Cuisine of Quebec

Historical poverty led many families in Québec to hunt in order to feed themselves until the 1950s. Tourtières, as noted above, were historically stuffed with the meat of the tourte, or passenger pigeon, which was common and easy prey for early Québécois. It is said that they flew in such large flocks, a hunter needed only to point his gun upward to bring one down. But, by the early 1900s, the passenger pigeon became extinct due to overhunting, deforestation, and the Allee effect. Subsequently, families instead used whatever meat they had on hand, usually from livestock. As a result, most modern tourtières are filled with beef or pork. Today, the consumption of game remains a tradition, although game is not sold in grocery stores. When available, Québécois eat meat from moose, deer, hares, ruffed grouse, or waterfowl rather than that of livestock. Game is also sometimes given as a gift.

As for seafood, lobster and crab are caught in Gaspesia, la Côte-Nord, and the Magdalen Islands to be sold to the rest of Québec. Shrimp is often marketed as crevette de Matane after the shrimp-processing factory in the town of Matane. However, the shrimp themselves are caught in several villages on the Saint Lawrence River estuary. Mussels, oysters, scallops, and whelks (bourgots) are also caught.[9]

Salmon and trout are the most popular fish in Québec. The brook trout is nearly ubiquitous, salmon is farmed and can be caught in 118 different rivers, and Arctic char is present across nearly 100 lakes.[10] Other fished species include lake trout, yellow perch, ouananiche (a kind of freshwater salmon; Lac Saint-Jean), frostfish (Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade), deepwater redfish (Saguenay fjords), capelin (coastal villages), brown bullhead (Îles de Sorel), American eel (between Trois-Rivières and Cap-Chat), Atlantic cod (Eastern Québec), Atlantic herring (Eastern Québec), walleye, muskellunge, Northern pike, micropterus, rainbow smelt, Greenland halibut, mackerel, lake sturgeon, and lake whitefish. Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade holds a world-renowned festival every December to February called La pêche des petits poisons des chenaux, where ice fishers catch tomcods. Historically, starving French colonists learned ice fishing from the Atikamekw — a privilege, as the technique was kept a secret from neighbouring First Nations.

Depiction of passenger pigeons being hunted, Smith Bennett, 1875.

Lobsters fished in Gaspesia that are ready to be sold.

Salmon fishing in a zec of the rivière Matapédia.

Holstein cows are preferred for milk.

Pork is the meat used most often in Québécois recipes. Beef is also commonly used but has been losing popularity in recent years. In summer, beef commonly features in barbecues. While horse meat is consumed marginally, Québec is still the place in North America where it is most commonly eaten.[11]

Québécois pigs are mostly hybrids of the duroc, Yorkshire, and American Landrace breeds.[12] The cattle are also hybrids of many breeds; the Angus, Charolais, and Limousin are the most common.[13] Despite the large cattle population, Québec imports most of its beef from the Canadian West, using its own cattle mostly for dairy. Milk production is dominated by the Holstein, but Jersey or Brown Swiss cows are also milked.[14] The Canadienne is an ancestral breed of Québécois cattle that was once widely raised in the province. There are still a few hundred of these cows left in the Charlevoix and Magdalen Islands regions. Their milk is used in artisanal cheeses.

Poultry is very commonly consumed in Québec. The most popular types are chicken and turkey.[15] The ancestral Chantecler chicken, developed in Oka the early 1900s, is now on the market once again.[16] Turkey is traditionally served at Christmas and Thanksgiving with croutons and sage.[17] Chicken eggs are very popular and mostly used at breakfast and to make pastries. The Estrie region has produced duck since the early 1900s. Québec is also the only producer of foie gras in Canada, as well as its largest producer in North America.[18]

Other meats include lamb, veal, and frog legs (from American bullfrogs and leopard frogs).[19]

