Cuisine of Quebec
Encyclopedia
Quebec
's traditional cuisine is today being rediscovered and is as rich and diverse as Quebec itself. The historical context of 'traditional' Quebec cuisine is from the fur trade period and many dishes have a high fat or lard content. This gives good energy in the middle of the cold winter.
s (meat pies), pea soup, baked beans
, cretons
, ham dishes, maple
desserts such as Pouding chômeur
and "tire Ste-Catherine" (St. Catherine's taffy
). The strongest influences on traditional Quebec cuisine come from the cuisines of France
and Ireland
, as the two largest ethnic groups in the province are French and Irish, although many aspects of Canadian aboriginal cuisine have also had a significant impact on Quebec cuisine.
The sugar season (temps des sucres) is one of the oldest of Quebec culinary traditions. During springtime, many Quebecers go to sugar shacks (cabanes à sucre) for a traditional meal that features eggs, baked beans, ham, oreilles de crisse, and bacon
, which they then cover in maple syrup
. Associated activities are a horse-drawn sleigh ride in the woods and sugar on snow (tire sur la neige) — boiled maple tree sap dribbled over snow, which then hardens, and is eaten as a treat.
Many traditional dishes are intrinsic to holidays. Réveillon
, the Christmas Eve (or New Year's Eve) feast, usually features items like a bûche de Noël
(Yule log) and tourtière.
Spruce beer
is a traditional beverage.
Examples of contemporary Quebec cuisine include pommes persillade (cubed potatoes fried and topped with persillade
as a garnish), poutine
(French fries
topped with gravy and cheese curds), Le Riopelle de l'Isle
cheese, and whippet cookies. Pizza-ghetti
is a Quebec combination dish served in fast food and family restaurants. The Jewish community of Montreal
has contributed Montreal-style bagel
s and smoked meat
which is similar to pastrami
. Barbecue
is also popular in the Montreal area, usually utilizing baking, grilling, or grill-braising (combining a direct dry heat grill with a broth-filled pot for moist heat) techniques; there are many barbecue-steakhouse restaurants throughout the city, and the style of this region combines influences from the American
Deep South
(particularly from the Louisiana
area and Kansas City
) with Canadian aboriginal, Irish, Central European, and Mediterranean influences, particularly French, German, and Greek (see Regional variations of barbecue
for more information).
will feature French
dishes such as Coq au vin
, Pea soup
, and French Onion Soup
. But they will also feature Quebecois specialties such as a Tourtière
and Poutine
.
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
's traditional cuisine is today being rediscovered and is as rich and diverse as Quebec itself. The historical context of 'traditional' Quebec cuisine is from the fur trade period and many dishes have a high fat or lard content. This gives good energy in the middle of the cold winter.
Traditional cuisine
Quebec is most famous for its tourtièreTourtière
A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with minced pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional part of the Christmas and/or Christmas Eve réveillon and New Year's Eve meal in Quebec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long...
s (meat pies), pea soup, baked beans
Baked beans
Baked beans is a dish containing beans, sometimes baked but, despite the name, usually stewed, in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans – a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris – in a sauce. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a tomato...
, cretons
Cretons
In Quebec cuisine, cretons is a pork spread containing onions and spices. Due to its fatty texture and taste, it resembles French rillettes. Cretons are usually served on toast as part of a traditional Quebec breakfast...
, ham dishes, maple
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then...
desserts such as Pouding chômeur
Pouding chômeur
Pouding chômeur is a dessert of Quebec origin. It was created by female factory workers in 1929 during the Great Depression...
and "tire Ste-Catherine" (St. Catherine's taffy
St. Catherine's taffy
St. Catherine's Taffy is a variety of taffy made in Quebec to celebrate the feast day of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.-Origins:St. Catherine's Taffy is a candy made by girls in Quebec to honor St. Catherine, the patron saint of unmarried women on her feast day, November 25. St...
). The strongest influences on traditional Quebec cuisine come from the cuisines of France
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
and Ireland
Irish cuisine
Irish cuisine is a style of cooking originating from Ireland or developed by Irish people. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The cuisine takes its influence from the crops grown and animals farmed in its temperate climate. The introduction of the potato in the second half of...
, as the two largest ethnic groups in the province are French and Irish, although many aspects of Canadian aboriginal cuisine have also had a significant impact on Quebec cuisine.
The sugar season (temps des sucres) is one of the oldest of Quebec culinary traditions. During springtime, many Quebecers go to sugar shacks (cabanes à sucre) for a traditional meal that features eggs, baked beans, ham, oreilles de crisse, and bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, which they then cover in maple syrup
Maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species such as the bigleaf maple. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then...
. Associated activities are a horse-drawn sleigh ride in the woods and sugar on snow (tire sur la neige) — boiled maple tree sap dribbled over snow, which then hardens, and is eaten as a treat.
Many traditional dishes are intrinsic to holidays. Réveillon
Réveillon
In France and some other French-speaking places, a réveillon is a long dinner, and possibly a party, held on the evenings preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The name of this dinner is based on the word réveil , because participation involves staying awake until midnight and beyond...
