Poutineries

Poutine () is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, though its exact origins are uncertain and there are several competing claims regarding its invention. For many years it was perceived negatively and mocked, and even used by some to stigmatize Quebec society. Poutine later became celebrated as a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec. It has long been associated with Quebec cuisine, and its rise in prominence has led to popularity throughout the rest of Canada, in the northern United States, and internationally.

Annual poutine celebrations occur in Montreal, Quebec City, and Drummondville, as well as Toronto, Ottawa, New Hampshire, and Chicago. It has been called " Canada's national dish", though some believe this labelling represents cultural appropriation of the Québécois or Quebec's national identity. Many variations on the original recipe are popular, leading some to suggest that poutine has emerged as a new dish classification in its own right, as with sandwiches and dumplings.

History

Origins

The dish was created in the Centre-du-Québec area in the late 1950s. Several restaurants in the area claim to be the originators of the dish, but no consensus exists.

*Le Lutin qui rit, Warwick – Fernand Lachance of Le Café Ideal (later Le Lutin qui rit), is said to have exclaimed in 1957, "ça va faire une maudite poutine!" ( en, "It will make a damn mess!") when asked by a regular to put a handful of cheese curds in a take-out bag of french fries. The dish "poutine" appears on the establishment's 1957 menu. Lachance served this on a plate, and beginning in 1962 added hot gravy to keep it warm.
*Le Roy Jucep, Drummondville – This drive-in restaurant served french fries with gravy, to which some customers would add a side order of cheese curds. Owner Jean-Paul Roy began serving the combination in 1958 and added it to the menu in 1964 as "fromage-patate-sauce". Felt to be too long a name, this was later changed to ''poutine'' for a cook nicknamed "Ti-Pout" and a slang word for "pudding". The restaurant displays a copyright registration certificate, issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which alludes to Roy having invented poutine.
*La Petite Vache, Princeville – Customers would mix cheese curds with their fries, a combination which was added to the menu. One option included gravy and was called the "Mixte".

According to Canadian food researcher Sylvain Charlebois, while Warwick is the birthplace of poutine, Drummondville's Jean-Paul Roy is the true inventor since le Roy Jucep was the first to sell poutine with three combined ingredients, in 1964. ''The Oxford Companion to Cheese'' takes a different perspective, stating that the inventors were not chefs but the customers who chose to add cheese curds to their fries.

Development

Poutine was consumed in small "greasy spoon" diners (commonly known in Quebec as ''cantines'' or ''casse-croûtes''), pubs, at roadside chip wagons (commonly known as ''cabanes à patates'', literally "potato shacks") and in hockey arenas. For decades it remained a country snack food in Quebec's dairy region, due to the narrow freshness window of cheddar cheese curds. In 1969, poutine was brought to Quebec City in Ashton Leblond's food truck (a business which grew into the Chez Ashton fast-food chain). In the early 1970s, La Banquise began serving poutine in Montreal, followed by the Burger King chain in 1983. Others that followed used inferior cheese and the dish's reputation declined. Poutine was largely perceived as an unsophisticated backwoods creation or unhealthy junk food to be consumed after a night of drinking.

Montreal chefs would make poutine to feed their staff but had not dared to put it on their menus. In the 1990s, attempts were made to elevate the dish by using baked potatoes and duck stock. In November 2001, Martin Picard of bistro Au Pied de Cochon began serving a foie gras poutine which was praised by customers and food critics. This influenced chefs in Toronto and Vancouver to feature poutine on upscale menus. Chef Mark McEwan served lobster poutine at his Bymark eatery, and chef Jamie Kennedy served braised beef poutine at his eponymous restaurant. Over the next decade, poutine gained acceptance and popularity in all types of restaurants, from haute cuisine to fast food, and spread across Canada and internationally.

Etymology

The '' Dictionnaire historique du français québécois'' lists 15 meanings of ''poutine'' in Québécois and Acadian French, most of which are for kinds of food; the word ''poutine'' in the meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" is dated to 1982 in English. Other senses of the word have been in use since at least 1810.

According to Merriam-Webster, a popular etymology is that ''poutine'' is from a Québécois slang word meaning "mess", and that others attribute it to the English word ''pudding''. The exact provenance of the word ''poutine'' is uncertain.

The ''Dictionnaire historique'' mentions the possibility that the form ''poutine'' is simply a gallicization of the word ''pudding''. However, it considers it more likely that it was inherited from regional languages spoken in France, and that some of its meanings resulted from the later influence of the similar-sounding English word ''pudding''. It cites the Provençal forms ''poutingo'' "bad stew" and ''poutité'' "hodgepodge" or "crushed fruit or foods"; ''poutringo'' "mixture of various things" in Languedocien; and ''poutringue'' or ''potringa'' "bad stew" in Franche-Comté as possibly related to ''poutine''. The meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" of ''poutine'' is among those held as probably unrelated to ''pudding'', provided the latter view is correct.

Recipe

The traditional recipe for poutine consists of:
* French fries: These are usually of medium thickness and fried (sometimes twice) such that the inside stays soft, while the outside is crispy.
* Cheese curds: Fresh cheese curds are used to give the desired texture. The curd size varies, as does the amount used.
*Brown gravy: Traditionally, it is a light and thin beef or chicken gravy, somewhat salty and mildly spiced with a hint of pepper; or a ''sauce brune'', which is a combination of chicken and beef stock. Poutine sauces (''mélange à sauce poutine'') are sold in Quebec, Ontario, and Maritime grocery stores in jars or cans and in powdered mix packets; some grocery chains offer their own house-brand versions. Many stores and restaurants also offer vegetarian gravy.

