Poutine

Poutine(Quebec French:[puˈt͡sɪn]) is a  dish offrench friesandcheese curdstopped with a browngravy. It emerged inQuebecin the late 1950s in theCentre-du-Québecregion, though its exact origins are uncertain, and there are several competing claims regarding its invention. For many years, it was used by some to mockQuebec society.Poutine later became celebrated as a symbol ofQuébécoisculture and the province of Quebec. It has long been associated withQuebec cuisine, and its rise in prominence has led to its growing popularity throughout the rest ofCanada.
Annual poutine celebrations occur inMontreal,Quebec City, andDrummondville, as well asToronto,Ottawa,New Hampshire, andChicago. It has been calledCanada's national dish, though some critics believe this labelling representscultural appropriationof 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 withsandwichesordumplings.
The dish was created in theCentre-du-Québecarea in the late 1950s.Several restaurants in the area claim to be the originators of the dish, but no consensus exists.
According to Canadian food researcherSylvain Charlebois, whileWarwickis 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 Cheesetakes a different perspective, stating that the inventors were not chefs but the customers who chose to add cheese curds to their fries.
Poutine was consumed in small "greasy spoon"diners(commonly known in Quebec ascantinesorcasse-croûtes),pubs, at roadside chip wagons (commonly known ascabanes à patates, literally "potato shacks"), and in ice hockey arenas.For decades, it remained a country snack food in Quebec's dairy region, due to the narrow freshness window ofcheddar cheesecurds.In 1969, poutine was brought to Quebec City in Ashton Leblond'sfood truck(a business which grew into theChez Ashtonfast-food chain).In the early 1970s,La Banquisebegan serving poutine in Montreal,followed by theBurger Kingchain in 1983. Others that followed used inferior cheese and the dish's reputation declined. Poutine was largely perceived as an unsophisticated backwoods creation or unhealthyjunk foodto 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 usingbaked potatoesand duckstock. In November 2001,Martin Picardof bistroAu Pied de Cochonbegan serving afoie graspoutine which was praised by customers and food critics.This influenced chefs in Toronto and Vancouver to feature poutine on upscale menus.ChefMark McEwanserved lobster poutine at his Bymark eatery, and chefJamie Kennedyservedbraisedbeef poutine at his eponymous restaurant.Over the next decade, poutine gained acceptance and popularity in all types of restaurants, fromhaute cuisineto fast food, and spread across Canada and internationally.Poutine became extremely trendy in the early 2010s, with an explosion of poutineries in cities like Toronto, leading to stories about poutine's association with romanceand events like theIBM WatsonCognitive Cooking Poutine Event, where the computer generated unique poutine recipes based on the demographics of Toronto and Montreal.
TheDictionnaire historique du français québécoislists 15 meanings ofpoutineinQuébécoisandAcadian French, most of which are for kinds of food; the wordpoutinein 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 toMerriam-Webster, a popular etymology is thatpoutineis from a Québécois slang word meaning "mess", and that others attribute it to the English wordpudding. The exact provenance of the wordpoutineis uncertain.
TheDictionnaire historiquementions the possibility that the formpoutineis simply agallicizationof the wordpudding. 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 wordpudding. It cites theProvençalformspoutingo"bad stew" andpoutité"hodgepodge" or "crushed fruit or foods";poutringo"mixture of various things" inLanguedocien; andpoutringueorpotringa"bad stew" inFranche-Comtéas possibly related topoutine. The meaning "fries with cheese and gravy" ofpoutineis among those held as probably unrelated topudding, provided the latter view is correct.
The traditional recipe for poutine consists of:
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 rightfood 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 squeakysound when chewed.The curds should be less than a day old, which requires proximity to a dairy.While Montreal is 60 kilometres (37 mi) from a cheese plant inMirabel, 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 inpoutinerieswhich specialize in the dish; busy poutineries may use 100 kilograms (220 lb) 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.
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 mostQuébécoiswould call such a dish afrite sauce(English:french fries with gravy), not poutine. When curds are unavailable,mozzarellacheese 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, orMontreal-style smoked meat, with the gravy adjusted for balance.TheQuebec City-based chainChez Ashtonis 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 populationhas led to many takes on the dish inspired by other cuisines, such as Haitian, Mexican, Portuguese,Indian, Japanese,Greek, Italianand 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 withsandwiches,dumplings,soups, andflatbreads.
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 grasorcaviarandtrufflecan be found. This is a trend that began in the 1990s and is credited to David McMillan of Montreal'sJoe Beefand Globe restaurants.Savoury sauces like Moroccan harissa, lobster sauce, and red-wine vealjushave been used to complement artisanal cheeses and rich ingredients.
