Poutine...Beginner's recipe

[Athena]

@Moonlitherial

You can’t even get fresh cheese curds at the cheesemaker in Ontario anymore. They are required by law to refrigerate them before selling, thereby ruining the texture that makes them cheese curds.

You can still get them fresh & warm in Wisconsin.

That said, I’ve not noticed a marked difference if you refrigerate them, IF you still eat them within a day or two of when they were made and IF you let them come to room temperature before eating. Definitely not as good as same-day curds, but they still retain enough of the beauty of fresh curds that I find them worthwhile.

Put it this way: curds are like freshly-made baguettes. They’re never as good as the day they come out of the oven, but wrapped well and heated up, they’re generally still pretty good for a day or two. 3-4 days out, throw them away.

[Little_Nemo]

@Smapti

I’ll see you that and raise you carne asada fries.

A couple of months back, Wendy’s was doing a pulled pork promotion. One of the items in it was pulled pork fries. A basket of french fries, covered with cheese sauce, then covered with pulled pork and barbecue sauce, with chopped onions on top.

[DrDeth]

@Athena

You can still get them fresh & warm in Wisconsin.

That said, I’ve not noticed a marked difference if you refrigerate them, IF you still eat them within a day or two of when they were made and IF you let them come to room temperature before eating. Definitely not as good as same-day curds, but they still retain enough of the beauty of fresh curds that I find them worthwhile.

Put it this way: curds are like freshly-made baguettes. They’re never as good as the day they come out of the oven, but wrapped well and heated up, they’re generally still pretty good for a day or two. 3-4 days out, throw them away.

All this talk about how fresh the curds must be is silly. Poutine is junk food in Canada, the equivalent of Chili Fries. No one sez that in order for it it be proper Chili fries the chile must be freshly made. :dubious:

Sure, some greasy burger joint in Ottawa is going to have their guys run out to the dairy ever day for fresh curds.:rolleyes:
wiki :It is sold in small “greasy spoon” type diners (commonly known as cantines or casse-croûtes in Quebec) and pubs, as well as by roadside chip wagons (commonly known as cabanes à patates, literally “potato shacks”) and hockey arenas.[4] National and international chains such as New York Fries,[5] McDonald’s,[6] Wendy’s,[7] A&W,[8] KFC,[9] Burger King,[10] and Harvey’s[11] also sell mass-market poutine in Canada (although not always country-wide[12]).

The gravy is from a can, the fries are frozen- and you want us to think the curds were made a day ago?

[Leaffan]

@DrDeth

All this talk about how fresh the curds must be is silly. Poutine is junk food in Canada, the equivalent of Chili Fries. No one sez that in order for it it be proper Chili fries the chile must be freshly made. :dubious:

Sure, some greasy burger joint in Ottawa is going to have their guys run out to the dairy ever day for fresh curds.:rolleyes:
wiki :It is sold in small “greasy spoon” type diners (commonly known as cantines or casse-croûtes in Quebec) and pubs, as well as by roadside chip wagons (commonly known as cabanes à patates, literally “potato shacks”) and hockey arenas.[4] National and international chains such as New York Fries,[5] McDonald’s,[6] Wendy’s,[7] A&W,[8] KFC,[9] Burger King,[10] and Harvey’s[11] also sell mass-market poutine in Canada (although not always country-wide[12]).

The gravy is from a can, the fries are frozen- and you want us to think the curds were made a day ago?

I entirely agree with this. Especially since I can make a close approximation with shredded mozzarella, as mentioned above.

[Saturn_Dreams]

@DrDeth

All this talk about how fresh the curds must be is silly. Poutine is junk food in Canada, the equivalent of Chili Fries. No one sez that in order for it it be proper Chili fries the chile must be freshly made. :dubious:

Sure, some greasy burger joint in Ottawa is going to have their guys run out to the dairy ever day for fresh curds.:rolleyes:
wiki :It is sold in small “greasy spoon” type diners (commonly known as cantines or casse-croûtes in Quebec) and pubs, as well as by roadside chip wagons (commonly known as cabanes à patates, literally “potato shacks”) and hockey arenas.[4] National and international chains such as New York Fries,[5] McDonald’s,[6] Wendy’s,[7] A&W,[8] KFC,[9] Burger King,[10] and Harvey’s[11] also sell mass-market poutine in Canada (although not always country-wide[12]).

The gravy is from a can, the fries are frozen- and you want us to think the curds were made a day ago?

Using fresh cheese curds doesn’t stop poutine from being junk food. It just makes it taste better, the way authentic poutine was originally served. I understand that fast-food places don’t/can’t use fresh cheese curds, but how should that stop those of us who prefer them fresh? Would you consider a homemade hamburger to be the same as one made by McDonald’s? They’re both hamburgers, but I’m sure you realize they’re not the same. And the fresh chili analogy is bad because chili actually tastes better when it’s been left overnight for all the spices and ingredients to meld together. For good cheese curds, time is of the essence.

[August_West]

@DrDeth

All this talk about how fresh the curds must be is silly. Poutine is junk food in Canada, the equivalent of Chili Fries. No one sez that in order for it it be proper Chili fries the chile must be freshly made. :dubious:

Sure, some greasy burger joint in Ottawa is going to have their guys run out to the dairy ever day for fresh curds.:rolleyes:

No one is saying poutine has to have fresh curds. The entire freshness discussion led from your response to Athena. It was a tangent.

I agree with you, by the way, Steaming hot gravy and hot fry grease softens up curds just fine for poutine.