Guest Post: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Poutine
Relationships — and not just romantic ones, but with our friends, too — open us up to all sorts of delights we might not have known otherwise. Take me, for example: Before Sebastian and I started dating, I thought I didn’t like Chinese food, had never listened to David Bowie, and thought the internet was for buying shoes. And now look at me — it’s a rare fortnight that doesn’t see me ordering fried pork dumplings to my door, I listen to Ziggy Stardust when I’m washing the dishes and folding laundry, and I don’t think we need to go to into how much the internet has shaped the trajectory of my little life.
Also B.S. (Before Sebastian) I had never heard of poutine, but he talked about it like it was the holy grail of foods. (Perhaps it was made more fantastic by its relative unavailability to us.) So, when work took me to Montreal several years ago, my beloved came with me. While I sat at a book conference, he stay locked in our hotel room and built the original Pink of Perfection and dreamed about eating poutine for dinner. Finally, one night, I rescued him from his hard work and we took the metro to another part of town. We found ourselves at a diner and, intimidated by the locals, managed to choke out an order for poutine and two Molsons. The poutine was just as so-wrong-it’s-right delicious as Sebastian had led me believe. And now, if you can believe it, there’s a burger joint a mere 10 blocks away that serves up this Quebecois delicacy.
But to learn the ropes of the real deal, I figured we needed a bona fide Montrealer to give us the scoop. Cat Taylor from Montreal is Chic tells us everything you ever wanted to know:
Back in the late 1950s when poutine is said to have been conceived in Quebec, no one could foresee the foray this unique product would make into some of the most sought-after dining establishments worldwide. The trend has spread past the North American shores to Europe and the myths and legend of the poutine story continue to grow.
But I’m here to give the facts.
The two most documented claims place the origin of poutine in the Victoriaville area of Quebec, about one hour outside Montreal. Existing evidence points to the restaurant Roy le Jucep in Drummondville as the self-proclaimed inventor of poutine. The story goes that back in the early 1960s patrons of the restaurant were mixing the cheese curds, which were sold as a handy snack (they still appear everywhere even the corner store), with the gravy and fries. The restaurant made it a regular item on his menu.
During the late 1970s, “disco fries” emerged in New York and New Jersey states for the club set – which were an altered version of poutine using shredded cheese. Today, ingredients like truffles and fois gras are being used in this simple and humble Quebec dish, but if you’re a purist, you’ll want the true recipe for traditional poutine, bien sur.
First, cheese curds. The truth of the matter is, no matter how expensive or delicious the cheese is –- to get the essence of the dish you must use real cheese curds. If you live in Quebec you can buy these anywhere –- and I mean anywhere. More and more specialty shops, particularly cheese and gourmet shopsm in a major cities throughout North America now stock them due to the poutine craze, but you can also find them online. If you’re adventurous you can make your own cheese curds. Cheese curds for poutine must be made out of cheddar, not mozzarella. Often referred to as “squeaky cheese,” they have a unique texture and saltiness that regular cheese can’t imitate.
The classic sauce for traditional poutine is based on chicken velouté and should not be confused with gravy. Velouté has chicken stock as the primary base, while gravy has milk or cream and is much denser in texture. Today, for the non-traditional recipes, anything goes, including marinara sauce and duck velouté.
Next, the fries: There are many arguments as to which type of fries are best. A fry that works best to hold the sauce and curds is not too thin and very crisp. For the crispiest homemade fries, use white potatoes; cut them as evenly as possible; use olive oil for 1/3 of your total frying oil; sea salt instead of table salt; and blot the fries on sheets of paper towels before serving them and adding poutine ingredients.
The simple things I like to add as a twist — while still preserving the traditional taste — are crumbled bacon or a little dusting of truffle salt. Drink with a cold beer or Pepsi to be traditional or a nice Pinot Noir — which you could chill for 30 minutes before serving — or a buttery Chardonnay.
Read more from Cat on Montreal is Chic. If you’re interested in writing a guest post, email me!