Chains such asSmoke's Poutinerie,New York Fries,McDonald's,Wendy's,A&W,KFC,Burger King,Harvey's,Mary Brown's,Arby's,andWahlburgersrestaurants also sell versions of poutine in Quebec and the rest of Canada (although not always country-wide).Tim Hortonsbegan selling poutine in 2018.Fast-food combination meals in Canada often have the options to have french fries "poutinized" by adding cheese curds and gravy, or substituting a poutine for a fries side.
Poutine is found in the northern border regions of the United States, includingNew Englandand the largerNortheast, thePacific Northwest, and theUpper 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 cookedground beefon 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 withchowderfeaturing local seafood.
Disco fries, french fries typically covered inmozzarellacheese 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 atdisco clubs.The dish is also popular inNew Orleansincluding variations called Cajun poutine.
Poutine spread to the United Kingdom, Korea and Russia, where it has been referred to as "Raspoutine".The first poutinerie in Paris, La Maison de la Poutine, opened in 2017 and quickly gained attention from mainstream media and gastronomers.
A similar dish known as chips, cheese and gravy, consisting of thick-cut chips covered in shredded ManxCheddar cheeseand topped with a thick beef gravy, is popular in theIsle of Man.
A cultural marker, poutine had long been Quebec's adored junk food before spreading across the rest of Canada and the United States.It had by then made inroads with food critics and established culinary circles, challenging its junk food status.Food criticJacob Richlernoted in 2012 that Canadian dishes are too similar to their European roots to be considered original, with the exception of poutine, which he credited as the country's most famous culinary creation.In May 2014, the word "poutine" was added to theMerriam-Webster Dictionaryof the English language.
In 2007, theCanadian Broadcasting Corporationdeclared the results of an online survey on thegreatest Canadian inventions, in which poutine ranked atNo.10.Maclean's2017 survey of "favourite iconic Canadian food" placed poutine first with 21% of respondents, ahead of maple syrup with 14%.By 2011, media outlets were reporting 11 April as National Poutine Day.
In March 2016, poutine was served at the White House during the first state dinner hosted by PresidentBarack Obamaand Canada's Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau.Poutine has been a highlight ofCanada Daycelebrations in Trafalgar Square in London, England, for several years,and was acomfort foodfor the local community after the 2013Lac-Megantic derailment.It was served at theinaugural Canadian Comedy Awards.
The first poutine festival was held in Warwick, Quebec, in 1993. This annual event expanded to become the largest cheese festival in Canada.In 2014, it was moved to the larger town ofVictoriaville.Montreal has hostedLa Poutine Week, an annual festival, food tour, and competition held 1–7 February, since 2013.It spread across Canada and internationally, and by 2021 had become the largest poutine festival in the world, with over 700 restaurants serving more than 350,000 poutines.Le Grand Poutinefest is a poutine festival founded in 2015 which tours cities and towns in Quebec, operating most weekends from April to September.Poutine festivals are also held in Drummondville (since 2008),Ottawa-Gatineau,Toronto,Calgary,Vancouver,Quebec City and Sherbrooke.In the US, major festivals have been held in Chicago, Illinois,Manchester, New Hampshire,Knoxville, Tennessee, and in Rhode Island.
Since 2010, theInternational Federation of Competitive Eating(IFCE) has held a world poutine-eating championship sponsored by Toronto-based chainSmoke's Poutinerie. There was criticism that the inaugural contest was held outside of Quebec and excluded Québécois. The IFCE stated that Montreal poutineries had not expressed any interest in holding the competition. Regulations for contests in Quebec make it difficult to include the province, which is often absent from national contests.Smoke's has since sponsored a cross-Canada poutine eating tour.In 2011, chefChuck Hugheswon onIron Chef America(episode 2 ofseason 9) by beatingBobby Flaywith a plate of lobster poutine.
Jones SodaCo., an originally Canadian company now based in the US, created a poutine-flavoured limited-edition soft drink in 2013, which received internationalpop cultureattention.Bacon-poutine was one of four flavours selected as a finalist in the 2014Lay'sCanada Do Us A Flavour potato chip contest.Though it did not win,Lay's later added a bacon-poutine variety in its Canada entry for the World Flavourites.Loblaws'President's ChoiceandRufflesbrands also offer poutine-flavoured potato chips in Canada.Giapos Ice Cream of New Zealand has served a "poutine ice cream" ofoolongmatchatea, ice cream and caramel sauce over hand-cut fries since 2017.In a 2018 promotional campaign for the filmCrazy Rich Asians, "the world's richest poutine" was created withwagyusteak, lobster, truffles, shiitake and chanterelle mushrooms, edible orchids, and gold flakes, priced just under $450.
