LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA
WHAT MAKES GUMBO,
Gumbo ?
Gumbo is what your
momma made, a definition
that assures that there are as
many different types of gumbos as
there are mothers who make them. Sometimes
it’s caramel colored roux, okra, tomatoes, shrimp
and crab seasoned delicately and thickened
slightly to the viscosity of a soup. Sometimes it’s
a chocolate brown roux, thick as a stew and brim-
ming with lumps of chicken and sausage. Still,
others have no roux at all and are served entirely
with greens and legumes. Gumbos are typically
served over steamed white rice, but some tables
prefer sweet potatoes or potato salad. The vari-
ation is maddening when trying to sort out what
makes gumbo, gumbo.
Details about the origins of gumbo are murky. A
dish called gumbo doesn’t really show up in his-
torical record until the beginning of the 19 th cen-
tury, when the word starts showing up prolifically
38 | Winter 2017 | Food Traveler
in correspondence. What it was isn’t exactly clear
except that it most likely included okra, given that
the name derives directly from the West African
word for the gooey vegetable, kimgombo, and
was served primarily with seafood.
Over the next 100 years, that soup-like substance
evolved into what we moderns call gumbo.
Gumbo is not one thing. But its definition is nev-
ertheless apparent. For something to truly be
gumbo it must participate in the unique Louisiana
culinary heritage of Cajuns, Creoles, Spaniards,
Germans, Italians, Irish, Choctaws, Coushattas,
Houmas, and all kinds of other peoples, places
and things. It more often than not will have a roux,
which will come in varying volumes, shades, and
tastes. It will be served with a spoonful or cupful
of rice, or thickened with okra or file’, or enriched
by poultry marrow and andouille smoke. And no
matter how your mother made hers, you will
know a gumbo when you see it.