Trinity (Louisiana dish of onions, celery, bell peppers)

[Barry Popik]

O.T.: There's someone hanging from a tree in the house next to mine. I
hope this is for Halloween...I'll try to get to "barbecued crabs"
later today.
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There's a video in today's NY Times dining section on preparing
"grillades and grits," and "the trinity" is shown. Any forthcoming
DARE or OED entry? Louisiana borders on Texas, so I'll probably add it
to my Texas page.
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NewspaperArchive has a Ruston (LA) newspaper from the 1970s, but I
didn't see "trinity" there. "Trinity" definitely shows up by the early
1980s.
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http://www.nytimes.com/pages/dining/index.html
New Orleans Breakfast
Grillades and Grits by John Besh
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http://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Cooking/The_Trinity.htm
Cooking Louisiana - The Trinity

Onions, Celery and Bell Pepper, The Trinity as they are known, are the
beginning of many a fine dish here in South Louisiana. In my 30 years
of cooking I've almost always cooked these vegetables down until they
were almost mush. Why, because that's the way I learned to do it from
the old folks. This holds true especially for pot roasts, gumbo,
jambalaya, sauce piqaunts, etc.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_trinity_(cuisine)

The holy trinity of cuisine are the three ingredients key to a
particular cuisine. Because these three ingredients are so common in a
recipes of a specific cuisine they are almost indivisible and end up
being treated as a single ingredient. They also provide the
distinctive flavoring of specific cuisines.

The name is an allusion to the Holy Trinity of the Christian faith.

Common holy trinities in cuisine are:

the Indian "wet" trinity of garlic, ginger and onion
the Chinese trinity of scallions, ginger and garlic
the Szechuan trinity of green garlic, ginger and chili peppers
the Thai trinity of galangal, kaffir lime and lemon grass
the French Mirepoix trinity of celery, onion and carrot
the Lebanese trinity of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil
the Italian Soffritto trinity of tomato, garlic and basil
the Spanish Sofrito trinity of garlic, onion and tomato cooked in olive oil
the Louisiana Creole or Cajun trinity of chopped celery, bell peppers,
and onions
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6 May 1984, New York (NY) <i>TImes</i>, pg. 437:
In both Cajun and Creole cookery, finely chopped onion, celery and
green peppers are the "holy trinity" of the kitchen. Tomatoes,
according to Prudhomme, do not play as important a role in Cajun
cookery as they do in Creole, where a great many creations would be
impossible without them. The numerous ingredients native to both
cuisines include cornmeal, okra, grits and, of course, crawfish.
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17 August 1984, New York (NY <i>Times</i>, "Cajun-Creole fare comes to
TriBeCa" by Marian Burros, pg. C18:
Despite such lapses, Miss Trilling is generally knowledgeable about
the qualities of Cajun-Creole cooking. She knew that redfish was good
long before Paul Prudhomme made it famous by blackening it, and she
serves it with love sauce, which is a zesty crawfish etoufee, made
with crawfish fat, plus a combination known in Louisiana as the Holy
Trinity: green pepper, onion and celery.
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
The Cornbread Killer - Page 219
by Lou Jane Temple - Fiction - 2000 - 272 pages

... or 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes Tabasco or other Louisiana hot
sauce 1 T. soy
... The Holy Trinity: onions, celery, and green pepper are the mirepoix of ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics - Page 319
by Donna Brazile - Biography & Autobiography - 2004 - 352 pages

... favorable sauce that has become one of the most important staples
of Louisiana
cuisine. ... Step 7: Now you are ready to add the holy trinity of onions, ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
Good Housekeeping Great American Classics Cookbook - Page 155
by Beth Allen, Susan Westmoreland - Cooking - 2004 - 336 pages

... Acadians were expelled from settlements in Nova Scotia and headed south to
Louisiana. ... And, of course, the "holy trinity" of chopped onions, celery, ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
In the Kitchen with Papa Wiltz: Favorite Cajun-Creole and
Mexican-American ... - Page 1
by Francis N. Wiltz - Cooking - 2006 - 160 pages

... Cajun French spoken mainly in South Louisiana (Cajun country or Acadiana).
... of onions, bell peppers, and celery is called the "Cajun Trinity". ...
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(GOOGLE BOOKS)
Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History - Page 252
by Marcie Cohen Ferris, Mark I. Greenberg - History - 2006 - 384 pages

The staple ingredients are the "holy trinity of Cajun cooking: onions, peppers,
and celery," and a butter-and-flour-enriched roux that thickens the mix. ...

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org