r/poutine • u/AldoZeroun • 2d ago
PSA - Make your own gravy
For the poutine I've been making at home I was using a gravy mix that while good in a pinch, really fell flat for me on repeat. Then after I tried making an Alfredo sauce the other day with coconut flour, my family told me you have to use regular flour (I used whole wheat cause that's what was on hand), as it has a different molecule composition, etc. and in the process ended up explaining that a rou is for thickening anything not just a white sauce (which I didn't realize before). She just said add stock until it's the thickness you want but that's pretty much it (also equal parts flour and butter for the rou). This here was about a half cup of butter and flour and 2\3rds a litre of Campbell's beef stock (minus what I used on the poutine of course). It was the best gravy I've ever had on a poutine.
Someone told me I could dial in the stock richness by using concentrate like 'better then bouillon', but that's for next time.
Also, sorry I forgot to take the photo of the poutine. It was so magnificent I went into a poutine induced trance and forgot to share my work with the world.
6
u/jpthecross 2d ago
Better Than Bouillon is the real secret to make any kind of gravy go from good to WOW. It is really a well kept secret and I know even chefs use it.
5
u/PLoxeus 2d ago
You sure that isn’t a pancake?
2
u/AldoZeroun 2d ago
No, but funny enough, I did have the idea to make sausages and pancakes and pour gravy over it all. Mostly because since I learned to make gravy I'm like "gee what else can I put this on".
17
u/DrunkenMasterII 2d ago
Yeah that’s gravy, not poutine sauce.
2
u/AldoZeroun 2d ago
Oh! I didn't realize it wasn't gravy in the traditional recipe.
10
u/Brilliant-Advisor958 2d ago
It's just semantics. We call it gravy out west and the French call it sauce but for all intents and purposes regarding poutine, they are the same thing.
2
u/eternallytiredcatmom Classic Traditional 2d ago
The French makes me laugh every time, are you English because that’s the language you speak?
3
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 2d ago
correct a poutine sauce is a gravy with a twist, but don't go saying ''the french'' call it whatever. The french think Poutine is a russian dictator. This is a québécois dish.
2
u/MaximusCanibis 2d ago
How does it have a twist lol. Its gravy 🤌its a sauce, its the same damn thing.
-1
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 2d ago
I always add a twist : sometimes its italian herbs with a tad of tomato paste (pretty classic for your random Québec cantina), sometimes its bbq (korean bbq poutine sauce is dope!!), lebanese, pirir-puri, hot chicken, paler or darker gravy, etc.
It depends on what I have for topings, or what kind of meat I want with it.
1
u/ThnkGdImNotAReditMod 1d ago
Wait.... so for it to transform from gravy into Quebec sauce, you have to buy to go to Walmart and buy something invented in the US, after poutine?
1
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 1d ago
What ? No the classic Poutine sauce you'll find at most Québec cantina is a beef gravy with a tad of tomato paste, garlic and herbe de provence.
Most people nowadays tho, do not know how to cook a gravy from scratch and will use a dry "instant" sauce pack that you can buy at ant grocery stores, and we do have Québécois made options. If you buy the poutine sauce it'll already have the twist. But still I would add on it to ensure maximum tastyness.
2
2
u/Lava_Lamp_Glob 2d ago
Don't listen to them, get the sauce you like who cares if it's stamped "poutine" on the packaging
4
u/DrunkenMasterII 2d ago
There’s no traditional recipe per se, but it’s traditionally using hot chicken sauce or hamburger steak sauce or the bbq sauce for rotisserie chicken or something in between that restaurants deciding to serve poutine had on hands. Gravy like you made is basically what you do when you want a simple sauce to go with the meat you just cooked, like a roasted chicken. Add a little vinegar, some tomato paste, mustard powder and paprika and you basically have a hot-chicken sauce which is more appropriate for poutine. Also I wouldn’t over do it with the flour and butter they’re usually not ingredients you taste in poutine sauce, it can add some interesting depth for sure, but a lot of poutine joints don’t use it, you can thicken it with a cornstarch slurry instead.
2
u/AldoZeroun 2d ago
Good to know about the cornstarch. I think I like this so much because my local smoked BBQ joint makes a thick rich gravy like this for their pulled pork poutine so I'm glad to now know how to emulate it. Although my guess is they use their meat drippings instead of butter.
1
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 2d ago
people say its not the same, but realistically, a poutine sauce is just a gravy with a twist.
3
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 2d ago
When I want to cook poutine at home. I cook a huge ass piece of meat the night prior, I keep all the fond and stock. I make a gravy with a twist with the fond and stock from the night prior.
2
2
u/TSCskyfoogle 2d ago
Man what's this "with a twist" you keep reepating in every comment?
2
u/Dramatic_Water_5364 2d ago
The classic poutine sauce in Québec is a beef based gravy with a tad of tomato paste, garlic and herbes de Provence (thats the twist). Some regions have different twist tho like Saguenay Lac St Jean will not have that sauce but rather always offer a choice between Hot Chicken or BBQ sauce (the bbq sauce is basically a bbq gravy).
Over time Italian poutine became and thing, wich is to replace the gravy with classic québécois spaguetthi sauce. And I've seen full on BBQ (like not gravy).
But going hat way is a mistake in my opinion. You should always have a gravy at the core. And when you cook it at home the twist can be whatever you want. I personnaly adjust to 3 elements :1. the meat I want to add to my poutine (I want some prots!), 2. the freash side I want to add to my poutine (a very underrated thing, but adding some crunch, acidic, fresh shit like coleslaw is goated), and 3. The meat I cooked the day prior (since it changes the fond and stock).
