Québécois Food

Beurre Fermier

Beurre Fermier is “Farm Fresh Butter”, or more literally, “farm butter.” It is made and sold in France and Québec, Canada, by small producers right on their farms. It’s often made by hand without the use of electrical machines, just as it would have been made a long time ago. As Beurre Fermier is made…

Bleu Bénédictin Cheese

Bleu Bénédictin is a semi-soft blue cheese. It is cream-coloured inside, with bluish-green veins of mould and a mild, mushroomy taste. It is made at a Benedictine monastery in the Lac St-Jean region of Québec.

Bleu du Lac St-Jean Beans

Bleu du Lac St-Jean Beans are an older variety of bean that has been kept alive in the Lac St-Jean region of Québec. When dried, the beans are white, and about the size of a kidney bean, but straight, without the bend.

Chantecler Chickens

Chantecler is a breed of chickens developed in Québec. They were bred for their resilience to cold, and their willingness to be a prolific egg-layer in the winter. There are two types of Chantecler chicken: a white one, and a partridge one. Another type, “Fauve Buff”, is under development (as of 2008.) Chantecler Chickens have…

Chèvre noir cheese

Chèvre Noir is a goat’s milk cheese. Even though it is made from goat’s milk, however, Chèvre Noir is not like other chèvres: it’s actually more of a cheddar. The cheese is made in rectangular bricks. On the outside, it is coated in two layers of black wax. Inside, the cheese is a bone-china white,…

Cretons

Cretons © Paula Trites Cretons is a pale potted meat spread made in Québéc. It is also eaten by Acadians. It consists of ground pork and lard mixed with milk and breadcrumbs. Seasoning can include onion, garlic, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, celery, parsley, chive, etc. The texture should be creamy and velvety, not grainy,…

Cumulus Cheese

Cumulus Cheese is a soft but not runny cheese that looks like Brie or Camembert, with a white bloom on its rind and a slight mushroom smell. It made in rounds from raw cow’s milk, and allowed to ripen for 60 days. The rounds end up being approximately 3 ⅓ pounds (1.5 kg) each. Cumulus…

Ermite Cheese

Ermite blue cheese is made at a Benedictine monastery in Québec. It is a mild blue cheese, with tangy aftertones and an aroma of mushrooms. In texture, it is crumbly with a slight grittiness and has no rind.

Fameuse Apples

Fameuse apples (aka Snow Apples, Chimney Apples) are small-sized apples with pale yellow skin with red flushes, or an entirely red skin. The flesh is white, sometimes with red streaks and is juicy, mildly tart and sweet. The tree is very cold hardy, and very productive and reliable, producing the same amount of apples almost…

Fortin Family Beans

Fortin Family Beans are white beans, with a brown ring around a white spot on their side. They grow in flat yellow pods on dwarf plants that produce high yields. Fortin Family Beans can be used as green beans when young, or be allowed to mature for drying into a dried bean. History Notes Fortin…

Galettes

Galette is a French term for a round, flat baked good that can be anything from what in English would be a cookie, a scone, a flat cake or a buckwheat crêpe. In the English speaking world, Galette is generally taken to mean smallish rounds of flaky pastry, treated somewhat like a free-standing small pizza…

Galvaude

Galvaude is a version of poutine, a gravy and potato dish made in Québec. It consists of French fries, with gravy on them, topped with chopped or shredded cooked chicken and cooked green garden peas. Some versions, such as that made by Chez Claudette on Laurier Street in Montreal, also add white cheddar cheese curds…

Guédille

A Guédille is a hot dog bun (“pain à chien-chaud”) served in Québec with lots of fixings, but without the wiener. The bun is a soft rectangular roll. Sometimes the bun is heated, sometimes it is not. To toast the bun, you open it up without breaking it, butter both sides on the inside, and…

Herbes Salées

Herbs salées is a salted herb mixture made in several parts of French-speaking Canada. A traditional way of preserving herbs, it is used as a seasoning ingredient in cooking.

Héritage Doré Beans

Héritage Doré is a bush bean for drying. The beans are oval, with a glossy, beige to light-mustard colour. On their sides, they have a white eye with a brown ring around it. Héritage Doré Beans are about ⅔ inch (66 mm) long and ⅓ inch (35 mm) wide and 80 to 100 days from…

Hot-Dog du Lac

A Hot-Dog du Lac is a Montreal Steamie that is dressed with mayonnaise, then thinly-sliced cole slaw, then hot, crunchy, golden-brown French fries.

Lac-Saint-Jean Tourtière

Known as “Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean” or “Tourtière Saguenéenne”, this version of tourtière as made in the the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Québec is a meat pie made in a deep casserole such as a Dutch oven, and consequently the pie turns out large enough that one will feed a good-sized crowd. It is a traditional dish…

Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is a viscous liquid sweetener produced from the sap of maple trees. It has a pronounced taste that is also complex and nuanced.

Montreal Beauty Crab Apples

Montreal Beauty Crab Apple is one of the largest crab apples so it is easier to use. The tree produces white blossoms, then plum-sized apples up to an inch in diameter (2.5 cm.) The skin is orangey-yellow-green, sometimes with red splashes. Cooking Tips Makes good jelly.

Montreal Melons

Montreal Melons are cantaloupe type melons. They have thin, beige, ridged rind with netting. They will be 8 inches (20 cm) wide and weigh around 11 pounds (5 kg.) Inside, they have a large seed cavity with pale green flesh. The flesh is very sweet, with a hint of nutmeg in the taste. The main…

Montreal Smoked Meat

Montreal Smoked Meat © Denzil Green Montreal Smoked Meat is a deli sandwich meat. It can be thought of an either an unsmoked version of wet-cured Pastrami, or deli-style corned beef. It is moist, and has a milder, sweeter, less spicy — some say blander — taste than pastrami. Good Montreal Smoked Meat should be…

Montreal Steamies

Montreal Steamies are hot dogs that have been steamed. The wieners are steamed or boiled; the hot dog rolls are steamed. The rolls used aren’t the ones with rounded ends; rather they are more like long, perfectly rectangular rolls, with crustless sides, with a slit through the top rather than the side to hold the…