The definitive modern Cajun cookbook from Top Chef fan favorite Isaac Toups and acclaimed journalist Jennifer V. Cole, featuring 100 recipes and stories from the backcountry to the bayou Cajun culture is one of the last bastions of true American regional cooking, emphasizing frugality, rural ingenuity, and closeness to the land to extract maximum use--and maximum flavor--out of everyday ingredients. No one knows this food better than acclaimed chef Isaac Toups. He grew up deep in the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, where his ancestors settled 300 years ago, and where hunting and fishing trips still provide the foundation for family celebrations. These communal experiences--shrimp and crawfish boils, boucheries (hog killings), fish frys, and backyard barbecues--are touchstones for his authentic Cajun cooking. In this, the first major Cajun cookbook in a generation, Toups and Cole show how--and what it means--to cook Cajun food today. Salty anecdotes, in-depth tutorials, and rich photographs guide readers through Toups' home country, and one hundred recipes translate old-school Cajun flavors for the modern home table: dirty rice, cracklins, boudin balls, cochon de lait, and much more. Along the way, you'll learn how to butcher a hog, make the most of each season, and engineer an on-the-fly barbecue pit--as well as the secret to Isaac's 15-minute roux (normally an hourlong process).