Gumbo vs Stew vs Soup...What's the difference?

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Go take a lookie at the method of cookery and ingredients involved. What makes a bisque?

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Is that your way of saying you don't know?

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Is that your way of saying you don't know?

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be careful philly, i believe Cit used to cook for a fairly famous military man..

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It is not a matter of not knowing, it a matter of not being able to convince you of what gumbo is over the interweb.

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To me gumbo is a soup made with a dark roux and okra (or file) as thickeners. Pretty much anything else can be put in there.

If you have a roux without the okra(file) its a stew or another dish.

Others think gumbo doesn't need okra (file) and I wonder where they learned that and why they think that?

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Many dishes are made with roux but are not gumbo's.
Many soups have shrimp and/or crab but are not gumbo's?
Many stews have chicken and/or sausage but are not gumbo's?

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And many dishes have okra but are not gumbos

So there is no definitive answer?

And yes...soups can have okra and not be a gumbo...but if it is a dark roux based soup with okra...then its a gumbo!

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The Professional Chef, by the Culinary Institute of America calls Seafood Gumbo a soup. I see no reason to think otherwise.

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I do. Maybe those sumbitches don't know shite about gumbo.

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I do. Maybe those sumbitches don't know shite about gumbo

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Because, like us in South Louisiana, they practice cooking techniques that the French laid out for us years ago that we all follow?

I mean, I'm no cullinary metallurgist, magician, or jedi warrior. I can't make new shite up out of thin air, other than practicing perhaps some molecular gastronomy I suppose, and Gumbo isn't molecular gastronomy. I, like everyone else, learn and practice basic techniques that the French and to a lesser degree the Italians set forth in cooking which is the influence behind American food in general and without question South Louisiana food. I'd say that the Culinary Institute of America is probably a more authoritative voice on what constitutes a gumbo in it's elements than Jolie Hebert down on a bayou. Hebert probably makes a mean gumbo, but he's a good ole boy who probably isn't very familiar with every element involved in pulling off proper French cooking. "He jus know what his pappy told him how to pull off a good gumbo yeah." The CIA is an authority on proper French technique, as are other schools of the like. If you ask a French chef what a gumbo is I put cold hard cash he says it's a soup. I honestly can't believe this is debate. What would make it NOT a soup?

If it tastes good eat it.

A few years ago I started making a small amount of roux when cooking stew. Works great.