Québécois cook with butter. Salt can replace or be combined with herbs for seasoning. Spices common in traditional recipes are linked to local production and historical commerce: savory, cloves, cinnamon, parsley, thyme, sage, nutmeg, quatres épices, and bay leaf. In recent years, spices with provenance in the boreal forest have appeared on Québécois tables, among them green alder pepper (poivre des dunes or poivre d'aulne), sweetfern (comptonie voyageuse), caraway seed (carvi sauvage), sweetgale, and juniper berry. Chefs create interest in and excitement for these new flavours in cooking. Maple syrup is used to sweeten breakfasts, meats, and pastries. Traditional grains are wheat and buckwheat; their flours are used in sauces and ragoûts.[20] Buckwheat became popular because it could grow well on the Canadian Shield.

The most commonly used vegetables in traditional Québécois cuisine were those that can easily be preserved to last throughout the winter, either kept in a cool storage area like a root cellar or brined in jars. These vegetables are the potato, onion, carrot, beet, squash, legumes, cabbage, turnip, and corn. Today, Québécois also cook with the tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, lettuce, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, and other newer vegetables. Rhubarb, fiddleheads, and chives are consumed seasonally. Rhubarb and chives are often grown in backyard gardens, while fiddleheads are gathered in the wild.

The most popular berries are the blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, cranberry,[21] cassis, and cloudberry.[22][23] They are used in jams and jellies, spreads, gelées, desserts, juices, and alcoholic beverages. Blackcurrants and blue honeysuckle have recently entered Québécois markets. Other important fruits are the apple, pear, and plum.[24][25][26] Apples are especially important because they are used to make cider and are the star of le temps des pommes. Imported citrus fruits and tropical fruits are also often enjoyed today. In the past, however, they were so expensive they would be bought only for special events or as a gift. It was customary to give children an orange for Christmas.

Mushrooms have long been absent from Québec's traditional cuisine and culinary history. Today, when mushrooms are used, they are usually of the cremini variety. In recent years, devoted cooks have introduced indigenous species into their culinary creations. Morchella and chanterelle mushrooms are gaining more and more popularity as a result.[27]

Finally, some ingredients like rice, molasses, raisins, and brown sugar appear in traditional Québécois recipes because of historical commerce between New France and regions like the Antilles and Brazil.

Homemade cloudberry jam.

A root cellar in Beaupré.

Cultivated red gadelles.

• Consommé de légumes ou de bœuf (Vegetable or beef consommé)
• Cretons [28]
• Fondue au parmesan (Parmesan fondue) [29]
• Quiaude
• Soupe aux gourganes (Broad bean soup) [30]
• Soupe à l'orge perlé (Pearl barley soup) [31]
• Soupe aux pois (Pea soup) [32]
• Soupe à la poulette grasses (Fat chicken soup)[33]

• Betteraves marinées (Pickled beets)[44]
• Ketchup maison rouge ou vert (Red or green homemade ketchup) [45]
• Langue de veau ou de porc (Pork or veal tongue)
• Navets et carottes en dés cuits macédoine (Diced radishes and carrots macédoine style)
• Oreilles de crisse [46]
• Pain sandwich - miche coupée à l'horizontale (Sandwich bread with miche cut sideways)
• Patates pilées et carottes (Mashed potatoes and carrots)
• Salade de chou (Cabbage salad)
• Salade de macaroni (Macaroni salad) [47]
• Salade verte avec crème fraiche (Green salad with fresh cream)
• Sandwich aux œufs (Egg sandwich)

• Bière d'épinette (Spruce beer)
• Cidre glacé (Ice cider)
• Vin glacé (Ice wine)
• Caribou

