The Top 100 Cajun Recipes of All Time

`The Top 100 Cajun Recipes of All Time' from the editors of `acadiana profile' and `The Justin Wilson Cookbook' are two excellent little sources for Cajun (Arcadian) recipes. Their primary value lies in both their relative authenticity and in their low cost. For a more complete source of `relatively authentic' Cajun recipes at a slightly higher cost for over twice as many recipes, I suggest `Cajun Cuisine' from the Beau Bayou Publishing Company.It's interesting that all these books come from very local sources. In this regard, they share a characteristic of some of the best Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks. This is easily understandable, as unlike `Southern' cooking and `Tex-Mex' cooking, Cajun and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking both come from just a few counties in just one state (Louisiana and Pennsylvania respectively).While both of these books are inexpensive and `kitchen friendly' (will lie flat on the kitchen table while you cook), there are some important differences. The `Top 100' book is simply recipes and nothing but recipes. Justin Wilson's book has fewer recipes (and NO INDEX!) but lots of homey observations so familiar to anyone who saw him on his PBS cooking shows. Another big difference is that in spite of the fact that Wilson was an `amateur' cook, he was an `amateur' in much the same way as Julia Child was an `amateur', in that they did not cook in professional (restaurant) kitchens, but they knew a whole lot about cooking technique and their technique did show a lot of professional touches. To be sure, Child was a much more accomplished teacher and literally a more accomplished researcher into her chosen field than Wilson, whose primary attraction was not `technique', but `bon hommine' (sic).Two things which set Wilson apart from `The Top 100' is his use of stocks and his cooking with wine. Wine certainly appears in some `Top 100' recipes, but it appears in almost half of Wilson's recipes and many recipes are named for their use of wine (even the French have just a few recipes named for their use of wine).The biggest question I have about `The Top 100' is whether this means the best recipes of the 100, or the 100 most distinctively Cajun recipes. Since the latter is much less subjective, it would be much more valuable than the former, as one can always use the book to find the most distinctively Cajun recipes and feel free to improve on them. The introduction suggests that the editors had both objectives in mind. I will concede to them the claim that these are the 100 most typical Cajun recipes, as no one should be in a better position to know than a local publisher of local recipes which has been in the business for many years.On the question of quality, I remain agnostic, but I will do a little survey on my favorite recipe, the turtle soup, to see if there is a chance that `The Top 100' does have `the best recipe'. First, a look at the recipe itself reveals that it is truly a recipe for the amateur cook, as it does not use a prepared stock, unlike both Justin Wilson, Emeril Lagasse (see `Emeril's Delmonico'), and Paul Prudhomme (see `Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen'). Thus, it reflects a home kitchen that does not have the resources to prepare stock in advance or a nearby supermarket with ample supplies of chicken stock. It's interesting to see the progression of complexity from the home recipes to Lagasse to Prudhomme to the ultimate classic French recipe in `The Escoffier Cookbook'. On the basis of this little survey, I have to believe that one should qualify the book's title to be `The Best 100 HOME Cooked Cajun Recipes of All Time'. This is evident from the fact that almost all recipes have a source of a local Louisiana home cook! It's also interesting to see the progression in this series from no stock to chicken stock (Wilson and Lagasse) to combination of chicken and turtle stock (Prudhomme) to pure turtle stock (Escoffier).One thing I notice in both books which simply has never come up in all the hours I have spent watching Emeril on the Food Network. This is the common use of `oil' rather than either butter or pork fat in many recipes. Wilson goes further to specify olive oil, and this is well before we all became familiar with how good olive oil and the whole `Mediterranean diet' was for us. It would be the ultimate irony to find that Justin Wilson's red wine and olive oil recipes were `healthy'.To make up for this, there is also a fairly common use of `prepared' staples here, such as `American cheese', Worchestershire sauce and Lea and Perrins sauce. (What is surprising is to see Emeril use `A1' sauce also in his Turtle Soup). `The Top 100' uses a bit less of the prepared stuff, but does use `oleo' more often. Please replace `oleo' with real butter. It's actually better for you.Both books fully embody everything I ever heard about `Cajun' cooking, most especially the use of the trinity of onions, celery and sweet peppers (replacing the French carrots in the classic mirepoix). Even where the three are not used together, celery and sweet peppers seem to find their way into just about everything, especially given the high number of braised and casseroled dishes using lots of aromatics.I confess that like Jean Shepherd's writing, Justin Wilson's Cajun accent and wry expressions simply don't come across as well in print as they do on the screen, so the extras in his book have limited value.For the price, I recommend both; however, `The Top 100' may have a longer shelf life.

