The cuisine of Québec (also called "French Canadian cuisine" or "cuisine québécoise") is a national cuisine in the Canadian province of Québec. It is also cooked by Franco-Ontarians.
Québec's cuisine descended from 17th-century French cuisine and began to develop in Canada (New France) from the labour-intensive nature of colonial life, the seasonality of ingredients and the need to conserve resources. It has been influenced by the province's history of fur trading and hunting, as well as Québec's winters, soil fertility, teachings from First Nations, British cuisine, American cuisine, historical trade relations and some immigrant cuisines.
Dishes associated with Québec include poutine, tourtières, pâté chinois, pea soup, fèves au lard, cretons and desserts such as grands-pères, pouding chômeur and St. Catherine's taffy. These dishes are traditionally served during holidays and the temps des sucres, when families visit sugar shacks in March.
Québec is known for being the biggest producer of maple syrup on the planet, as 72% of the maple syrup sold in the world (and 90% sold in Canada) originates from Québec.«Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec" (consulted 2020-04-14) The province is also recognized for having created over 700 different kinds of cheese, some of which have won international contests."Le Québec est le plus grand producteur de fromage au Canada" (consulted 2020-04-07)
Food critic Jacob Richler wrote that Québec's cuisine is better defined than that of the rest of Canada, due to its language barrier with the dominant culture of the United States and having had more time to develop. Conversely, Québec's cuisine and Acadian cuisine have much in common due to proximity and a shared language and history.
History The cuisine of Québec evolved from that of 17th-century Northern France. Foods that trace their origins back from there are: pot-au-feu, blood sausage (boudin), head cheese (tête fromagée), plorine sausages, ham hock stew (ragoût de pattes de cochon), rabbit stew (civet de lapin), French toast (pain perdu or pain doré), and pastries like crêpes, beignets, croquignole biscuits and tarts. As in France, pork is and has always been the most popular meat.
It also retains some heritage from Poitevin cuisine. Some Québécois make pâté marmite, soupe aux gourganes (made with a historical strain of fava bean, the gourgane bean), and soups based on other legumes. The charentaise chowders (chaudrées charentaises) have evolved into the quiaudes of Gaspesia and the tourtes salées of Poitiers into tourtières.
From the moment they arrived in Canada (New France) in the early 1600s, French colonists always preferred their native cuisine. However, they learned some culinary techniques from the Algonquins, Atikamekw and Iroquois. The most important ones were l’acériculture (the process of harvesting maple sap and creating maple syrup), ice fishing, and boucanage (in which fish or other meat is smoked for preservation and flavour).
Food preservation was always important in pioneer times, due to long winters and to the frequent voyages of coureurs des bois. Butter, herbs, and lard were used for seasoning and salting. Pork and fish were boucanés, while other meats and vegetables were preserved in vinegar. These techniques are still practiced today, though not for survival. As game was so plentiful, pioneers and their descendants always hunted and fished for sustenance.
By the 1670s, a substantial agrarian population had emerged in the region of Québec City, since the fertile soils of the St. Lawrence Lowlands allowed most European crops to grow well. But, the long winters pushed people to prioritize vegetables that would store well in root cellars like cabbages, carrots, turnips and onions. During meals, French habits dominated, almost always featuring soup, bread, meat, and wine. Since the climate made it difficult to grow European grapes (namely, Vitis vinifera), wines were always imported from France.
Since only Catholics were allowed to immigrate, Habitants followed Catholic dietary rules and attitudes, like no meat on Fridays or during Lent (minus fish, eggs, dairy), special foods on feast days (ex. tourtière on Christmas Eve), sugar and fat being earned indulgences, and alcohol consumption being normal (not viewed with suspicion like with Protestants). Religious charities like monasteries, convents, boarding schools, and orphanages gave free meals to thousands daily using economical recipes like soups, stews, porridges and bread.
The Conquest of New France in 1760 brought some culinary changes to Québec. One of the immediate effects was the elimination of wine, as it could no longer be imported from France. Spirits became the drink of choice since they were the dominant alcohol traded in the British Empire. Another major change was the importation of the potato, which, in only a few decades, became a staple ingredient in Québec, dethroning bread in popularity. Sugar consumption also increased. Finally, the British imported many recipes like mashed potatoes, crumble, and meat pies.
