Mary Randolph included a similar recipe for “Gumbo—A West India Dish” in The Virginia House-Wife (1824): okra stewed in water and served with melted butter. An 1831 article on okra in the New England Farmer noted the plant’s “known reputation in the West Indies” and that, “a very celebrated dish, called Gombo, is prepared in those countries where okra is grown, by mixing with the green pods, ripe tomatoes, and onions; all chopped fine, to which are added pepper and salt, and the whole stewed.” The 1841 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defined gumbo as “A dish of food made of young capsules of ocra, with salt and pepper, stewed and served with melted butter.”
In the mid 19th century, gumbo shifted from being a dish associated with the West Indies to one associated with New Orleans, perhaps thanks to the extent to which cooks and diners of all races had embraced it in Louisiana. By the late 1830s, New Orleans newspapers were already incorporating gumbo into jokes and aphorisms as a sort of well-loved local dish. In 1838, the Times-Picayune commented, “Secret of Health—Live Light and eat plenty of gumbo.” In 1839, the New Orleans Times opened a light piece on sneezing by commenting, “The greatest luxury we know of, save and except a plate of gumbo, is a real old-fashioned sneeze.”
