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Started By
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The Origin of Crawfish Etouffee
Posted on 9/13/09 at 2:52 pm
Posted on 9/13/09 at 2:52 pm
I never heard this before and found it interesting on the origin of Crawfish Etouffee:
LINK
quote:
. . . this Acadian style of cooking found its way into Creole cuisine. The Picayune Creole Cook Book, published in 1901 and the most authoritative reference on traditional Creole cuisine, includes recipes for a few Acadian dishes - pork sausages, red and white boudins, andouille and several recipes for crawfish. Crawfish étouffée does not appear in the cookbook because it wasn't created until the 1920s in Breaux Bridge, now known as the Crawfish Capital of the World.
In Breaux Bridge's Hebert Hotel, Mrs. Charles Hebert and her two daughters, Yolie and Marie, made the first crawfish étouffée by cooking the tails in a lidded pot with crawfish fat and smothered down with onions and pepper. The Heberts passed on the recipe to their friend Aline Guidry Champagne, who opened the Rendez-Vous Cafe in Breaux Bridge in 1947 and introduced the dish to her customers.
LINK
2
Posted on 9/13/09 at 4:29 pm to Stadium Rat
good find
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:09 pm to Tiger Attorney
WOW. Didn't know this! I thought this dish was WAY older? Find anything to back this up?
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:31 pm to Team Tiger Awesome
This article agrees:
LINK
quote:
Invented 70 or so years ago beside the Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge, La. — some 125 miles west of New Orleans — crawfish étouffée has been declared the most ordered item in Cajun Country restaurants by chef Paul Prudhomme.
quote:
Crawfish would be served to family but never at a restaurant, he added. That changed sometime in the early 1930s when the Hebert sisters of Breaux Bridge cooked up the first étouffée for guests at their inn. Mud bugs or no, patrons spread the word as far away as Texas that the dish — which the sisters called crawfish court bouillon — was delicious. The Heberts sold their establishment and recipe to Ilene Champagne, who renamed it by accident. A French-speaking patron asked Champagne what she was cooking and she replied in French that she was smothering crawfish.
LINK
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:38 pm to Stadium Rat
also before the depression.. crawfish were not widely eaten in LA....
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:50 pm to choupiquesushi
That's what I heard, too. I think it was John Folse that said what helped popularize crawfish was the federal government, who promoted them as an under-utilized resource.
And my mom, who was born in 1924 and grew up near Crowley, said people back then were ashamed to let others know that they ate crawfish.
And my mom, who was born in 1924 and grew up near Crowley, said people back then were ashamed to let others know that they ate crawfish.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:57 pm to Stadium Rat
That would make sense. Even lobster was once regarded as only fit for prisoners, and "respectable" people would not eat it.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:58 pm to Stadium Rat
my grandma still makes fun of us for loving crawfish.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 5:59 pm to Stadium Rat
quote:
what helped popularize crawfish was the federal government, who promoted them as an under-utilized resource.
So crawfish were part of a socialist plot.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 6:09 pm to el tigre
quote:
my grandma still makes fun of us for loving crawfish.
My dad still contends that redfish are " trash fish."
Posted on 9/13/09 at 6:29 pm to glassman
Etouffee is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It's my "comfort" food.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:22 pm to liz18lsu
Etouffe is a basic cooking technique, the word of course means smothered, so that information would seem to me to mean it was the first commercial version using crawfish on a menu, that sounds accurate. I think the poster who thought it was actually much older is likely correct.
I use the same recipe for shrimp, fish, even chicken breast strips. Any light meat that cooks quickly.
I use the same recipe for shrimp, fish, even chicken breast strips. Any light meat that cooks quickly.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:30 pm to andouille
I agree that it is probably older, at least in private homes. After all, it's a pretty simple dish, and Acadians were a pretty closed community back then.
If you look at the second link, the originators first called it crawfish court bouillon, but it was popularized under a different name "by accident".
If you look at the second link, the originators first called it crawfish court bouillon, but it was popularized under a different name "by accident".
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:37 pm to glassman
quote:My first bottom fishing trip out of Venice, when we'd start pulling up Trigger fish, the captain would move....not now.
my grandma still makes fun of us for loving crawfish.
My dad still contends that redfish are " trash fish."
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:41 pm to liz18lsu
quote:
Etouffee is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It's my "comfort" food.
Liz, I am not joking, I make a great etouffee. A little mixed green salad on the side, crusty french bread and a nice buttery Chardonnay. It is a meal fit for a former gymnast.
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:47 pm to glassman
Hey glass - you know how to talk to a woman! 
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:48 pm to liz18lsu
quote:
Hey glass - you know how to talk to a woman!
Thanks dear. Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:49 pm to glassman
Though I haven't forgotten that you would spend your time on a deserted island.....j/k
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:51 pm to liz18lsu
quote:
Though I haven't forgotten that you would spend your time on a deserted island.....j/k
Busted, only for the pot reference.
Certainly not for mutual e-attraction. 
Posted on 9/13/09 at 7:52 pm to glassman
So, glass, settle the great Etouffee debate - how do you prepare yours?
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