Acadian cooking is country-class food, accompanied by lots of bread, with main dishes often being one-pot meals. The Acadians are French-speakers who live in the French-speaking areas of Atlantic Canada. This takes in parts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Iles-de-la-Madeleine and Prince Edward Island, as well as parts of Maine in America. They have their…
Acadian Food
Beignets Râpés
Beignets Râpés are potato pancakes made in areas of France such as Alsace, les Vosges, and the Haute-Saône area of Franche-Comté. They are also made in the Acadia area of Canada. To make, grate separately raw potatoes and raw onion (in a ratio of 3 potatoes to 1 onion.) Waxy potatoes are best to use,…
Crêpes à la Neige
Crêpes à la Neige is an Acadian dish. It is thin crêpes made with snow in the batter, as a replacement for eggs. They are served with molasses or grated maple sugar. You may still hear the old Acadian saying, “il est tombé assez de neige pour faire des crêpes”, meaning “there has been enough…
Crêpes au Râpage
Crêpes au Râpage are pancakes made from grated potato in the Acadian area of Canada, particularly the Cheticamp area of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They are cooked by frying, and served with butter or molasses.
Fricot
Fricot is a dish generally cooked on top of the stove. It is a typical dish in the Acadian region of Canadian, and in the Channel Island named Jersey. Acadia Fricot in Acadia is like a thick-brothed stew, with potatoes, dumplings, and either meat (typically chicken), fish or seafood, or fish and seafood (such as…
Fricot au Poulet
Fricot au Poulet is an Acadian stew made with chicken, potatoes, onion, water, salt, pepper and savoury, thickened with a small amount of flour. It is served in a bowl. To make, you chop a chicken up into pieces, and brown the pieces in some fat in a large pot. Set the browned chicken pieces…
Handkerchief Dumplings
Handkerchief dumplings (Pâtes en Mouchoir de Poche) are a flat Acadian dumpling used particularly in making fricot. They are vaguely reminscent of a flat, unstuffed pasta. The dumpling dough is rolled out thinly and cut into squares. The dumplings can be put on top of a stew and cooked, or in the case of something…
Herbes Salées
Herbes Salées are fresh herbs preserved in salt to be used as a cooking condiment. It is made in the Charlevoix region of Québec, and in Acadian parts of Atlantic Canada. The salted herb mixtures are used to season stews, soups and sauces. There is no universal recipe, and what Herbes Salées is will vary…
Molasses
Molasses © Denzil Green Molasses is a very thick, sticky refined syrup made from what’s left over after sugar is made from sugar cane juice. Molasses can also be made from sugar beets, but sugar beet molasses is mostly used for industrial purposes, such as animal feed, because is very bitter. Consequently, molasses for human…
Pâté Râpé
Pâté Râpé, accompanied by brown and white sugar © Diane Langlois Pâté Râpé (aka “Rappie Pie”) is an Acadian baked potato dish made in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It is sort of like a baked hash. It is made from diced fatty pork, chopped onion, potatoes, egg, salt and pepper. Some of the…
Pig Sauce
Pig Sauce is an Acadian meat sauce. The main ingredient is pork — fresh pork meat, along with brain, and marrow from the pig’s spinal column. To this is added chopped ham, green onions, parsley, garlic cloves and dry white wine. The brain serves to thicken the sauce and whiten it. To make it, you…
Ployes
Ployes are buckwheat pancakes made by Acadians in the Upper St. John Valley in Maine and in the Madawaska of New Brunswick. The pancakes are very thin, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) wide. They can be served like bread, or served like pancakes with maple syrup, or butter and molasses. When…
Pot-En-Pot Acadien
Pot-En-Pot is an Acadian meat pie dish, also made by Acadians in Maine, USA. Most commonly, the meat is chicken or rabbit, but it can be other meat. To make it, you chop the meat being used into pieces, and simmer in water until the meat is tender (some people like to brown the meat…
Poutine (Maine)
Poutine as made by Acadians in the Upper Saint John Valley in Maine, USA, are dumplings made from flour. There is no potato in them, as is common further north in New Brunswick, despite Maine being a potato capital of the world. The dumplings are rolled out into balls by hand and simmered in soups…
Poutine à la Mélasse
Poutine à la Mélasse is a pie with no top crust made in the Acadian areas of Canada. It is somewhat like Shoofly Pie and Molasses Pie, which are also made with molasses, or Québecois Tarte au sirop d’erable , except it is made with molasses instead of maple syrup. Like Shoofly Pie, the filling…
Poutine à Trou
Poutine à Trou are apple pastries mostly made in the Acadian area of south-east of New Brunswick in Canada. They are balls of pastry with a hole in the top. In English, they would perhaps best be understood by referring to them as Baked Apple Dumplings. To make them, you prepared your filling first. It…
Poutine au Pain
Poutine au Pain means “bread pudding” in Québecois and Acadian French. Like Bread Pudding in English, there is no one set recipe, but rather many. Language Notes “Poutine au Pain” is probably an anglicisme (“English-influenced expression”) that passed into Québecois in the early 1900s. Mentioned in Roger Lemelin’s 1948 novel Les Plouffe (The Plouffe Family)…
Poutine aux Raisins
Poutine aux raisins is a steamed raisin pudding made in the Acadian area of Canada. The pudding mixture is made from flour, baking powder, salt, raisins, molasses, egg and water mixed together. The mixture is placed in a large, clean, empty tin (in lieu of a pudding basin), and then set in a pot on…
Poutine Bouillie
Poutine bouillie is Acadian poutine made from a mixture of potato, flour, apples and raisins. It is served as a dessert. Language Notes “Bouillie” means “boiled”.
Poutine Carreautée
Poutine Carreautée is a pie with no top crust To make Poutine Carreautée, cubed, salted pork is boiled then roasted and set aside. In a pot, hot water is heated and when it reaches the boiling point, sugar and flour are stirred in, along with the cooked salt pork. This is poured into a pie…
Poutine en Sac
Poutine en sac is a steamed pudding cooked in a cloth bag. It is sometimes referred to as “poutine à la vapeur” (steamed pudding), because of the cooking process. In more colloquial Acadian or Québécois French, it’s sometimes called “poutine steamée.” The pudding will be a mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, milk, fat…
Poutine Glissante
Poutine glissante is basically a dumpling served as a dessert with a sweet syrup such as molasses or maple syrup.
Poutine Râpée
Poutine Râpée Photos used courtesy of / with permission: © Bob Morton Poutine Râpée is an Acadian boiled dumpling made from potato stuffed with pork in the centre. It is made from both grated and mashed potato. The dumplings are about the size of a large orange, with a greyish, glutinous appearance. They are very…
Poutines Blanches
Poutines blanches are white dumplings made by Acadians for soups and stews. Unlike most other dumpling recipes for soups and stews, there is no fat in the recipe. Poutines blanches can be used as dumplings in dishes such as fricot, pot-en-pot, etc. Cooking Tips 1 cup of flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon baking powder…