"Gombo" Recipe, 1845 - Public Domain image, National Parks Gallery

Recipe for "Gombo" sent to Fanny Longfellow by her sister-in-law Mary (Longfellow) Greenleaf from New Orleans.

Put a Table-spoon-full of butter + flour into a pot and let it brown over the fire, then fry in this a chicken or small turkey which has been cut into pieces + salted, until it is well browned. Then fill the pot with boiling water and let it boil slowly for four or five hours. Half an hour before dinner put in 40 or 50 oysters. When ready for dinner remove the pot from the fire and stir into it half a tablespoonful of the Gombo. Do not put it near the fire after the Gombo is in but send to table immediately with a dish of boiled rice, which, in serving, is to be put into the plate first and the soup put upon it. Some add, before the boiling, an onion cut into slices, a little chopped parsley, and some bits of ham, and pepper.
New Orleans.
Feb’y 24th 1845.