RE: [CH] jambalaya recipe?? V8 #531
Karen Oland (koland@staffingtech.com)
Thu, 16 May 2002 17:43:39 -0400
True, but most times pork sausage is substituted for a hambone -- which is
more of a poor man's food (although possibly an original ingredient from
slave days), not nearly as desirable in most restaurants and not nearly as
spicy. I've never seen a restaurant recipe with plain ham, although many
at-home version use ham (smoked, preferably). If you used just ham, you'd
change the texture substantially and have to add quite a bit more spice (not
just hot stuff).
That said, there are many recipes out there (including many you would not
want to eat). For those that can't decide what meat to use, check
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/jambalaya.html -- they even use alligator or
duck.
Of course, whether the derivation is french or spanish/african (jamon and
ya-ya) is somewhat up to debate. Most feel it is actually spanish - if only
because it is so similar to paella. No doubt early versions used any sort of
pork (of which most were salted, smoked, sausage or bacon, in order to
preserve them), even just ham bones for flavor (but no meat).
And, there is this one:
"John Mariani in "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink" offers a more
colorful origin of the name: A gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn late
one night to find nothing left for him to dine upon. The owner thereupon
told the cook, whose name was Jean, to "mix some things together" --balayez,
in the dialect of Louisiana -- so the grateful guest pronounced the dish of
odds-and-ends wonderful and named it "Jean Balayez." The first reference to
the word in print was in 1872, and "The Picayune's Creole Cook Book" (1900)
calls it a "Spanish-Creole dish. "
-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron Begg [mailto:begg.4@osu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 3:20 PM
To: Karen Oland
Subject: RE: [CH] jambalaya recipe?? V8 #531
>Sausage == jambon
Actually Karen, sausage is saucisson; jambon is bacon or ham.
--
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Regards, Cameron.