Going For Gumbo and Craft Beer

If there’s one dish that symbolizes the melting pot of Louisiana’s Creole culture, it’s gumbo. Originating from African, Native American and French cultures, gumbo has recently found a new influence. Craft beer and its higher flavor profile have joined the luscious assortment of ingredients.

With 200 years of documented history, gumbo traditionally has been made with seafood, meat, sausage, game, poultry, and vegetables. It’s thickened and flavored by a roux of flour and oil, okra or filé. The latter is flaked, dried sassafras leaves, a contribution from the Choctaws who populated the Mississippi Delta. Some gumbos use all three thickening methods.

The name gumbo is derived from an African word for okra. Since okra and filé were readily accessible and a full meal could be made by adding scraps of meat or seafood and vegetables, gumbo has long been universally popular in Louisiana across all social lines. In recent times, more upscale versions are made entirely with the French-style roux, which takes time, energy and a bit more skill to bring it to a rich chocolate brown.

Celebrated TV chef Emeril Lagasse, who owns Emeril’s, Delmonico and NOLA in New Orleans as well as restaurants in Orlando, Las Vegas, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Charlotte, has brought gumbo to the national scene and helped put the emphasis on the dark brown French-style roux. Known for cooking with beer, Lagasse uses the Abita brand’s Turbodog in his popular duck and wild mushrooms.gumbo. A stoutish English brown ale brewed just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, the beer matches up well with the dark roux and, said Lagasse, “adds a unique, bittersweet flavor that gives the sauce depth and richness.”

Known for cooking with beer, chef Emeril Lagasse uses Abita's Turbodog in his popular Duck and Wild Mushroom Gumbo. (Photo Credit: Sara Bradley Essex)

West of New Orleans in Lafayette, chef and restaurateur Justin Girouard, owner of the French Press, looks to another local beer for pairings with his chicken-andouille sausage gumbo. “Everyone wants a bottle of beer with their gumbo,” said Girouard. His favorite pairing is Bayou Teche LA-31 Pale Ale, brewed in nearby Arnaudville.

Bayou Teche Brewing and the French Press were both launched in 2010 with Cajun-style food in mind and the two have collaborated on beer dinners and fundraisers through the years since. Cajun food started with the French influences of the Acadians, who moved to the Bayou country after being forced out of Canada in the 1700’s and subsequently became known as Cajuns. From the start, Bayou Teche owner Karlos Knott was influenced by the French farmhouse style of brewing to better make the connection to Cajun food.

Naturally, he turns to beer when cooking his own meaty gumbos.  “I think the key to successfully using beer to cook our style of food is balance,” said Knott. “I would not use any beer that is too extreme, either too hoppy, too fruit forward or too malty.” For his gumbo, after browning the chicken, duck, sausage or andouille, “we deglaze it with a few bottles of beer. You want to scrape up all of that flavor sticking to the bottom of the pot.” 

“For the beer we sometime change it up,” he continued in his distinctive patois. “For a duck gumbo our Passionné wheat is nice. I would think any nice citrus fruit wheat beer would work. For a seafood or gumbo des herbes, I bet a bottle of a really citrusy-tart sour would knock it out of the park.”

Girouard also uses his gumbo in a popular breakfast dish called Cajun Benedict, using the gumbo to smother french bread, boudin (a Louisiana sausage made with pork and rice) and poached eggs. His clientele prefers the traditional chicken and sausage gumbo, and he says that the key is getting the roux as dark as possible, almost to burning, and then throwing in the “Holy Trinity” (celery, onion, and green bell pepper) to cool the roux down and to caramelize the sugars in the vegetables. The other important piece is to source a good andouille sausage. “It makes all the difference,” said Girouard.

Chef Bart Bell grew up in Breaux Bridge, right next to Lafayette. A chef and former owner of Crescent Pie and Sausage Company in New Orleans, he is well known for his Cajun sausages, gumbo, and jambalaya. Currently working with local farm Covey Rise, Bell has been using winter greens as inspiration for his gumbo.

Although gumbo has long been popular in the summer when fresh okra is abundant, Bell prefers making it during the cooler “gumbo weather” in winter. A purist, he doesn’t use beer as an ingredient. And balance, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder. Unlike Knott, Bell likes the idea of a hoppy pairing, preferring Hopitoulas, an IPA brewed in New Orleans by NOLA Brewing. “The hoppy bitterness balances out the spicy and strong flavors of the ingredients,” he said. “It’s all about balance.”

Ultimately, like the many options for gumbo itself ,the use of beer as an ingredient and as a pairing comes down to the eye and taste buds of the beholder.

There is, of course, a third option for beer and gumbo. Lagasse is known for his suggestion while making the dish on Emeril Live. “You want to make a two-beer roux,” he told his audience. “Stir it for as long as it takes you to drink two beers.”