When Canada was part of the French Empire, colonials used their Canadienne cattle to create a variety of soft, semi-soft and soft-ripened cheeses to eat.[50] Following the Conquest of New France, the British began importing hard cheeses like cheddar that the population could also consume. In the 1960s, the banning of crude milk made most of the old cheese-making techniques and recipes, which up to that point had been successfully passed on for centuries, disappear and become forgotten. Only a few recipes remain. The Saint-Pierre, produced on l'île d’Orléans, has the honour of being the oldest North American cheese. It is a soft-ripened cheese sold under the forms of la Faisselle, le Paillasson or le Raffiné.[51][52][53] The Cailles cheese, a cheese made from fermented milk and typically used in salads, also used to be quite widespread. It now only exists in the Charlevoix and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions. Nowadays, there are attempts to diversify the ways in which Cailles is consumed.[54] There are some cheeses that were also created by priests. Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of trappist monks were expulsed from France and moved to Oka. One of them, who originated from Notre-Dame-du-Port-du-Salut, created a semi-ferm paste which was eventually used to mold the first Oka cheese. Benedictines were responsible for creating l’Ermite, a blue cheese, in 1943 at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac.[55]

Today, Quebec creates over 700 different kinds of cheeses and is the biggest cheese producer in Canada.[56] Quebecers enjoy many natively produced and imported hard cheeses, including hard cheeses parfumed by beer or wine. Most soft cheeses are produced locally and many are artisanal. Cheese curds are notably used in poutine, one of the most famous Québécois dishes.

The Paillasson. It is eaten grilled and is often paired with maple syrup.

Oka cheese is now made in large factories.

Pied-De-Vent cheese is made from the milk of Canadienne cattle.

Maple syrup is bottled or canned.

Quebec produces 72% of the maple syrup sold on Planet Earth and 90% of the maple syrup sold in Canada.[57] Maple syrup is a sugary concoction made from heated maple sap. The syrup is often used at breakfast to cover crêpes and pain doré, and as a component of fèves au lard. It can also be used to caramalize meats like ham, to stabilize the acidity of certain sauces and as a side for deserts like with pouding-chômeur or Grands-pères au sirop d'érable. Finally, it is the main ingredient showcased during "le temps des sucres" and in sugar shacks.

Many maple syrup derived products exist. Tire, French for sugar on snow, is heated maple syrup that is cast onto a flat bed of snow and then rolled up onto a popsickle stick to be eaten like candy. Tire is very popular at sugar shacks and during springtime. Maple butter is a spread commonly used at breakfast on toast. Maple sugar can serve as a replacement to brown and white sugar. Maple water is not often consumed, but when it is, it is most often because it is believed to have health benefits.[58] Finally, there exists a variety of maple-flavoured products like maple-flavoured candy and maple-flavoured drinks.

In Quebec, the process of smoking meat is called "boucanage". It was learned by French Canadian colonials from Native Americans. While Native Americans only smoked, colonials would brine or spice before smoking. Today, establishments called "boucanières" or "boucaneries" are specialized in this process. On top of brining and spicing, boucanières can use tree essences to infuse a certain taste in the meat with maple wood being the most popular choice. Fish can also be dried before being suspended over a fire, something called "boucaner à froid".

This practice has always been popular, especially in the Gaspesia, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Côte-Nord regions. There, it was useful in order to preserve fish. Atlantic herrings were historically caught and exported in large quantities, so they were the most boucané. Though, trout and salmon caught inland were also commonly boucané.[59] Smoked salmon specifically has become more popular in recent decades due to influence from the United States and Europe. Pork also used to be boucané, but the popularity of smoked pork has decreased. Smoked pork is now almost exclusively consumed during Easter where it is sometimes boiled beforehand with its bones.

In the 1930s, Jewish immigrants came to Montreal and implanted some meat smoking traditions from Eastern Europe. The technique used implicates the smoking of beef that was brined with Montreal Steak Spice. After the meat is smoked, it is cut up in narrow slices. The meat is often served as part of a sandwich with mustard and rye bread.[60]

Atlantic herring undergoing boucanage.

Smoked beef is thinly sliced with a knife.

A Montreal smoked meat sandwich.

