A lot of okra-based dishes in Gullah Geechee cuisine likely have a direct link to 19th century “gombo.” Many involve a thick tomato-based sauce in which meat or seafood are cooked along with onions, spices, and, of course, okra. There are plenty of recipes for “okra and tomatoes” and “shrimp and okra”, too, that are almost identical to the more basic gumbo recipes being published in the 1820s and 1830s.
“Okra was the main staple vegetable in the summertime,” Dennis says, “It’s one of the few that thrives because it’s so hot.” Fortuitously, okra is in season at the same time as shrimp, which is a natural flavor match. “They were always the small creek shrimp,” Dennis recalls. “Usually you would have that in with some sort of smoked meat.”
Recipes for gumbos made with filé start appearing in print just before the Civil War, suggesting that using powdered sassafras as thickener was starting to spread outside of Louisiana. The Carolina Housewife (1847) includes a recipe for “Okra Soup” made with beef, okra, and tomatoes, as well as one for “New Orleans Gumbo” made with turkey or fowl and onion, to which a hundred oysters and “two teaspoons of pulverized sassafras leaves” are added. A similar chicken-based “Filet gumbo,” thickened with filé powder, appears in Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book (1857).