To maintain the texture of the fries, the cheese curds and gravy are added immediately before serving the dish. The hot gravy is usually poured over room-temperature cheese curds, so they are warmed without melting completely. The thin gravy allows all the fries to be coated. The serving dish typically has some depth to act as a basket for the fries so that they retain their heat. It is important to control the temperature, timing, and the order in which the ingredients are added to obtain the right food textures—an essential part of the experience of eating poutine.

Freshness and juiciness of the curds is essential. Air and moisture seep out of the curds over time, altering their acidity level. This causes proteins to lose their elasticity, and the curds to lose their complex texture and characteristic squeaky sound when chewed. The curds should be less than a day old, which requires proximity to a dairy. While Montreal is from a cheese plant in Mirabel, restaurants and specialty cheese shops outside of dairy regions may be unable to sell enough curds to justify the expense of daily deliveries. Furthermore, Canadian food safety practices require curds to be refrigerated within 24 hours, which suppresses the properties of their texture. This has resulted in ''poutineries'' which specialize in the dish; busy poutineries may use of curds per day. Poutineries which are too distant from dairies may make their own cheese curds on site, in batches every few hours, to ensure a fresh and steady supply.

Variations

The texture, temperature and viscosity of poutine's ingredients differ and continuously change as the food is consumed, making it a dish of highly dynamic contrasts. Strengthening these contrasts, superior poutines are identified by the crispiness of the fries, freshness of the curds, and a unifying gravy. Even small variations in ingredients or preparation—the oil used for frying, the origin of the curds, or spices in the gravy—can result in a distinctly different experience of eating the poutine.

Some recipes eliminate the cheese, but most Québécois would call such a dish a ''frite sauce'' ( en, french fries with gravy), not poutine. When curds are unavailable, mozzarella cheese may be an acceptable alternative. Shredded mozzarella is commonly used in Saskatchewan. Sweet potato may be used as a healthier alternative to french fries, adding more dietary fibre and vitamins.

Poutineries, like Montreal's La Banquise, which is credited for much of the innovation and popularization of poutine, have dozens of varieties of poutine on their menus. Many of these are based on the traditional recipe with an added meat topping such as sausage, chicken, bacon, brisket, or Montreal-style smoked meat, with the gravy adjusted for balance. The Quebec City-based chain Chez Ashton is known for its poutine Galvaude (topped with chicken and green peas) and Dulton (with ground beef). New variations are frequently introduced. Pulled pork was popular around 2013, followed a couple years later by Asian-fusion poutines.

Montreal's high immigrant population has led to many takes on the dish inspired by other cuisines, such as Haitian, Mexican, Portuguese, Indian, Japanese, Greek, Italian and Lebanese. These poutines may bear little resemblance to the traditional recipe. They replace some or all of the ingredients but maintain the dynamic contrasts of textures and temperatures with a crispy element, a dairy or dairy-like element, and a unifying sauce. Many variations on the original recipe are popular, leading some to suggest that poutine has emerged as a new dish classification in its own right, as with sandwiches, dumplings, soups, and flatbreads.

Poutineries will frequently offer limited-time promotional specials, such as a Thanksgiving poutine with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. In anticipation of the legalization of cannabis in Canada, Montreal's Le Gras Dur served a "pot poutine" with a gravy that included hemp protein, hemp seeds and hemp oil, offered with a joint-like roll of turkey, wild mushrooms and arugula.

Gourmet poutine with three-pepper sauce, merguez sausage, foie gras or caviar and truffle can be found. This is a trend that began in the 1990s and is credited to David McMillan of Montreal's Joe Beef and Globe restaurants. Savoury sauces like Moroccan harissa, lobster sauce, and red-wine veal '' jus'' have been used to complement artisanal cheeses and rich ingredients.

Chains such as Smoke's Poutinerie, New York Fries, McDonald's, Wendy's, A&W, KFC, Burger King, Harvey's, Mary Brown's, Arby's, and Wahlburgers restaurants also sell versions of poutine in Quebec and the rest of Canada (although not always country-wide). Tim Hortons began selling poutine in 2018. Fast-food combination meals in Canada often have the options to have french fries "poutinized" by adding cheese curds (or shredded cheese in the Prairies and Western Canada) and gravy, or substituting a poutine for a fries side.

Internationally

Poutine is found in the northern border regions of the United States, including New England and the larger Northeast, the Pacific Northwest, and the Upper Midwest. These regions offer further variations of the basic dish, usually by utilizing cheeses other than fresh curds, which are not widely available in the US. Wendy's fast food chain offers poutine in the form of "Baconator Fries", which is fried thin sticks of potato with melted yellow cheese and bits of bacon. In the country culture, a mixed fry can also come with cooked ground beef on top and is referred to as a hamburger mix, though this is less popular than a regular mix. In the Pacific Northwest, one variation replaces the gravy with chowder featuring local seafood.

Disco fries, french fries typically covered in mozzarella cheese and brown gravy, were popularized in New Jersey in the 1990s. They gained their name in the 1970s for being a favourite of late-night diners, who often came from dancing at disco clubs. The dish is also popular in New Orleans