Pork-based charcuterie is traditionally referred to in Quebec as "cochonailles". Here are the most popular:

• Creton is composed of ground pork, lard (animal fat), milk and cereal that is cooked and flavoured together in order to obtain a creamy paste. Cretons are often eaten as a snack or breakfast on roasted bread pieces called rôties, along with mustard. If another kind of meat is used to create cretons, like poultry or veal, it is called cretonnade instead.
• Tête fromagée is less popular but used in the same way as cretons.
• The boudin of Quebec is made of lard (animal fat), milk, onions and pork blood. It is often served in a pan along with a sweet side or a sauce. Since 2018, the Goûte-Boudin de Boucherville association hands out a yearly prize for the best boudin.[61]
• Plorines (also written as pleurine or plârine) are composed of lard and flavoured meat enveloped in pork caul fat. Sometimes plorine recipes can also include eggs, beef and/or mie de pain (the inside part of the bread).
• Oreilles de Christ are lard pieces that are fried until they become crispy. They are eaten as an amuse-gueule and/or with maple syrup.

A great variety of pastries are produced in Quebec. Here are some examples:

• Crêpes are flat round dishes made from wheat or buckwheat flour. The crêpes of Quebec are thicker than ones from France, but not thick like the pancakes of Anglo-Saxon cultures. They are popular breakfast items. They are often served with maple syrup, brown sugar and/or fruits. They can also be served during lunch or supper.
• Beignes, which resemble old-fashioned doughnuts, are dough rings that were fried in oil. The middle part of the dough is removed in order to create the ring, and these middle spheres are then cooked as well and consumed as trou de beigne (doughnuts holes). Powdered sugar or icing is often added on top of these pastries.
• Croquignoles are braided, twisted or rectangular fried dough pastries. They are a little less popular than beignes and can most often be found in rural regions.
• Pain doré consists of bread dipped a mix of scrambled eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon before being cooked in a pan. It is served at breakfast covered with maple syrup.
• Tartes, similarly to pies, are composed of a shortcrust exterior and an interior spread. The most popular kinds of spread are fruit-based, like blueberry, apple, strawberry, raspberry, etc... Other popular kinds of tartes include tarte au sucre, with a mixed butter and brown sugar spread, tarte à la farlouche, with a mixed brown sugar, molasses and dried raisins spread, and tarte au suif which has beef fat as its spread.
• Sucre à la crème is a sugary snack composed of cream, brown sugar and butter. It can sometimes be found sold in convenience stores.
• Pets-de-sœur consist of a dough paste that is flattened and covered in a butter and brown sugar mix. The dough is then rolled over itself, cut to make a cylinder shape and then cut into thin slices.
• Chocolatines consist of small croissants with chocolate inside. They are sometimes sold in corner stores.
• Carrot cake with cream cheese icing is popular.
• Bûche de Noël is a wrapped cake pastry that is traditionally eaten during the Holidays.
• Pouding chomeur is a white cake soaked in maple syrup or brown sugar.
• Grands-pères are a cake in the shape of a sphere which is eaten plainly or covered with maple syrup. They can also sometimes be filled with fruits. They are sometimes served as part of meals as well.

A Crêpe with fruits and chocolate.

A tower of Pets-de-sœurs.

Beignes. Plain and with powdered sugar.

A drawing of a Montreal melon.

These Canadienne cattle produce cheese in Charlevoix and the Magdalen Islands.

Over the centuries, varieties of fruits and vegetables were created in Quebec. The need to cultivate Quebec's strains has evaporated in recent times, causing most varieties to become lost.[66] Here are some strains that have been saved or rediscovered:

• White canadian corn [67]
• The crotte-d’ours potato of Louis-Marie [68]
• The Thibodeau bean of Saint-Jules [69]
• The pomme Fameuse [70]
• The Montreal melon
• The Mémé tomato of Beauce [71]
• The potato onion [72]
• Neuville corn

Though less numerous now, these breeds created in Quebec are still used today:

• Canadienne cattle
• Charlevoix lamb
• Chantecler chicken