- Mike Sula
- Paul Fehribach’s gumbo z’herbes
Continuing our series of recipes from local cookbooks, today we address Paul Fehribach’s outstanding Big Jones Cookbook. Since the book’s publication, Fehribach’s talked quite a bit about its origin, and his role as researcher and keeper of Southern foodways. Broken into chapters by region—low country, south Louisiana, the Appalachian highlands, Kentuckiana, and the delta and deep south—with additional chapters on bread, cocktails, pantry staples, and charcuterie, it’s packed with unusual and tempting recipes and the stories behind them (salty sorghum pie, five-pepper jelly, benne oyster stew, reezy peezy, Antebellum rice waffles).
In an eight-quart, heavy-bottomed stock pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until just smoking. Immediately turn off heat and add flour to the hot fat, sprinkling it in gradually to avoid splatter, and stir with a wooden spoon. Turn the heat back up to medium, and continue cooking and stirring. Once flour starts to brown in four to five minutes, gradually turn heat down to medium-low but continue browning the flour, stirring constantly, until dark brown, the color of milk chocolate, another 45 minutes. Stir constantly to avoid burning. If you burn the roux you’ll know by the awful smell and you’ll have to start over.