This is filled with great recipes that taste great and aren't that difficult to make. Put together a party for 8 with a handful of recipes that everyone enjoyed. I'm looking forward to making more of these.There are two 'gotcha's that you have to watch for as you start making stuff from here:Not everything is spelled out. Example of a recipe that called for "a cup and a half of Roux", they do include a generic Roux recipe in the front of the book but don't list how much it makes, leaving the reader to figure out how much to multiply the recipe by to make a cup and a half (8x it turns out).Quantities seem more for big families, I made two recipes for a party (seafood gumbo and smothered okra) and even cutting the recipes in half I had way too much food for 8 people. Neither recipe stated how many servings they would make. In the end, for smaller families be prepared to cut recipes down to a quarter or less, this might make for some interesting measurements but will prevent your fridge overflowing with leftovers.Definitely get this recipe book, some great food here!

As a native of South Louisiana, I love Cajun cooking and have long read the Acadiana magazine, and saved recipes from it. This little cookbook takes thebest from the magazine. These are the basic recipes that we love--gumbo, etoufee, bisque, all the favorites of the region. There is a section for cooking game for those who like it. After traveling around this country and some places in Europe, I think the best food anywhere is South Louisiana Cajun cooking! I may be a bit biased, but someone must agree with me, since Cajun has become so popular. We were in a pub inEngland and Cajun food was on the menu. The book is simple and there are no pictures, but the recipes are easy to follow. For the price, well worth it.

Reminds me of home. I grew up with these dishes and some of them I already knew how to cook. It was good to have them documented somewhere besides my handwritten recipe cards. This way I can pass them on to my daughters who never woke up on Sunday mornings to hot couche couche for breakfast or immersed themselves in smell of pain perdu. The book is only 45 pages but filled with great recipes that are never served in restaurants. They are true Cajun treasures. Enjoy!

Being a displaced Louisianian living in Idaho I cook my Southern favorites all the time. My Grandmother in Abbeville La. taught me how to cook at a young age. I am always on the lookout for additional recipes, and this book has them. I started by cooking the ones that I already knew, and they came out perfectly, then moved on to some I had never tried. Never a bad recipe. A true authentic taste of Southwest Louisiana.

I bought this as a gift, and it is just what Cajun food is meant to be; timeless no nonsense recipes that have stood the test of time. If you want to be a serious Cajun cook, you should start with the basics in here before you buy some overwrought restaurant cookbook from NOLA.

I bought this as a gift and it was a huge hit. It has great recipes that are very well written.

I was not please after I got this paperback cookbook and read the recipes. It's overpriced to start with. It's like a little cookbook that you could make yourself! I am a good cook and I have lots of cooking experiences, so I could just read a recipe and tell if it's a good recipe worth to try it or not. I think that the title of this cookbook is misleading! Its recipes are just regular plain, not the best recipes at all. I own a lot of other Cajun cookbooks and all of their recipes are better than the ones of this Top 100 Cajun Recipes of All Times. To me, this cookbook is for beginners. I am not recommending this book. I wanted to return it, but it wasn't worth taking my time to repack it etc. I just discarded it. I would be more cautious before buying a book from now on!