Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds topped with a hot brown gravy, usually made from beef or chicken stock. It emerged around 1959 in Quebec's Centre-du-Quebec region, though several restaurants dispute which first served it, and it has since become closely tied to Québécois culture and identity. Medium-thick fries are fried until crisp outside and soft inside, then topped just before serving with curds less than a day old, prized for their squeak, with hot gravy poured over them so the curds warm without fully melting. The word poutine was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in May 2014, and the dish is now regarded as one of Canada's most recognizable culinary creations, though some scholars note that framing it as simply Canadian rather than specifically Québécois understates its origin.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountMarks 1957, when poutine (fries and cheese curds, before gravy was added) first appears on the menu of Le Cafe Ideal in Warwick, Quebec, per restaurateur Fernand Lachance's own account; several other Centre-du-Quebec restaurants dispute being first, and no consensus exists. Origin Period, To (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountMarks 1964, when Le Roy Jucep in Drummondville added the combined fries-curds-gravy dish to its menu under the name poutine; food researcher Sylvain Charlebois credits this restaurant, not Le Cafe Ideal, as the true inventor because it was first to combine all three ingredients. Classification
Dietary SuitabilitySourced to the subject's own accountContains Meat or Poultry 2 Origin RegionSourced to the subject's own accountCentre-du-Quebec, Quebec, Canada 2 FAQs
Did early versions of poutine go by another name?
Yes. One restaurant listed it in 1964 as fromage-patate-sauce.
At one restaurant, yes. Owner Jean-Paul Roy began serving the combination in 1958 and added it to the menu in 1964 as fromage-patate-sauce.
Connections
Expresses Tradition
Source Poutine (Wikipedia)
In Cuisine
Source Poutine (Wikipedia)
Uses Ingredient
Source Poutine (Wikipedia)
Source Poutine (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Sources
1. Poutine (Wikidata)
P31 (instance of): Main courseQuote, P31 (instance of): Main course
Main course
2. Poutine (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory, Origins
It has been called Canada's national dish, though some critics believe this labeling represents cultural appropriation of the Québécois or Quebec 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 or dumplings. The dish was created in the Centre-du-Québec area in the late 1950s.
History, Origins, Le Cafe Ideal
The dish "poutine" appears on the establishment's 1957 menu.
History, Origins, Le Roy Jucep
Owner Jean-Paul Roy began serving the combination in 1958 and added it to the menu in 1964 as "fromage-patate-sauce".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine (dietary-suitability)
Poutine is a dish of French fries and cheese curds topped with a hot brown beef and chicken stock gravy.
- Uses Ingredient: Gravy, Infobox main_ingredient field: French fries, gravy, cheese curds
- Uses Ingredient: Cheese Curds, Infobox main_ingredient field: French fries, gravy, cheese curds
- Expresses Tradition: Street Food Culture, Wikipedia category: Category:Street food
In Cuisine: Quebec Cuisine, lead paragraph
It emerged in the Centre-du-Québec region of Quebec in 1959, though its exact origins are uncertain, and there are several competing claims regarding its origin.
View the Source Wikidata: Poutine
Wikidata Q396184, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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