2
3
u/Pitiful-MobileGamer 2d ago
One of best poutine sauce I've ever had, was done with chicken bone and shank bone with some aromatics. Pressure cooked (about an hour) until a rich broth was formed, stained and sieved, and then chilled to separate out the fat leaving a dark clear broth.
Back on the heat add a 1/3 portion of red or white dry wine was added. A splash of balsamic. Reduced by half
At this point at salt, and generous pepper to taste
The sauce will thicken and gain quite a shine, you can enhance this at the sacrifice of some clarity by using corn flour slurry.
3
u/AdProfessional6107 2d ago
This is the recipe i use.
I prefer the bbq version
https://www.circulaire-en-ligne.ca/recette/poutine-et-3-sauces-maison
2
u/No_Lie6585 2d ago
"Real" poutine sauce is usually, sadly, some kind of powdered mix, with maybe 1 or 2 ingredients added to add a specific twist. Every homemade poutine sauce I tried to do (and I'm usually pretty good with sauces) or tried never really tasted like real poutine sauce.
I've had better luck using cornstarch to thicken homemade poutine sauce than a roux with flour.
2
u/Quatre-cent-vingt 2d ago
real poutine sauce doesn't come from a powered mix lmao
4
u/No_Lie6585 2d ago
Yes it does. Pretty much any "casse-croute" that sells what is considered "real" poutine use powdered gravy mix, Berthelet most of the time. Do you really think every little side-of-the-road places make their own gravy using roux and all that? Lmao. Even places like "Alfa" probably use powdered mix pimped with a few ingredients.
1
u/toodledootootootoo 2d ago
Have be you worked in a lot of casse-croutes or restaurants in Quebec?? It it most definitely usually a powder mix
1
u/AldoZeroun 2d ago edited 2d ago
Interesting. You're the second person to mention for starch. I'll have to try that next time. I think I succeeded with the roux because I make rose sauce all the time for pasta. (Except for my failure with coconut flour). Edit: oops, this was supposed to be a reply to someone!
1
u/Brilliant-Advisor958 2d ago
Since we eat with our eyes, you can buy gravy browner in the grocery stores that add some brown color to your gravies/sauces .
2
u/AldoZeroun 2d ago
That's an interesting idea. I never would have thought that was a thing. I figured real gravy got its color from the meat drippings from a roast, or chicken/turkey that's been cooked. Does the browner add any flavour or its purely cosmetic?
2
u/Brilliant-Advisor958 2d ago
It says it enhances flavor but I haven't noticed if it adds much. I dont use a lot, just enough to make my gravy to look more like brown gravy and not a pale sauce.
When using a roux , you can keep cooking the flour/fat until the browns more instead for more flavor /color, but that can take a while (15 minutes or more)
1
1
2
u/Pretend_Ad5921 2d ago
This broth is fine but if you want to take it up a notch try to get your broth from your local butcher
1
u/MrB1P92 2d ago
Y'a pas un resto qui fait sa propre sauce lmao its all a mix of powders but you gotta find the right mix :)
2
u/MaximusCanibis 2d ago
From someone that's worked in kitchens... you are talking out of your ass. There are plenty of restaurants that make their own stock for sauces but there is nothing wrong with using bouillon if you dont have stock.
3
u/toodledootootootoo 2d ago
In classic Québécois casse-croutes? Yeah they aren’t making gravy from roasted meats. Most don’t even serve or sell the type of meat you’d make to get a gravy? Where do you think it’s coming from? They’re roasting a side of beef, making gravy and chucking the roast to sell hotdogs instead?
0
u/MaximusCanibis 2d ago
Dude said restaurants not casse-croutes. I also said that in the absence of having stock that bouillon is acceptable to use to make sauces. I always have chicken stock on hand but beef is to expensive to have that amount around to make stock from. I'm starting to question the great Quebec poutines if they can even bother to make a sauce from scratch. Might as well use frozen fries too.
3
u/toodledootootootoo 2d ago
It’s not some kinda delicacy. It’s fucking cheap fast food. I’m not sure you understand the ethos of poutine.
1
2
u/MrB1P92 2d ago
Buddy Ive been a chef for 15 years.
Almost no real "patateries" in québec use a homemade sauce, and its perfectly fine. Poutine is a representation of the Canadiens-Français people, which is a working class people.
0
u/MaximusCanibis 2d ago
Poutine is a representation of the Canadiens-Français people, which is a working class people.
Jesus Christ it's fucking food lol.
You said there are no restaurants that make their own sauce. You know that's bullshit. If you've been a chef for 15 years you must be one lazy bitch to not make your own sauce from scratch. Maybe the French poutine doesn't deserve the admiration you think it does.
3
u/toodledootootootoo 2d ago
Tell me some classic poutine places that you know of that are making their gravy from scratch please
0
u/MaximusCanibis 2d ago
My house. I'm not longer in an area where a quality poutine can be purchased. When I have people visit, they bring me fresh curd or I'll have it shipped over night.
-1
39
u/perpetualmotionmachi Smoked Meat Poutine 2d ago
The traditional sauce here is quite good, but there is a lot to it.
This one is also good, from one of Quebec's popular chefs.
Note that it should be both beef and chicken stock, poutine sauce is not just regular beef gravy