Talk:Gumbo

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Contents

[edit] Picture

  • Can anyone do something about that picture? What is it? Chicken gumbo? The bowl has gumbo ON it. - Jerryseinfeld 01:48, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation

CHANGE - There are other references to Gumbo not here. Gumbo the New Orleans Saints mascot dog, and 'filé', the sassafras leaf dried to be in Gumbo (called Gumbo Filé). Both are important to the Cajun country people.

I added a reference to the mascot, but I don't think that the sassafras leaf could be a meaning of the single word "gumbo", so it's more appropriate to leave it as a link from the body of the article as it is now. If I am wrong, let me know. — Pekinensis 03:15, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Comic?

I'm confused how the 'Adventures of Gumbo' comic is noteworthy. It isn't a very good comic, nor a very comprehensive article. December 16, 2005

If the publisher won a trademark lawsuit with the owners of Gumbee, let alone Disney Corporation, which does business with the Dumbo mark, I'd say it would be very noteworthy.

[edit] Errors

This article is full of inaccuracies, mainly in its attempts to set down rigid definitions. For example the assertion that good gumbo never includes tomatoes is pure hogwash. Probably half of the best New Orleans and Louisiana cooks I know use tomatoes, although sparingly, in their gumbos. The 1985 Commanders Palace cookbook calls for tomatoes in its seafood gumbo recipe (with no roux base), while the 2000 Commanders Kitchen cook book does not call for tomatoes (this seafood gumbo recipe has a roux base). Some say the differences arise because Cajun and Creole gumbos are different. Really, it's a matter of taste.

Also, the assertion that many (in southeastern Louisiana) would consider okra an essential ingredient (without it you don't have gumbo) seems overstated. While the article mentions the use of okra and filé powder as thickening agents, it does not mention that a common practice is to use okra in primarily seafood gumbos and filé in primarily meat-based gumbos. --Jdclevenger 19:52, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Wholeheartedly agree (though I am somewhat guilty of this). Thanks for your contributions on creole food - very nice work, guy. --Kelt65 20:00, 27 July 2006 (UTC)


Additionally, File powder may have been a staple of cajun cooking from the time even before okra was introduced to this continent: it was certainly not introduced as an "okra substitute."


I agree with whoever wrote this. Gumbo is different all over the place. My family (from Calcasieu Parish) has never used okra at any point in time in gumbo. It's rare in the area. Kronos o 17:07, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

The Bantu etymology should be more prominent, since it is the original root of the word. Accordingly, the Gullah etymology ought to be moved down to the "Okra" section. Lambiam moved the Bantu etymology down to the "Okra" section, and 199.111.238.28 added the Gullah etymology to the main section on 10 April 2006. I've cleaned it up to be more consistent. Bodrell 16:30, 28 September 2006 (UTC)


The fabricated story of Gumbo being a thin fish stew from Africa is nonsense. I am from New Orleans and my family are original French/Spanish White Creoles and my family has been living in New Orleans since 1750, so I know the history of this stew. It was an attempt to create a bouillabaisse in the New World and with the additions of items from contributors of food items to the pot of in the commuinity, the french created the roux, added onions and celery, but there were not an abundance of carrots there, so the Spanish offered the bell pepper to form the holy trinity. The soup then was created such as you do bouillabaisse and the Africans offered okra, in which it was the strangest thing in the pot so people started to refer to it as Gumbo from the african word for okra and the Spanish added tomatoes. Later down the road the germans added sausage to the gumbo and the Italians reinforced the method of using tomatoes. The Indians gave Filé(ground sassafrass leaves) and Voilá, you have Gumbo. Gumbo has never contained fish, and never does. If the Africans would have brought the love of a fish stew then it would have remained fish as New Orleans has incredible access to fish. If someone was getting shrimp from the water, they could have got fish as well. That information given is fabricated to go along with the "Africanism" linked to the word gumbo. The vietnamese in New Orleans have a fish stew resembling gumbo, but you don't see people calling there stew Gumbo. Many cultures have stews resembling a Gumbo, that doesn't mean they get any credit or claim to it.