Amy C: Being a Jerseyan, I grew up on disco fries! They are truly outrageous- like an innocent group of potatoes accidentally stumbled upon Paula Deen in a very hungry mood. No one outside NJ/NYC knew what they were, and when I went to PA for college, I had to tell the chef at my local diner how to make it.
I would love to try them with actual cheese curds. I will have to track it down- I never knew that it originated in Canada!1 year ago
Amy C: P.S…I should mention that it’s 8:30am, and now I am craving disco fries. This weekend’s healthy eating is a bust…thanks a lot!! ; P1 year ago
Roxy: My greatest poutine memory is when I went to Ontario to visit my Grandpa. He lived at Remi Lake, and around this area were random snack shacks that sold three different kinds of poutine. There was Canadian(grated yellow cheddar with gravy), Quebecois(cheese curds and gravy), and Italian(mozzarella and marinara).
These days I make poutine regularly-ish for my husband(and me:P). Sadly, the town we live in doesn’t have cheese curds..so we do the Canadian version.
=^.^=1 year ago
Suzy: Despite having originated in Quebec, poutine has spread to just everywhere in Canada. I live in Ontario and it is so mainstream you can order it instead of regular fries at fast food restaurants (not like the real thing, of course).
I say this in a whisper for fear my country excommunicates me: I don’t like it. Too salty, I find cheese curds bland, and I’ve never been a huge gravy fan. But my best friend ADORES it. Poutine is her go-to ‘drunk food.’ A night of clubbing and drinking was never complete without a huge platter of steaming poutine. In fact, one night I was so blotto she had to take me home early. By the next morning she was gone but I knew she’d been there as evidenced by the styrofoam container of half eaten, congealed…poutine. A Canadian classic–right up there with moose and beavers and Mounties and “eh.” Eh?1 year ago
Gina: Ha! Love the throwback link to the old page format.
Also, love poutine. As another Canuck POP reader I second the claim its pretty ubiquotous all over Canada at this point… doens’t make it any less delicious though! Perahps sadly, it was a frequent cafeteria staple at my highschool.
Also there’s Newfoundland Fries – same as poutine with the addition of turkey dressing & peas. A chip cart near my teenage home was well known for selling this… I was never brave enough to try it though.1 year ago
Gina: !hoops! I got so excited about poutine my spelling and grammar went out the window. Apologies.1 year ago
Isabelle: yum! Poutine! I live in Montreal and love poutine! it’s really good with ketchup on it too! you gotta try it!
If ever you drop by Montreal again, another thing you just have to try are beaver tails. no they’re not real beaver; it a whole wheat dough that is fried and then topped with toppings of your choice. IMO go for the original cinnamon sugar and lemon, you can’t go wrong!1 year ago
tariqata: Isabelle: it’s good to know that I’m not the only person in the world (besides my mom) who will eat her poutine with ketchup!1 year ago
Ashley: I have to agree with Suzy on the “poutine as drunk food”! It was also my drunk food all through university. Probably because only an evening full of drinks could make me forget about the calories and indulge in fries and gravy in the middle of the night, but we frequently stopped for a poutine on the way home. I still love it for a treat
Great post!1 year ago
Amy C: You evil temptress…after writing my above comment, my husband and I went out for breakfast at a diner, and I couldn’t resist…I can’t believe I had these things at 9am!!!!!!1 year ago
Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday: yay for recognizing some authentic canadian food
now do a feature on nanaimo bars and butter tarts and bannock.1 year ago
sarah: I love your website! I found it on yahoo.com recently and have been happily obsessed ever since. Just wanted to say hello!1 year ago
Genevieve: Now I want poutine so badly! I used to live in Quebec, and there is nothing better than good poutine. So bad..so good.
The trick with poutine is that the gravy has to be REALLY hot — hot enough to melt the cold cheese curds. There is nothing grosser than lukewarm fries and cold cheese curds.
We can get poutine just about everywhere, in the city I live now, but most of it is simply not up to the poutine standard.
The addition of truffle salt sounds amazing. While I can get cheese curds everywhere, truffle salt might be tougher.
Now I am going to be thinking about it all day.1 year ago