In the South, meals are often inextricably linked to heritage and home, a trait that is magnified on the Louisiana table. In Mémère’s Country Creole Cookbook (Louisiana State University Press, 2018), Nancy Tregre Wilson narrates each chapter and recipe with recollections of her family’s traditions at their home on Louisiana’s German Coast, or Côte des Allemandes.
“There were so many French-speaking Germans that were here, and not many people readily discuss that side of the region’s heritage,” says Nancy.
While in high school, Nancy volunteered at the local library. It was there she discovered her true heritage was German and not French, despite most of the adults in the area interchangeably speaking French and English.
“We didn’t know we were German,” says Nancy. “When I came home from the library that day and told my father this, he shrugged and said, ‘I learned my prayers in French.’”
The cookbook’s name comes from her French-speaking German great-grandmother Nellie Schexnayder Zeringue, whom she called Mémère. Nellie’s coupling of German and French cuisines inspired Nancy’s grandmother Mam Papaul, who bequeathed this knowledge to Nancy’s mother and ultimately to Nancy herself. Nancy went on to found Louisiana Gourmet Enterprises, Inc., which produced the Mam Papaul’s brand of specialty dinner and dessert mixes.
“I want for people to have an appreciation of heritage and not just foods,” says Nancy. “Write down the little things you know about your family.”
Mémère’s, which includes over 200 recipes from the region, gave her the opportunity to include narrative elements like her family’s yearly boucherie in detail, setting the scene down to the day’s annual menu: café au lait with biscuits and preserves for breakfast and grits and grillades for lunch.
The cookbook is a testament to the culture and cuisine of families who settled on the banks of the Mississippi River just 20 miles north of New Orleans. And through it, Nancy allows the world to peer into chapters of her life and see that heritage through her eyes.
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 3 cups steamed or baked pumpkin, sweet potato, or carrot purée
- 3 cups chicken broth
- ½ pound chopped browned tasso or fried bacon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne or black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg
- 1 cup half-and-half
- Garnish: sour cream, chopped fresh thyme, chopped browned tasso
- In a 5-quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and thyme; cook until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add pumpkin, broth, and tasso; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Stir salt, pepper, allspice, and nutmeg into soup. Whisk in half-and-half; simmer for 2 minutes. If you prefer a creamy soup, let cool slightly, then purée in the container of a blender, and reheat. If soup becomes too thick, thin with additional broth or half-and-half. Garnish with sour cream, thyme, and tasso, if desired.