~Robert Dupré

Gumbo was not devellopped in America since all over Africa gumbo is used in the same manner by blacks, the vast majority of whom, have had no contact with African-Americans or African-American cuisine. To suggest otherwise and imply that Africans on the continent, with their rich cornucopia of delicacies and foods, from which Black American food was spawned and influenced, copied African-Americans is just arrogant and inaccurate. Africans were already crushing the Okra long before their arrival in America.

Shango De Torvy Torcheveau a.k.a Sanka Tulasie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.100.174.95 (talk) 19:54, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

I have been shown no reliable source stating that the soup known as gumbo originates in Africa. I have seen many stating that it originated in Louisiana, and have cited a selection in the article. Outrage does not take the place of a source. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:58, 16 September 2007 (UTC)


Not outrage, pure fact. Gumbo literally means OKRA in a Bantu language. And most cook it with OKRA in America and the OKRA makes it sticky. The same food eaten all over Africa. That is proof enough. You can look it up. Type in Gumbo and Africa on Yahoo or Google and see what comes up (I haven't even checked myself but I'm sure lots will come up). But it IS African. Gumbo means absolutely NOTHING in French, English, Spanish or any other West European language that I can speak (Portuguese too). That is the etymological truth.

Shango De Torvy Torcheveau a.k.a Sanka Tulasie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.100.174.95 (talk) 05:56, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Just because the word is African in origin, that does not mean the recipe is native to Africa. You have still provided no sources, as neither Yahoo nor Google provide the evidence you are so sure they do. The closest I see is this, which still says "[gumbo] is not a classically African dish". -- Cyrius|✎ 05:10, 30 September 2007 (UTC)


i just wanted to add that the holy trinity is usualy carrots, onions, and celery, not bell peppers. Blood reaper (talk) 19:13, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

The holy trinity used in Southern culture is notably different than that used by Northern Culture because of the use of bell peppers instead of carrots. If you look at older Cajun cookbooks, you almost always see the three together (bell pepper, onion, and celery). User: aww0110 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.19.36.149 (talk) 13:15, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

There are also no sources stated anywhere for any of the information cited in this article.

[edit] Served over rice?

What is your understanding of the commonly used phrase "served over rice" when referring to gumbo? Even some of the best sources use that kind of language, including cookbooks by Paul Prudhomme, John Folse, and Marcelle Bienvenu.

But how can that be? If you go to a restaurant that serves you a bowl of gumbo with a little of dish of rice on the side, you are going to add that rice to your bowl of gumbo. You are not going to put your gumbo over that little dish of rice.

No matter how many references to the contrary, I don't think gumbo is served over rice. Rather, rice is added to the bowl of gumbo at the table. What in the world can "served over rice" mean?

Should this entry continue this strange description so long as nobody can produce a reference that just once and for all throws that out the window?

Is that what happened in the case of the photo shown with this entry? It really does look like gumbo served over rice, like the entry in this discussion remarks, whereas the photo does not at all look like the way gumbo is actually served (mostly liquid with some rice added in).

Bonne chance a nous autres! Npomea 00:18, 29 October 2007 (UTC)Npomea October 28, 2007

You put some rice in the serving bowl, and then ladle the gumbo on top of it. One bowl, no "little dish of rice on the side". This is nowhere near as hard to understand as you are trying to make it out to be. -- Cyrius|✎ 15:58, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

I've read through both the "Tony Chachere's Cajun Country Cookbook (17th printing)" and the "Ma and Pa's If you're Hungry Cajun Cookbook." Both say to serve "with rice," and don't specify to serve over rice. Usually rice and gumbo are cooked separately, and while restaurants serve with a side of rice, most families serve over rice. I believe restaurants serve with a side of rice so that the customer can add as much rice as they want; however, I have been to several in SW LA that serve over rice. User: aww0110