Poutine
- travellingstomachs
- Feb 24, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 25, 2023
Country Of Origin: Canada 🇨🇦
Originating in La Belle Province of Quebec, poutine is a classic French Canadian street food traditionally made up of french fries topped with cheese curds (squeaky cheese) and brown gravy. In Montreal (our hometown), you can find many different variations of poutine, as the dish can include meats such as bacon, chicken, sausage, ground beef, Montreal-style smoked meat & even seafood. Poutine is so beloved in this city that you’ll even find it on the menu at some higher-end restaurants, topped with foie gras, truffle, caviar or three-pepper sauce. No matter how basic or how fancy you like your poutine, there is one out there for everyone. It is simply the ultimate comfort food.
History: The combination of fresh-cut fries, cheese curds and gravy first appeared in rural Quebec snack bars in the late 1950s. Though the precise origins of poutine are much debated, in most cases, the dish was developed in stages. There are 3 different origin possibilities as several claim to have invented the mouth watering dish.
1) In Warwick (near Victoriaville), Fernand Lachance of Café Ideal (later renamed Le Lutin qui rit) has said that he first added curds to fries at the request of Eddy Lainesse, a regular customer, in 1957. Lachance reportedly replied, “ça va te faire une maudite poutine!” (“that will make a damned mess!”), before serving up the concoction in a paper bag. The combination became popular, with diners customizing the dish by adding ketchup or vinegar. In 1963, Lachance began to serve the dish on a plate to contain the mess left on his tables. When customers complained that the fries grew cold too quickly on the plate, he doused the fries and curds with gravy to keep them warm.
2 ) In Drummondville, Jean-Paul Roy claims that he invented poutine at his drive-in restaurant Le Roy Jucep in 1964. He had been serving fries in a special sauce since 1958, in a dish he called patate-sauce. When he noticed that customers were adding cheese curds (he sold them in bags at his snack counter) to their fries, he added the dish to his regular menu under the name fromage-patate-sauce. Notably, Roy had to travel to Toronto to find a vendor who could provide containers sturdy enough to hold the mixture.
3) It is also possible that poutine was born in Princeville, at the restaurant La P’tite Vache founded in 1966. La P’tite Vache was located close to the Princesse cheese dairy, which produced cheese curds but did not have anywhere to sell it. They began to sell this cheese at the cash of the restaurant. A regular customer would order some fries and buy a bag of cheese curds to mix them together at his table. The original appellation was 50-50: 50% fries and 50% cheese. The gravy was then added and the name "mixte" was adopted. The name "poutine" as we know it today appeared only when large restaurant chains started selling that product. This name is probably due to the fact that other dishes made of potatoes are also called poutines.
Fun Fact: The word poutine is commonly believed to have originated from the English word pudding (or as it were in French, pouding) used to describe a mixture, typically messy, of various foods.
Check out this list of the top 15 rated poutine experiences you must try when visiting our beautiful province of Quebec! https://dailyhive.com/montreal/best-bucket-list-poutine-quebec
Want to add a little Quebec flare to your life? Take a look at all these awesome pieces of Poutine merchandise: St Hubert Poutine Gravy Mix
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