Québécois Poutine with Muskrat Gravy

An internationally popular Canadian dish, this savory poutine recipe featuring muskrat gravy will leave you gloriously satiated.

Before we get into the Québécois-style muskrat poutine recipe, imagine, for a moment, the following Canadian scene:

The sounds of raucous laughter and the tired drone of overplayed ’90s alternative pour from the pub as you stumble out into the night, suddenly muted when the door slams shut behind you.

You stand on the sidewalk in front of the pub, weaving slightly as you ponder your next move. Time for an Uber or taxi home? Your stomach grumbles. Oh-ho! Not quite yet. 

Making a decision, you turn sharply to the left and instantly trip over a fire hydrant.

Managing to awkwardly catch yourself before face planting into the curb, you mutter an apology to the hydrant and make your way down the street, hoping to find your favorite late-night joint still open. 

After a few minutes, you arrive and are excited to see a short line poking out of the door and spilling onto the street. Might be a wait, but they’re definitely open!

Your stomach lets out another grumble as you stand next to the faded photos of food pasted to the inside of the restaurant window. You pat it reassuringly, knowing it won’t be long before you introduce something hearty and delicious to help soak up those IPAs.

You make it to the counter, having lost track of the time spent waiting to get there. 

“Une poutine, s’il vous plait. Grande,” you manage, proud of yourself for hardly slurring. 

The gruff woman behind the counter grunts, writes down your order, and shouts something unintelligible to the grease-stained cooks in the back. You hand over a fistful of small bills, assuming she’ll give you the right change back. Moments later, a comically large box of steaming fries shows up, collected by the woman who then brings it over to a bin of white cheese curds next to a giant urn of brown gravy. 

She grabs a handful of curd, pressing it into the fries, then ladles gravy over the whole deal. Your mouth waters as you watch the gravy slightly melt the cheese curds as it seeps through the French fry matrix. 

She slides the late-night work of art down the counter towards you.

“Merci!” you call, eliciting another grunt. She’s already moved on from you to the next slavering patron. 

Cook: Taiwanese Three-Cup Muskrat

With the care that only the drunk can manage, you grab the poutine with both hands and shoulder your way towards the few stools the casse-croûte (Québécois snack bar) has provided. Dang, you think, they’re all taken. 

You snag a plastic fork and carefully push yourself back outside to the sidewalk. Leaning against the door of a closed shop, you tuck into your prize. Cheese stretches into molten tendrils as you move the forkful toward your maw, providing a potentially magical connection between face and poutine before they snap and get stuffed into your mouth. You let out a small groan of pleasure, prompting a post-bar passerby with appraising eyes to offer a fist bump. You shrug and take it, then continue cramming the hot mess into your face. 

After an indeterminable time, you let out a huge, contended sigh and walk the greasy box lined with a few leftover soggy French fries to a nearby trash bin. Patting your belly, you look down and notice at least half a ladleful of gravy on your shirt. 

“Oh well,” you say aloud before hailing a cab. You spend the ride home mentally thanking the great Canadian poutine for saving your life, just like it did on many similar nights in the past. 

This Simple Poutine is Just Fries, Cheese Curds, and Muskrat Gravy

If you grew up in central or eastern Canada around the time I did and had a proclivity for finding yourself hungry after a few wobbly pops, then the scene I painted above probably feels familiar. 

Poutine has made its way around much of the world, appearing on food truck menus, in bars, and even in refined bistros. It has also picked up a lot of fun new ingredients, many of which bring the dish a far cry from its humble origins outside of Montreal in Quebec. 

At its most basic, poutine is simply fries, cheese curds, and hot gravy. The cheese curds should be slightly melted, but still squeaky, and the fries should be a good combination of crispy and gravy-soaked. Many lesser establishments simply use powdered gravy, but the real thing comes with a homemade gravy made from a mix of chicken and beef stock. 

For this particular poutine, I recreated that classic homemade gravy but incorporated braised muskrat, an underappreciated game animal with deep roots in North American culinary traditions. It adds a wonderful wild flavor as well as some meaty heft. This is a great way to serve such an under-valued species, especially to those who may be nervous to try it. 

Whether you eat it for an average meal or late at night after arriving home from the pub (like I used to) is up to you!