Creole Gumbo

Gumbo, of all other products of the New Orleans cuisine, represents a most distinctive type of the evolution of good cookery under the hands of the famous Creole cuisinieres of old New Orleans. Indeed, the word “evolution” fails to apply when speaking of Gumbo, for it is an original conception, a something sui generis in cooking, peculiar to this ancient Creole city alone, and to the manner born. With unequalled ability the olden Creole cooks saw the possibilities of exquisite and delicious combinations in making Gumbo, and hence we have many varieties, till the occult science of making a good Gombo a la Creole seems to the Picayune too fine an inheritance of gastronomic lore to remain forever hidden away in the cuisines of this old Southern metropolis. The following recipes, gathered with care from the best Creole housekeepers of New Orleans, have been handed down from generation to generation. They need only to be tried to prove their perfect claim to the admiration of the many distinguished visitors and epicures who have paid tribute to Creole Gumbo.