, the Christmas Eve (or New Year's Eve) feast, usually features items like a bûche de Noël
Bûche de Noël
Bûche de Noël is a traditional dessert served near Christmas in France, Belgium, Canada, Lebanon, Vietnam, and several other francophone countries and former French colonies...
(Yule log) and tourtière.
Spruce beer
Spruce beer
Spruce beer is a beverage flavored with the buds, needles, or essence of spruce trees. Spruce beer can refer to either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages....
is a traditional beverage.
Contemporary cuisine
Contemporary Quebec cuisine is characterized by an innovative use of all things native to the land which are then prepared following all contemporary trends of the world. Although France and Ireland have had the biggest impacts on contemporary Quebec cuisine, many other national and regional cuisines have also left their mark, due to more recent immigration.Examples of contemporary Quebec cuisine include pommes persillade (cubed potatoes fried and topped with persillade
Persillade
Persillade is a sauce or seasoning mixture of parsley chopped together with seasonings including garlic, herbs, oil, and vinegar.In its simplest form, just parsley and garlic, it is a common ingredient in many dishes, part of a sauté cook's mise en place...
as a garnish), poutine
Poutine
Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce. Sometimes additional ingredients are added.Poutine is a fast food dish that originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada...
(French fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...
topped with gravy and cheese curds), Le Riopelle de l'Isle
Le Riopelle de l'Isle
Le Riopelle de l'Isle is a triple cream cheese from Quebec that has an oily and sometimes flowing texture known to melt in the mouth. It possesses a smooth buttery taste, with hints of hazelnuts and mushrooms....
cheese, and whippet cookies. Pizza-ghetti
Pizza-ghetti
Pizza-ghetti is a combination meal commonly found in fast food or family restaurants throughout the province of Quebec and other parts of Canada.It consists of a pizza, sliced in half, accompanied by a small portion of spaghetti with a tomato based sauce...
is a Quebec combination dish served in fast food and family restaurants. The Jewish community of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
has contributed Montreal-style bagel
Montreal-style bagel
The Montreal bagel, , is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven...
s and smoked meat
Montreal-style smoked meat
Montreal-style smoked meat, Montreal smoked meat or simply smoked meat in Montreal , is a type of kosher-style deli meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket with spices...
which is similar to pastrami
Pastrami
Pastrami , is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef and, traditionally in Romania, also from pork and mutton. In Israel, "Pastrama" is the term used for sliced chicken and turkey. Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration...
. Barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
is also popular in the Montreal area, usually utilizing baking, grilling, or grill-braising (combining a direct dry heat grill with a broth-filled pot for moist heat) techniques; there are many barbecue-steakhouse restaurants throughout the city, and the style of this region combines influences from the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Deep South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
(particularly from the Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
area and Kansas City
Kansas City-style barbecue
Kansas City barbecue refers to the specific style of slow smoked meat that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 1900s in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City barbecue is slow smoked over a variety of woods and then covered with a thick tomato and molasses based sauce.The Kansas City...
) with Canadian aboriginal, Irish, Central European, and Mediterranean influences, particularly French, German, and Greek (see Regional variations of barbecue
Regional variations of barbecue
Barbecue varies by the type of meat used, the sauce, rub, or other flavorings used, when they are added, the role smoke plays, the equipment and fuel used, cooking temperature, and cooking time....
for more information).
Restaurants and pubs
Many restaurants and pubs in QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
will feature French
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
dishes such as Coq au vin
Coq au vin
Coq au vin is a French braise of chicken cooked with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and optionally garlic.While the wine is typically Burgundy, many regions of France have variants of coq au vin using the local wine, such as coq au vin jaune , coq au Riesling , coq au pourpre , coq au Champagne, and so...
, Pea soup
Pea soup
Pea soup or split pea soup is soup made, typically, from dried peas. It is, with variations, a part of the cuisine of many cultures. It is greyish-green or yellow in color depending on the regional variety of peas used; all are cultivars of Pisum sativum.Pea soup has been eaten since antiquity; it...
, and French Onion Soup
French onion soup
French onion soup is an onion and beef broth or a beef stock based soup traditionally served with croutons and cheese as toppings...
. But they will also feature Quebecois specialties such as a Tourtière
Tourtière
A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with minced pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional part of the Christmas and/or Christmas Eve réveillon and New Year's Eve meal in Quebec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long...
and Poutine
Poutine
Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce. Sometimes additional ingredients are added.Poutine is a fast food dish that originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada...
.
See also
- Canadian cuisine
- Cajun cuisineCajun cuisineCajun cuisine is the style of cooking named for the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine — locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation...
- Louisiana Creole cuisineLouisiana Creole cuisineLouisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana which blends French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Asian Indian, Native American, and African influences, as well as general Southern cuisine...
- La Binerie Mont-RoyalLa Binerie Mont-RoyalLa Binerie Mont-Royal is a lunch counter-style restaurant in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in traditional Quebec cuisine, including its signature baked beans....