jambalaya recipe from Gonzales, Louisiana native.
• Jambalaya Recipe
• Vegetarian Jambalaya
• Chronology of all early mentions of Jambalaya in print.
• Article detailing how to make jambalaya for 120 people
• Anecdotal history of Jambalaya & recipes.
• Award winning Jambalaya recipe.

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