Joel Edmundson, of the 2018–19National Hockey Leaguechampion teamSt. Louis Blues, ate poutine from theStanley Cupduring celebrations attended by over 4,000 fans in his hometown ofBrandon, Manitoba.Mathieu Joseph, aChambly, Quebec, native who won the Cup with theTampa Bay Lightningin2020and2021, also ate poutine from the Cup during a celebration with the Cup in 2021.
Health advocates have been critical of poutine since the 1980s.In a 2013 study of Canadian restaurants, poutine was found to have the second-highestsodium(1547 mg average and as high as 2227 mg) among single meal items, after stir-fry entrées.
The social status of poutine has evolved dramatically since its origins in rural Quebec in the 1950s. The dish was long mocked as a culinary invention and used as a means of stigmatization by non-Québécois against Quebec society to reduce its legitimacy.While the first generations that suffered from the poutine stigma opted to disidentify from the dish, younger people in Quebec began to reappropriate poutine as a symbol of Quebecois cultural pride.Today, the dish is celebrated in many annual poutine festivals in Quebec,the rest of Canada,and in the United States.
The evolution of the different symbols associated with poutine was first studied inMaudite Poutine!by Charles-Alexandre Théorêt.Théorêt revisited many of these stigmas in an interview given atTout le monde en parleon 11 November 2007.
As poutine gained popularity beyond the provincial borders of Quebec in the mid-2000s, the dish gradually stopped being mocked and was eventually introduced into the popular discourse as a symbol of Canadian identity.Today, the dish is often presented as being a part of Canadian cuisine, even as Canada's national dish.Nicolas Fabien-Ouellet suggested in the peer-reviewed journalCuiZinethat this "Canadization" of poutine constitutescultural appropriation.This appropriation is not linked to its preparation or consumption outside Quebec, but strictly to its presentation as a Canadian dish instead of a Québécois dish.Fabien-Ouellet explains:
In aTalking to Americanssegment on the Canadian mock television news showThis Hour Has 22 Minutes, during the2000 US election, comedianRick Mercerposed as a reporter and asked US politicians what they thought of "Prime Minister Jean Poutine" and his endorsement ofGeorge W. Bushfor president. (The Prime Minister of Canada at the time wasJean Chrétien.) None of the interviewees noticed the insertion of "Poutine" and Bush pledged to "work closely" with Mr. Poutine.A few years later, when Bush made his first official visit to Canada as president, he joked in a speech, "There's a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him [...] I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine." The remark was met with laughter and applause.
In French, Russian presidentVladimir Putin's surname is spelled "Poutine", with the two having identical pronunciation.The similarity has been a source of confusion; in commenting on theTalking to Americansprank on Bush,Washington Postcolumnist Al Kamen mistakenly believed that Mercer's fictional Jean Poutine was a reference to Putin.In 2017, Russian-themed poutinerie Vladimir Poutine opened in Montreal, with dishes named for political figures from Rasputin to Donald Trump.In the week following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, frequent insults and threats were received by the three Maison de la Poutine restaurants in Paris, some stating a belief that they worked for the Russian state. Another poutinerie in Lyon changed the name of its 20-year signature dish, Vladimir poutine, stating that it "was no longer funny". In Quebec, Le Roy Jucep announced that it was retiring the wordpoutinein support of Ukraine and reverted to "fromage-patate-sauce" on its menus and branding.
During the2011 Canadian federal election, some voters reported receivingrobocallsclaiming to be fromElections Canada, from a phone number registered to "Pierre Poutine".The calls targeted voters who had previously indicated they would not vote for theConservative Party.The calls, made on election day or the day before, falsely advised voters that theirpolling stationhad been changed, in an attempt toprevent them from voting.The allegations became known as theRobocall scandal, and subsequent investigation by theRoyal Canadian Mounted Policeresulted inMichael Sona, a junior Conservative Party staffer, being convicted of violating theElections Act.
Belgian Prime MinisterCharles Michelhad a Canadian lunch with counterpart Justin Trudeau on 16 June 2017, during which they ate hotdogs and poutine. Michel tweeted later that this was "A great way to meet a dear friend though our fries are better", referring to the popular claim that fries were originally invented in Belgium.In 2019, Canada attempted to garner support for its campaign for a non-permanent United Nations Security Council seat inthe following year's electionby serving poutine to UN diplomats.