4 Levels of Poutine: Amateur to Food Scientist

[upbeat music]

Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a level one chef.

Hi, I'm Lorenzo, and I'm a level two chef.

My name is Chris, and I'm a chef instructor

at the Institute of Culinary Education.

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It's a French-Canadian dish. It's from Quebec.

I'm from Eastern Canada,

and I grew up eating poutine all the time.

I'm making my sort of homesick,

20-minutes-on-a-Thursday-night poutine.

I have made this, I can't even tell you,

90 times in my lifetime.

They're called drunken spuds, is my recipe.

So it's beer potatoes topped off

with a chicken and pork combo gravy.

My version contains shredded duck confit,

truffled french fries, a circulated duck egg,

homemade cheese curds, and duck demi glace.

Mine's gonna be good.

[intense music]

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So the first thing I have to do is make my fries.

So for this, I have frozen fries.

My french fries, it's beer potatoes,

and I season it with, you know, salt, Old Bay.

Give it a little something something.

I am using the ol'

russet potato. Russet potato.

The go-to potato for a fluffy, fried french fry.

I'm making truffle fries.

First thing we're gonna do, make this flat.

Nice and stable now.

we're gonna cut half inch slices out of here,

so that they cook evenly.

Could I make my own fries? Sure.

Would I make my own fries on a Thursday night

when it's snowy out and I'm craving poutine?

Probably not.

I actually soak my potatoes in beer

so it will release the starch from the potatoes.

And it's gonna give the potatoes a little kick

Soaking potatoes in beer.

All right, I can get behind that.

I'm gonna soak the potatoes in water

and then run cold water over them,

to remove any excess starch.

This prevents the potatoes from sticking

to each other while we fry them the first time.

I'm gonna spread them out on here

and we're gonna bake them in the oven,

according to the directions on the package.

How do I feel about frozen fries?

[Lorenzo groans]

So we're drying these potatoes off completely.

If there's any excess water,

you're probably gonna see a bunch of jumping bubbles of oil,

and we don't want that.

I'm just gonna dump a few in and go for it.

Oh, [beep]. It's a lot of oil.

Apologies. That's a blooper reel, I believe.

We're just going to keep that out.

We're gonna make these at 18 to 20 minutes at 425.

You can absolutely bake your fries

but frying them will make them much crispier

for a longer period of time.

I also don't think anyone eating poutine is really worried

about their cholesterol.

I'm double frying my potatoes

because the first step is going to get them nice

and steamed through on the inside.

And then the second step is gonna make them extra crispy

on the exterior.

I absolutely love double frying,

but since I have cut these

in kind of a really small, small surface area,

that's why I don't do it.

[Chris] So my french fries are almost done.

You see how this can bend, but it doesn't break.

It's important to season your fries

when they're still piping hot.

The seasoning will adhere to the potato, first off.

If you wait till they're cool,

they'll just flake right off, whatever we dust it with.

I am gonna season my fries with a little bit

of Old Bay seasoning and a little bit of kosher salt.

And those are my fries.

Right out of the fryer, I have truffle salt.

And toss them with a little truffle oil

to really accentuate that flavor.

Just until they're all nicely coated but not too glistening.

And these are my fries.

Now it's time to make our gravy.

It's pretty involved process. [laughs]

I will be making packet gravy. Brown gravy.

I'm actually making a chicken and pork combo gravy.

I'm gonna be making a duck demi glace gravy.

I'm gonna do equal parts AP flour and duck fat

until I get this to the consistency of wet sand.

All right, let's just see if this is getting hot.

Ooh! Nice.

All right.

Now, I wanna control the heat here.

I don't wanna burn my roux.

Why are you doing that? Stop.

And then I'm gonna add in my chopped shallots and garlic.

All I have to do is put my gravy mix

into my pan and then slowly add the water while stirring

and bringing it up to a boil.

That's literally it.

Make sure I don't lose any good gravy powder.

