Looking back 60 years — trends change

Looking back at six decades of The Cajun Creole Cookery / Cookbooks was inspiration enough to start getting ready for the annual United Way July cookoff and September edition of collected recipes from the Teche Area.

However, it’s eye-opening to consider some of the cooks that may be submitting recipes were not even born or were still toddling in their mother’s kitchens when today’s recipes were published. Consistently, when asked about recipes, or how they learned to cook, men and women in South Louisiana say their moms or grandmothers taught them.

Today’s double-income families don’t always have the luxury of time for the nuances of tried and true methods and are forced to fall into trial and error mode more often than mentoring. Many times the sentiment, “I wish I had gotten that recipe before she died,” can be heard by younger generations.

Things Aren’t the Same

In the 1956 edition of the Cajun Creole Cookery, the full schedule of events for the 15th annual Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival and Fair combined the history of the region as well as favorite delicacies. The festival was held at the Iberia Golf and Country Club, no longer in existence.

Queen Sugar Louis LeBlanc of Erath, Harriett Minville of Jeanerette and Hattie Maraist of St. Martinville, “all descendants of early French families,” were on the cover. The two girls, presented as students of French cooking methods, were being taught by Queen Sugar. The recipe, Les Oreilles de Cochon — “a delicious Creole confection or dessert for Carnival” is included today.

While looking for the page, too many recipes stopped the process. Jeanerette host and hostess, Mayor and Mrs. J. P. Lapeyrouse, shared a specialty that he said was one of the finest ways he knows of preparing chicken. The mayor learned to cook Chicken Broulet while on a hunting trip and taught the art to the First Lady of Jeanerette.

Here are the directions, again, no recipe: First, halve the chicken, broiler size, and season well with black pepper and salt. Grease the fowl well and thickly with butter. Place under the broiler until light brown.

When you see signs of dark browning, remove from the broiler and baste with garlic butter, made by pressing the juice from cloves of fresh garlic into butter and mixing well. Place the fowl in the oven and keep well basted until done. The entire process takes about 1 1/2 hours.

Familiar Names and Faces

Mr. and Mrs. Bernard F. Trappey of New Iberia and their SweetPotato Pone dessert as well as Pain Perdu and Rice Calas make the palet long for the old fashioned cooking. The offerings are endless and enticing enough to inspire republishing the old classics.

Many modern day Cajun fans eat or have at least heard of Couche-Couche, but for the first time — a recipe in print has been discovered and included today.

How can they be topped?

Cooks, Start Your Ovens

There in lies the challenge. Time perfects, inspires and improves — or perhaps, time constrains, minimizes or prohibits cooking as seen in the old ways. Now is the time for the new generation of cooks to come forward.

Already this year a prize winning cook from Houma and two friends from Thibodaux are looking forward to competing in the cookoff — if their recipes are chosen in the blind selection process.

The deadlines have been set for submissions and prizes for early bird contributors to the cookbook have been determined.

Preheat your ovens and start the grills — it’s time for the 65th annual Cajun Creole Cookbook and Cookoff to begin. No telling what recipes will be discovered or reborn as new interpretations of old dishes and totally new creations come from the imaginative world of home cooks — the best in the South.

With each cookbook, the pages began to reveal familiar faces that are still a part of the cookbook and cookoff process — winners in multiple years and categories. Brenda Boudreaux, Mark Boudreaux, Shirley Broussard, Darnelle Delcambre, Francine Garzotto, Joanie Kraker, Donald Lester, Margaret Melancon and Catherine Wattigny, to name a few. The list is not exhaustive but names grabbed by flipping the pages of so many books. The only years missing prior to 1956 are 1974, 1977 and 1982. If you have one, you may have a collector’s item.

More Than Food

The cooks who participate in the cookoff tell us its not just for bragging rights, it’s a family reunion to spend the evening together at the United Way Cookoff benefiting local charities through the contributions collected through a bidding process. The winner plays host to a group of 10 friends, family or business associates that are charged with judging the best of four submissions in eight categories.

Served by the United Way of New Iberia board of directors and volunteers, the gourmet meal is a one of a kind event. Save your contributions until the bidding starts to insure your philanthropic dollars bring great rewards, not only in the community, but among your guests. Corporations or individuals are elibible to bid for the prized dinner.

Enjoy today’s recipes from the 1956 Cajun Creole Cookery cookbook and let your imaginations go. We expect some great competition from the regular participants, old timers who haven’t been seen in a while and newcomers just moving into the area. Tasters choice wins.