Louisiana's 'Gravy Boys' are dedicated to Cajun cuisine and culture

Cajun nutrient is reasonably mainstream — and gumbo, jambalaya and bread pudding tin beryllium recovered connected edifice menus nationwide. 

But 1 crockery – gravy – has remained thing of a hidden gem of Louisiana. And the "Gravy Boys," 8 champion friends from college, are dedicated to perfecting the crockery and preserving their taste heritage. 

The communicative of the Gravy Boys begins, technically, successful the 1700s erstwhile Cajuns archetypal arrived successful Louisiana.

CREAMY CAJUN SHRIMP SCAMPI OVER PASTA IS A FLAVOR-PACKED, CHEESY DREAM: TRY THE EASY RECIPE

"They were kicked retired of France. They were kicked retired of Nova Scotia. They ended up here," Sullivan Zant, 1 of the Gravy Boys, told Fox News Digital successful a Zoom interview. (See the video astatine the apical of this article.)

Zant is enforcement cook astatine Vestal, a edifice successful Lafayette, Louisiana. 

The Gravy Boys, 4 of whom are pictured present successful their customized denim jackets, met successful assemblage astatine the University of Louisiana astatine Lafayette. They've been friends ever since.  (Joshua Mata)

The Cajuns, Zant said, "were a radical of overmuch assets but decidedly not a batch of money. Gravy, on with jambalaya and a batch of different dishes that are fashionable passim Cajun cuisine, are, for deficiency of a amended term, 'poor radical food.'" 

Gravy, Zant said, is "a mode to instrumentality a small spot of nutrient and a small spot of vegetables, fortify them and genuinely springiness them not lone the nutrients, but besides [make them] filling." 

He added, "So, it fundamentally consists of immoderate type of protein, typically the Cajun beatified trinity, which is going to beryllium onions, doorbell capsicum and celery and, astir always, but not always, it's going to beryllium served implicit rice."

"From the ashes of 'Taco Tuesday' arose 'Gravy Thursday.'"

The Gravy Boys met successful assemblage astatine the University of Louisiana astatine Lafayette. The radical began a contented of throwing gravy parties each Thursday.

"From the ashes of 'Taco Tuesday' arose 'Gravy Thursday,'" Zant said with a laugh.

These parties attracted a crowd, and the radical utilized them arsenic an accidental to finetune their cooking skills. They present person customized denim jackets, and immoderate of the Gravy Boys vie unneurotic successful Cajun cooking competitions. 

In summation to Zant, the Gravy Boys are Trey Delcambre, Tanner Dimmick, Samuel Frazier, Jacab Gibson, Jordon Konow, Joshua Mata and Derrick Savoie. Dimmick precocious got married, and the different Gravy Boys served arsenic his groomsmen.

The Gravy Boys person stayed adjacent successful the years since assemblage and precocious served arsenic groomsmen astatine subordinate Tanner Dimmick's wedding. From near to right, Derrick Savoie, Jacab Gibson, Joshua Mata, Dimmick, Trey Delcambre, Sullivan Zant and Jordon Konow. Not pictured: Samuel Frazier. (Joseph Vidrine )

Most of the Gravy Boys grew up eating Cajun food, Mata, the "self-proclaimed CEO of Gravy Thursday," told Fox News Digital. 

"Rice and gravy has ever been portion of my diet, astatine least," helium said. 

Delcambre has memories of watching his grandma marque gravy and different Cajun delicacies. 

"This is conscionable worldly we grew up seeing and watching and observing our household members do," helium told Fox News Digital.

TABASCO PUT SPICE IN AMERICAN LIFE: HERE'S THE SURPRISING ORIGIN OF LOUISIANA HEAT

For the Gravy Boys, gravy is much than conscionable a mode to provender delicious nutrient to galore radical comparatively cheaply. It's a mode to sphere their culture, their friendships and the assemblage they've built.

"One of our bully friends, who is besides a very, precise palmy and fantastic instrumentalist from astir here, has this happening wherever helium likes to halt astatine shows and outcry successful the mediate of it, 'If you're not surviving your culture, you're sidesplitting it,'" Zant said. 

"And that's thing that truly rang existent to maine astatine the moment, I deliberation for each of america arsenic well. That's truly each we do."

"If you're not surviving your culture, you're sidesplitting it."

Cajun civilization "is unsocial and evidently precise peculiar to us," Zant said, but helium insists he's "not gatekeeping it." 

He said, "We conscionable privation you to travel and person a bully clip to conscionable america and bent out. That's however you get to interruption down barriers and truly get to cognize idiosyncratic — whenever you really beryllium down astatine a array and interruption breadstuff with them."

Zant said they "find much commonalities that mode than astir anything. And I deliberation that that's truly important to what we bash and wherefore we bash it."

The Gravy Boys shared a basic gravy recipe with Fox News Digital for those looking to commencement a contented of their own. 

Gravy began arsenic an casual and delicious mode to make a filling crockery for a comparatively debased cost, said Zant, 1 of the Gravy Boys. (Joshua Mata)

Part of the entreaty of gravy is that determination is nary authoritative look – the prime of meat, seasonings, vegetables and cooking clip is antithetic for each cook and is mostly based connected one's idiosyncratic sensation oregon what is disposable astatine the clip of cooking. 

This recipe, the Gravy Boys said, is much of a line and is meant to beryllium adjusted. 

Basic Gravy Recipe from the Gravy Boys

Ingredients

Any inexpensive cuts of nutrient (7-bone steak, pork chops, "whatever is connected sale")

Cajun spice premix (salt, achromatic pepper, cayenne, ail powder, amounts to taste) 

Vegetable oil

Beer, vino oregon h2o (for deglazing)

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

1 onion 

1 doorbell pepper 

1 clump celery 

Stock (chicken, beef "or adjacent conscionable water, if that's each you have") 

Long atom grain (for serving) 

Gravy is made champion with inexpensive cuts of meat, the Gravy Boys said – immoderate is available.  (Joshua Mata)

Directions

1. Pat adust nutrient and play with Cajun spice mix. Dice onion, doorbell capsicum and celery oregon immoderate vegetables you consciousness like. 

2. Heat cookware (preferably a cast-iron dutch oven) implicit mean precocious heat. Add rootlike oil. Once lipid is hot, adhd seasoned nutrient and sear for astir 4 to 5 minutes connected each side, "so you get immoderate bully fond going connected successful there." 

For much Lifestyle articles, sojourn www.foxnews.com/lifestyle

3. Remove nutrient aft browning and deglaze cookware with "beer, vino oregon h2o – immoderate is connected hand," and scrape up fond.

4. Add veggies to the pot, navigator for astir 10 minutes, until soft. Add further seasoning if desired. 

5. Add banal (or water), capable to screen each meat. Bring to a boil, past adhd nutrient backmost to the cookware and trim to a simmer. Put the lid connected the pot. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

6. Simmer for astir an hr and a half, stirring occasionally. Afterward, region lid to fto the gravy reduce. 

7. Once nutrient is tender, service implicit agelong atom rice.