Cajun cuisine, known for its spicy notes and heartiness, is a style of cooking that developed in the Southern reaches of the US after Acadian immigrants fled Canada in the 18th century. Inspired by rural French cooking, Cajun cuisine was developed by a population that lived off the land, adapting over centuries of cultural influences and geographical changes.
The Acadians were the original French settlers in North America. Immigrating to Canada in the early 1600s (the present-day Maritime Provinces), they lived off what was readily available to them. The traditional peasant-style recipes of the French countryside – usually meat and vegetables cooked with a thick sauce in a single pot – were adapted to include what the Acadians could catch or gather from both the land and sea. Read the full article here.