History Of Canada’s Most Iconic Dish: Poutine

Canadas national dish: poutine. However, have you ever wondered where it came from? Keep reading to find out.

What is Poutine?

There are three main ingredients of poutine: French fries, cheese curds, and gravy. A cheese curd is cheddar cheese that hasn’t been aged. During the cheesemaking process, the pH levels drop in milk. This causes milk protein molecules to attract to each other to form “curdles.” Those are the cheese curds that are put on the poutine. There is a debate whether or not poutine sauce is gravy and if gravy is poutine sauce but the sauce is from meat juices.

Beginnings Of Poutine

The inventor of poutine is unclear. The most popular claim is that in 1957, a small dairy-farm created the dish. They claim that a customer at the restaurant L’Idéal requested for a bag of cheese curds and French fries. He called it poutine after the word Quebecois slang for mess: joual. It wasn’t until 1965 when another restaurant nearby added the gravy sauce to the dish.

How To Pronounce Poutine

The Quebec pronunciation is “poo-tin”. Anglophones pronounce the dish as “poo-teen.” Americans usually pronounce the dish as “pu-teen” which is incorrect.

cites

Fabien-Ouellet, Nicolas. "Poutine Dynamics." Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures/Cuizine: Revue Des Cultures Culinaires Au Canada 7.2 (2016).

Rioux, Laurie‐Eve, Véronique Perreault, and Sylvie L. Turgeon. "Textural Characteristics of Canadian Foods: Influences and Properties of Poutine Cheese and Maple Products." Textural Characteristics of World Foods (2020): 37-51.

https://delishably.com/world-cuisine/Poutine-in-Culture-and-History-Traditional-Canadian-Food