Quebec's cult comfort food — thick-cut fries covered in fresh cheese curds and hot brown gravy; the curds must squeak against the teeth, the gravy must be hot enough to soften them slightly without melting them completely.
Quebec origin
Multiple Québécois restaurants claim to have invented poutine in the late 1950s. The strongest claim is Fernand Lachance of Le Lutin qui rit in Warwick, Quebec, who reportedly told a customer asking for cheese curds on his fries: “Ça va faire une maudite poutine” (“That’s going to make a damn mess”) — around 1957. By the 1960s poutine was documented across Quebec and by the 1980s spread across Canada.
The cheese curd requirement
Cheese curds are the defining ingredient and cannot be substituted. Fresh curds (ideally less than 24 hours old) squeak when bitten — the squeaking is caused by the rubbery, elastic protein strands that haven’t yet aged into the softer texture of aged cheese. The hot gravy warms but should not fully melt the curds; the ideal poutine has curds that are warm and slightly softened on the outside but still resistant in the centre.
Gravy chemistry
Traditional poutine gravy is a dark, thin beef and chicken stock-based sauce — not as thick as a British-style gravy. It must be served very hot to partially melt the curds. Some Quebec poutine restaurants have proprietary gravy recipes considered trade secrets.
The poutinerie
Quebec has dedicated poutine restaurants (poutineries) offering dozens of variations: traditional; with pulled pork; with foie gras; with lobster; pizza poutine; breakfast poutine. La Banquise in Montreal is famous for having 30+ variations on the menu.
Find more foods by letter
Poutine starts with P and ends with E. Browse other foods along the same letter.
Foods that contain a letter from "Poutine":