The encyclopaedia of gravy
Poutine gravy is a light brown Québécois sauce, traditionally a mix of beef and chicken stock, thin enough to soak into chips and hot enough to melt cheese curds.
Poutine — chips, fresh cheese curds and hot brown gravy — appeared in rural Québec in the late 1950s and is now Canada's best-known dish. The gravy is specific enough that Québécois cooks will tell you firmly when it is wrong.
What makes it poutine gravy¶
- Mixed stock. Traditionally about half beef and half chicken. Pure beef gravy tastes too much like Sunday roast; pure chicken is too pale and thin.
- Light in colour. Noticeably paler than a British brown gravy.
- Thin. It has to soak into the chips, not coat them.
- Peppery, and often with a little vinegar or Worcestershire sauce.
- Very hot. This is the non-negotiable part: the gravy's heat is what softens and squeaks the cheese curds. Lukewarm gravy makes bad poutine no matter how good it tastes.
The curds¶
Fresh cheese curds, ideally less than a day old, which squeak against the teeth. Refrigeration kills the squeak, which is why poutine is best where curds are made locally. Grated mozzarella is a substitute, not an equivalent.
Assembly order¶
Chips first, curds on top, gravy poured over the curds. This matters: gravy underneath does not melt the cheese, and cheese on top of gravy slides off.
Origins¶
Several Québec towns claim the invention, with Warwick and Drummondville most often cited, and a cluster of competing claims from the late 1950s. The word poutine is generally glossed as Québécois slang for "a mess".
Its relationship to British chip-shop gravy and to chips-and-cheese traditions in Scotland and Northern Ireland is one of parallel evolution rather than direct descent — chips, melted cheese and hot savoury liquid is a combination several cultures arrived at independently.