{"id":12,"date":"2008-05-15T09:53:50","date_gmt":"2008-05-15T13:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/2008\/05\/15\/file-spice-powder-or-gumbo-file\/"},"modified":"2008-06-05T14:20:40","modified_gmt":"2008-06-05T18:20:40","slug":"file-spice-powder-or-gumbo-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/spices\/file-spice-powder-or-gumbo-file\/","title":{"rendered":"File&#8217; Spice Powder or Gumbo File&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"2\" vspace=\"5\" align=\"left\" width=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frontiercoop.com\/picts\/bulk\/GumboFilePowder.jpg\" hspace=\"5\" alt=\"File' Powder\" height=\"150\" \/>File&#8217; (pronounced <font color=\"#000000\">fee-lay<\/font>) spice powder is a unique ingredient used primarily for making a good gumbo, and it is a necessity for cooking authentic Cajun cuisine. Quite simply, file&#8217; is the powdered leaves of the sassafras tree. When ground, it has a faint\u00a0smell like eucalyptus. Long before the use of file&#8217; powder for Creole and Cajun cooking, Choctaw Indians of the Gulf coast\u00a0pounded sassafras leaves into a powder and added them to soups and stews. In addition to contributing an unusual flavor, the powder also acts as a thickener when added to liquid.<\/p>\n<p>Typically I will add the file&#8217; powder toward the end of making a gumbo, but before I put it into the hot gumbo I will mix the fine file&#8217; powder with a small amount of cool water until it is dissolved creating a thick slurry. I then fold in the file&#8217; slurry into the hot gumbo. This prevents the file&#8217; powder from clumping and keeps it smooth in the gumbo. File&#8217; does really help thicken up a gumbo and it adds a unique flavor profile too.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a link to an interesting article on <a href=\"http:\/\/generalhorticulture.tamu.edu\/prof\/Recipes\/File-Sassafras\/file.html\" title=\"File'\">General Horticulture.com <\/a>about how to make your own file&#8217; powder. It has some good background on the sassafras plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>File&#8217; (pronounced fee-lay) spice powder is a unique ingredient used primarily for making a good gumbo, and it is a necessity for cooking authentic Cajun cuisine. Quite simply, file&#8217; is the powdered leaves of the sassafras tree. When ground, it has a faint\u00a0smell like eucalyptus. Long before the use of file&#8217; powder for Creole and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[35,38,36,2056,37,34],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}