Would I ever make gravy from a packet?

It's very salty.

It's definitely not good for you, but it is fantastic.

I'm just starting to heat it up,

and then I'm going to slowly add my water.

Oops. I should have done that first.

♪ That's okay ♪

♪ Everything's fine ♪

Now that the roux looks kind of sandy and pasty like this,

I know it's ready to accept liquid.

So now I'm gonna start adding my liquid.

I'm gonna do a third at a time.

I'm gonna beat out any lumps that there could be in there.

I am going to add my first of two broths.

This is my pork broth.

In Filipino cooking, you really combine broths

to make a really interesting flavor.

Then I'll follow it off with my chicken broth.

So I'm adding in a little bit of ketchup.

I know, a little odd.

But it actually adds a little bit of a zing.

Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire sauce.

Kosher salt. Salt.

Pepper. Pepper.

Balsamic vinegar.

A little tiny touch of Sriracha

to have a little bit of vinegar-y flavor,

a little bit of acid, and then also just a touch of heat.

What I'm looking for in this is a velvety gravy.

I don't want it to be too thick,

but I don't want it to be too thin.

Basically what I want is I want it

to coat the back of the spoon.

Whap!

That's what I'm looking for, okay?

And if you see, I can do that.

Now I know that my gravy is ready to go.

[mischievous music]

[All] And that's my gravy.

And now, cheese curds.

So this is the classic.

It's a white cheddar cheese curd,

is sort of what you'd normally see on a menu.

I love cheese curds.

They're tangy, they're tasty,

but most importantly, they're what makes poutine poutine.

If you don't have cheese curds, it's not really poutine.

It's like disco fries.

Most poutines are served with just the white cheese cards.

I prefer cheddar cheese curds,

just because it's been aged a bit.

There's a little bit of a sharpness to it.

And it's a pretty color, you guys.

I'm gonna be making my own cheese curds

from scratch using whole milk and vegetable rennet.

Do I make my own cheese curds?

No. I'm from Canada. I can just buy them.

Making my own cheese curds

will be a much more dense texture

and then a little bit more tang.

So it's going to be a blob.

Kind of looks like The Thing right now.

You can just separate these guys.

They will just fall apart.

I'm gonna start by heating my milk

to about 125, 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now, I'm gonna add my vegetable rennet,

and I'm gonna give it a little stir

so it's nicely incorporated.

So the rennet is an enzyme

that is gonna cause a chemical reaction in the milk,

and it's gonna separate the curds from the whey.

So you can see, as I pull off from the side,

see all that liquid that's in the bottom?

That's our whey.

And then these solids that have formed

that kind of look like yogurt,

those are our curds.

So next we're gonna strain out our curds and our whey.

So I have cheese cloth on top of another strainer

and then a bowl to catch all of the liquid.

The difference between cheese curds and ricotta cheese,

which is basically what this is at this point,

is that we want to make sure

that they're quite dry and solid.

They need to be almost squeaky

in texture when you bite into them.

[cheese curds squeaking]

Yeah. There it is.

Literally when you're chewing it,

you can hear a squeak in your teeth.

But does it make a squeak? That's so weird.

As you chew, in the back of your mouth,

like it [imitates squeaking noise].

I don't hear any squeaking.

You guys are messing with me.

Now that my cheese curds have chilled overnight,

they're completely solid.

And I'm gonna chunk them by hand.

I want larger pieces so that they melt nice and evenly.

And these are my cheese curds.

Now it's time to prep my garnish.

I'm gonna grind some black pepper for this.

That's kind of it.

Why add something that I wouldn't really put

on when I could just keep it classic, you know?

For my toppings, I'm gonna chop up some thyme and parsley.

In a restaurant, poutine is served with at least parsley.

I've also had it served with just thyme.

So I combine the two. I love them both.

Now, I'm gonna shred some duck confit to use as a topping.

