How Roux Made Its Way Into the Gumbo Pot

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1880s. By then, cooks in New Orleans were making three primary varieties of their famous stew: okra-based gumbo févi, gumbo filé thickened with powdered sassafras, and gumbo aux herbes.

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It was only toward the end of the 19th century that the ingredient that's perhaps most closely associated with gumbo today made its way into the pot: roux.

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Adding roux to gumbo was definitely a Louisiana innovation, and it seems to have been used first with oyster gumbos.

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In 1894, the New Orleans Times-Democrat declared, "the roux is the basis of everything good in the creole culinary line, such as gumbo, both okra and filé, daube stew, those wonderful fricassees, etc." Still, it took a good half a century to become universal in New Orleans-style gumbo. The 1922 Picayune Creole Cookbook included recipes for roux-free gombo filé, gombo févi, and gombo aux herbes, though its oyster gumbo and shrimp gumbo both begin with a roux made from a tablespoon for lard or butter and two tablespoons of flour. It wasn't until the 1950s that roux become the standard in Creole gumbo recipes—and in Creole cooking in general.

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