Because tensions with the young United States alleviated, the period following the Aroostook War in 1839 saw increased interaction between Québec and New England. Some recipes inspired by the cultural exchange included fèves au lard, ketchup aux fruits, and date squares. The socio-economic standing of French Canadians also fell to deplorable levels; the intense poverty pushed them to simplify their meals. Recipes for bouillon were now almost nothing more than warm water. Alcoholic beverages were rarely consumed, and butter was either used sparingly or absent. Some famine foods like ploye emerged during this period. Lastly, the 1800s also saw the gradual dethroning of spirits by beer, aided by industrialized beer productions, high British immigration and the expansion of railways.
By the early 1900s, conditions had improved somewhat, though French Canadians were still poor. Most families would often eat a mix of potatoes and pork on their plate, which is still a staple combination today. During this period, the passenger pigeon, called tourte in French, also became extinct. Because this bird's meat had been used to fill the pie-like dishes known as tourtières, the tourtière recipe had to change. Farm-raised meats like beef and pork were usually chosen as the substitutes.
The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the creation of pâté chinois ("Chinese pie") and pouding chômeur ("unemployed man's pudding"). Immigration after this period diversified; immigrants no longer came only from the British Isles but also from other parts of Europe. Jewish specialties like bagels and Eastern Europe-style smoked meat became popular, resulting in the creation of Montréal-style smoked meat and Montréal-style bagels.
The 1950s saw many big changes in the eating habits of Québécois. The popularity of fast-food grew enormously, aided by the rise of the car, so many dishes including spaghetti, pizza, turkey, bacon, sausages, industrial cheeses, hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, coleslaw and lobster rolls become popular. Raw milk was banned, resulting in many old cheese recipes being abandoned and new ones created. Many fruits and vegetables became available year-round thanks to refrigerators and larger supply chains. Homemade bread was replaced with more convenient store-bought sandwich breads. Finally, though coffee was once reserved for the elite, the appearance of affordable instant coffee allowed normal Quebecers to now use it as a stimulant.
In the late 1950s, these changes brought about the creation of poutine—arguably the most famous Québécois dish—as well as other dishes, like hot chicken and guédilles.
The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s to 1970s greatly improved the socio-economic standing of French Canadians, allowing them to have a more diverse diet. It set the stage for high-quality products to be created in Québec and for the emergence of Québécois restaurants, for example Lafleur, Valentine, La Belle Province or St-Hubert. It also resulted in the end of many catholic dietary traditions like meatless Fridays - though some traditions like feast days persist to this day - and of religious institutions providing free food, in favour of government welfare for the needy.
From the 1980s to today, a desire for higher quality foods, more spending power, and an influence by immigrants from Europe —particularly Italy, Greece, France, Belgium and Portugal— has led to the rise of the creation and production of high-quality cheeses and alcoholic beverages across Québec, as well as a return to recipes of the terroir. Immigration from Greece has popularized gyros and brought about souvlaki pitas. Immigrants from Lebanon have popularized shawarmas which has created shish taouk. NAFTA and the new culture of Quebecers vacationing south has resulted in the adoption of Western-style sushi and Tex-Mex dishes like nachos, fajitas, salsa, chili and burritos.
Several changes in the realm of drinks also took place. Starting in 1986, Quebec began to foster a microbrewery culture (called "microbrasserie") and was the first province to do so. The third wave of coffee, emphasizing artisanal quality, began to take root in the 2000s and spread across Quebec in the 2010s. Finally, bubble tea first appeared in Montreal's Chinatown in the 2000s and gained broader popularity in the late 2010s, boosted by social media.
Ingredients Game, seafood, and fish Historical poverty led many families in Québec to hunt for food until the mid 20th century. Tourtières were stuffed with the meat of the tourte, or passenger pigeon, which used to be common and easy prey. But, by the early 20th century, the passenger pigeon became extinct due to overhunting, deforestation, and the Allee effect. Families had to replace the meat with whatever they had. 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, wild turkey, waterfowl and more 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."The bourgot snail" (consulted 2020-09-17)
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."Liste des rivières à saumon" (consulted 2020-11-01) Other fished species include lake trout, yellow perch, walleye, muskellunge, Northern pike, micropterus, rainbow smelt, Greenland halibut, mackerel, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, Atlantic cod (Eastern Québec), Atlantic herring (Eastern Québec), American eel (between Trois-Rivières and Cap-Chat), ouananiche (a kind of freshwater salmon; Lac Saint-Jean), frostfish (Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade), deepwater redfish (Saguenay fjords), capelin (coastal villages), and brown bullhead (Îles de Sorel).
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 techniques from the Atikamekw—a privilege, as the technique was kept a secret from neighbouring First Nations.
Livestock 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.