4 Levels of Poutine: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

[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 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 like homesick 20 minutes on a thursday night routine 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 comb feet truffled french fries a circulated duck egg homemade cheese curds and duck demi gloss won't be good 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 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 like 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 and beer all right i could 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 so we're drying these potatoes off completely if there's any excess water you're probably going to see a bunch of like jumping bubbles of oil and we don't want that i'm just going to dump a few in and go for it oh it's a lot of oil apologies that that's a blooper reel i believe we're just going to keep that out we're going to bake these at 18 to 20 minutes at 4 25. 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 going to 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 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 cool they'll just flake right off whatever we dust it with i am going to season my fries with a little bit of old base 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 glisteny and these are my fries now it's time to make our gravy it's a pretty involved process 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-gloss 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 uh getting hot nice all right now i want to 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 like sandy and pasty like this i know it's ready to accept liquid so now i'm going to start adding my liquid i'm going to do a third at a time i'm going to 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 kosher salt pepper balsamic vinegar a little tiny touch of sriracha to have a little bit of vinegary 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 that's what i'm looking for okay if you see i can do that now i know that my gravy is ready to go [Music] and that's my gravy and now cheese curds so this is the classic it's like a white cheddar cheese curd is like sort of the 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 it's like disco fries most poutines are served with just the white cheese curds 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 reddit do i make my own cheese curds no i'm from canada i can just buy them making my own cheese girds will be a much more dense texture and then a little bit more tang so it's gonna be a blob kind of looks like the thing right now you can just separate these guys they will just fall apart i'm going to start by heating my milk to about 120 530 degrees fahrenheit now i'm going to add my vegetable rennet and i'm going to give it a little stir so it's nicely incorporated so the rennet is an enzyme that is going to cause a chemical reaction in the milk and it's going to 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 way 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 cheesecloth on top of another strainer and then a bowl to catch all of the liquid the difference between cheese curds and like 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 like squeaky in texture when you bite into them [Music] 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 like in the back of your mouth like it like it here or in your ear i don't hear any squeaking you guys are messing with me now that my cheese curds have chilled overnight they're completely solid 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 going to chop up some thyme and parsley in a restaurant poutine to serve with at least parsley i've also had it served with just time so i combined the two i love them both now i'm going to shred some duck home feet to use as a topping so duck home feet 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 comb feet now it's time to plate so i'm gonna take my duck cone feet add it to the truffle fries next is my cheddar cheese curds they're just like 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 comb feet cheese curds and my duck gravy and then i'm going to 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 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 [Music] and this is my poutine and this is my poutine and this is my poutine [Music] is it like fancy absolutely not is it going to be delicious oh yeah i'm absolutely super excited to crush this poutine can i do that now [Music] it tastes like home oh i miss my mom 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 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 emily used commercial frozen fries that she baked these are made from potatoes with the addition of vegetable oil coloring agents like genato 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 methyl esterase 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 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 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 casing and causes the larger casing 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

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 496,516

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels of poutine, best disco fries, best gravy fries, best poutine, canada poutine, disco fries, easy gravy fries, easy poutine, easy poutine recipe, epicurious, epicurious poutine, expert poutine, gravy fries, homemade poutine, how to make disco fries, how to make gravy fries, how to make poutine, make cheese curds, make disco fries, make gravy fries, make poutine, make poutine gravy, poutine, poutine cheese curds, poutine recipe, quick poutine

Id: WafWphQzUlo

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Unfa]

KISS.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Quessé tu fais avec ton confit de magret de canard??? Ship ça à Pied de Cochon pis repars avec la bonne sauce. On a vu que t'étais capable de faire ton fromage. Arrêtes de vouloir flasher devant la visite.

Trop c'est comme pas assez.

[u/bones_92]

Ça me fait penser à une vidéo où Gordon Ramsey essaie de faire sa version d’un pad thai et le chef thai qui l’essaie trouve pas sa bon.

La poutine du chef est sûrement bonne, mais ça manque de sauce. Ça semble à une poutine oubliée dans le frigo. Puis p-e que ça vient avec di canard confit, mais ce pas ça qui fait la poutine.

Trop jouer avec une mets typique peut justement faire perdre sa vraie valeur.

/End rant

[u/tipoil12334]

Résumé des commentaires : aS A cAnAdIaN, tHiS iS tHe MoSt CaNaDiAn DisH eVeR gUyS sO pRoUd tO bE cAnAdIaN

[u/Mushmuscle]

Poutine is a french-canadian dish from Québec :')

Plante un drapeau du Canada sur sa poutine >:(

[u/Bakyumu]

Pleure en québécois...

[u/JellOwned]

Je vois que Frank était occupé à traire sa vache pour faire son fromage en grain. Au moins on avait Emily et Lorenzo!

[u/poutinebutnotrussian]

asti que ça m'énarve quand on essaie de faire des poutines de riches

[u/gerardleclochard]

Le petit drapeau du Canada dans la 1^ère image me met en christ.

[u/HearTheTrumpets]

La poutine, c'est un plat de pauvres : frites, sauces brune, fromage en grains. Tout le reste, c'est du patinage artistique.