Saturday, July 2, 2011

Jam Bolaya!!!!!

According to an essay written by Andrew Sigal (sigal.org), the first reference to the word "Jambalaya" in the english language was in a recipe published in the American Agriculturalist in 1849.  The recipe was written by Solon Robinson while in Mobile during a tour of the American South. The first cookbook to publish a recipe for "Jam Bolaya" was the Gulf City Cookbook that was published in Mobile in 1878. Perhaps not coincidentally, the second reference to "Jambalaya" in a cookbook was in What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking. Though published in San Francisco in 1881, Mrs. Fisher had moved to California from Mobile.

Of course I love cooking the food I grew up with in Italy, but, I also love cooking the traditional gulf coast fare and one of my favorites is Mobile's own Jam Bolaya!  





8 comments:

  1. Nice blog...follow each other?

    ciao from Newport BEach

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  2. The reference to Jambalaya in the "American Agriculturalist" can be found at this link in google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=sHoYAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA161&dq=american+agriculturalist+jambalaya&hl=en&ei=afQQTt7JBpO3tge1loDfDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

    You can actually download the entire book in a PDF book and read it at your leisure. By the way, I am in Mobile now. Let me know if you guys are up to anything over the long weekend.

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  3. Yes, thanks to David, I mentioned all of this with a recipe a good while back in a pos I did, hey, somehow I missed the aroma of this waffling around...

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  4. Lovely blog and post! Thanks so much for stopping by and for following! I see you already know my buddy, Drick! Now that man CAN cook! :)

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  5. Marguerite, thanks for being one of my first followers! I love your blog! Drick is my next door neighbor, how lucky is that?

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  6. Drick, Dave said that was the best jambalaya I have ever made. I bring you some next time, and it won`t be on a disposable plate! By the way it looks like I fixed the technical problem I had when posting comments!

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  7. Good information on the food! Many of my French ancestors came from Mobile and other parts of Alabama. Great blog.

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