Louisiana's complex blending of cultures over 300 years produced distinctive regional food traditions for which we are known worldwide. But we have other food traditions that are not so well known. Each cultural group has retained food traditions, and even within cultural groups, traditions vary from community to community, and family to family.
Preparing cracklins at the 1993 Louisiana Prairie Folklife Festival. Photo: Maida Owens.
Food traditions are particularly intriguing because they are some of the most persistent of traditions. Generally, people resist changing their food patterns. As a result, food often becomes closely tied to cultural identity and can reveal cultural processes such as blending, diffusion, or maintenance.