So duck confit, very simply, are duck legs

that have been salted or cured overnight

and then cooked in their own fat the following day.

Once we get to the drumstick,

I'm looking for a very small bone

that I don't want to end up getting stuck

in anyone's throat.

This tiny little feather bone right here,

which is extremely thin and extremely sharp.

And that is my shredded duck confit.

Now it's time to plate.

So I'm gonna take my duck confit,

add it to the truffle fries.

Next is my cheddar cheese curds.

They're just a nice little surprise

for when you're eating,

and then you're like,

Oh! There's another layer of cheese curds. Great.

Now, I'm slathering the gravy on.

And away we go.

That's how I strategically place my gravy.

So I'm just kind of glopping this on there. No science.

I have my truffle fries.

I have my shredded duck confit, cheese curds,

and my duck gravy.

And then I'm gonna toss this all together.

I can already see that some

of my cheese curds have started to melt a little bit

and get a little string to them.

That's wonderful.

I have a duck egg here that I circulated

for one hour at about 64 degrees Celsius.

What that means is it sat in a water bath

at a very particular temperature for one hour,

and this egg is gonna be very, like, almost fudgy.

I'm just gonna top it off with the fresh herbs.

Now, I'm just gonna garnish with some chives

for some onion flavor and a little bit of color.

Boom. Ah, it needs one last thing, though.

[Emily hums Canadian national anthem]

And this is my poutine.

[camera flashes]

And this is my poutine.

[camera flashes]

And this is my poutine.

[camera flashes]

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Is it fancy? Absolutely not.

Is it gonna be delicious? Oh, yeah.

I'm absolutely super excited to crush this poutine.

Can I do that now?

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Mmm.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Mm, it tastes like home.

Aw, I miss my mom. [laughs]

Oh my gosh.

The cheese is beautifully warmed through and melting

and just coating this crispy, cheesy masterpiece.

That's absolutely delicious.

I'm so happy with this.

[drum strikes]

Poutine is a delicious combination of brown gravy,

fries, and cheese curds,

and is a classic Canadian treat from Quebec.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

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Emily used commercial frozen fries that she baked.

These are made from potatoes with the addition

of vegetable oil, coloring agents like annatto,

and preservatives like sodium acid pyrophosphate,

which helps the fries to retain internal moisture

as they're baked at high temperature.

Lorenzo used russet potatoes.

He pre-soaked them in beer, which is acidic and interacts

with an enzyme called pectin methylesterase,

which aids in calcium and magnesium forming a complex

to help maintain the structural pectin in the cell walls.

In short, makes his fries very crunchy.

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Emily used a packet of instant gravy.

These include salt and seasonings and agglomerated starches,

which have been partially gelatinized and drum dried

so that they're porous.

The porosity is important so that when water is added,

they thicken without lumps.

Chris made a duck gravy with roux and duck stock,

which means molecular bonds in the starch vibrate

when heat is added,

eventually break and allow water, or in this case, stock,

to be absorbed increasing viscosity in the process.

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Emily used the quintessential cheese curds for her poutine.

Cheese curds are freshly made

and literally squeak when you bite

into them because the casein proteins

in the cheeses have not had time to form a compact network

but are rather porous with plenty of air trapped inside.

The wet, elastic curd vibrates when you bite into it.

And this vibration is at a frequency in the audible range.

This only happens in very fresh cheese curds, though.

Given time, enzymes do their catabolic work

and break down the proteins to form tightly woven networks

and flavor compounds associated with various cheeses.

Chris made his own cheese curds

with dairy milk and an enzyme called rennet,

which strips away the negatively charged kappa-casein

and causes the larger casein micelle

to form precipitate curds that are very firm

and make that squeaking and bouncy sensation

that's quintessential for authentic poutine.

This is definitely a level three elevation.

Poutine is so satisfying and delicious.

If you need a new idea for making this quintessential dish,

we hope you'll take some

of these tips from our three extraordinary chefs.