Eula Mae's Cajun Kitchen: Cooking Through the Seasons on Avery Island

Cajun cooking is the spicy intersection of French and Southern culinary traditions. Eula Mae Dore has been cooking Cajun food on Avery Island, home of the McIlhenny family and their Tabasco pepper sauce, for more than half a century. Food writer Marcelle Bienvenu has spent hundreds of hours in the kitchen by Eula Mae's side capturing the fine flavors of her self-taught cooking. This book is organized into menus reflecting the rhythm of life on Louisiana's Avery Island, such as Mardi Gras, A Summer Fishing Trip, and Halloween Bonfire. More than 100 traditional Cajun dishes, from Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo to Blackberry Patch Cobbler, are complemented with Eula Mae's reminiscences of her family and her years on Avery Island.

The late Eula Mae Dore (1929-2009) grew up on a farm in the small rural community of Coteau in southern Louisiana. Her mother died when she was only ten, and since her father worked sunup to sundown on his farm, she became the cook for this family of five, teaching herself to cook Cajun specialties and learning to make the most of local ingredients. In 1949 she married Walter \u201cMoNeg\u201d Dor\u00e9, who worked for the McIlhenny Company, producer of Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce. Soon the couple was put in charge of the Tabasco Company Commissary on Avery Island, which sold everything from bread to detergent and serviced both the McIlhenny Company employees and the McIlhenny family. It was Eula Mae who came up with the idea of selling sandwiches at lunchtime, and they soon became legendary, drawing businessmen from the mainland eight miles away. Besides cooking and managing the commissary, Eula Mae was often called on to prepare food for Walter McIlhenny, late owner of the McIlhenny Company. He often asked her to cook for parties and brunches, preferring her down-home cooking to that of his personal chef.