Acadian cuisine facts for kids

Acadian cuisine is the traditional food of the Acadian people. You can find it mostly in the cultural region of Acadia today. This unique style of cooking has been shaped by many things over time. These include the Deportation of the Acadians, being close to the ocean, the cold Canadian winter, and the type of soil available. It also shares influences with Québécois cuisine, Native American foods, American cuisine, and English cuisine. Even trade with other parts of the world and food from immigrants have played a small part.

Acadian food is not very famous in Canada or around the world. It has a lot in common with Québécois food because they share history and are geographically close. They often have the same dishes, but Acadian cooking uses much more seafood. Acadian cuisine also formed the basis for Cajun cuisine. This is because the Cajun people are descendants of Acadians who were sent away to Louisiana. It's also thought that Acadians helped make potatoes popular in France. The French once thought potatoes were poisonous!

History of Acadian Food

French colonists settled in Acadia in the 1600s. They changed their 16th-century French cuisine to use the crops, seafood, and animals found in the region. Their children and grandchildren became the Acadian people. Their cleverness created what we now call Acadian cuisine.

In the 1700s, the English took over Acadia. They decided to deport the Acadians and take their settlements. These settlements were often on the best farmland. Most Acadians could not escape being deported. But those who did often fled to the east and north of New Brunswick. Because of this, Acadian cooking in the 1700s changed. It focused on what could be grown and used in the less fertile lands of eastern New Brunswick and the Upper St. John River Valley.

Main Ingredients

Acadian cuisine often uses fish and seafood. Some popular choices are cod, Atlantic herring, mackerel, berlicoco, lobster, crab, salmon, mussels, trout, clams, flounder, smelt, and scallops. Most fish is eaten fresh. However, some are boucané (smoked), marinated, or salted to preserve them.

The most common meat used is pork. After pork, chicken and beef are popular. Like in the rest of North America, turkey is often eaten during holidays. Game animals like deer, hares, ruffed grouse, and moose are eaten regularly in some areas. Game meat can replace farm-raised meat if available. It is also sometimes given as a gift. In certain places, like Caraquet and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, people used to hunt more unusual animals. These included seal, bear, and seagull.

The main vegetables in Acadian cooking are potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, legumes, beets, squash, and corn. These vegetables were popular because they could be easily stored for winter. People kept them in root cellars and jars.

Popular fruits include blueberries, apples, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, plums, pears, and cranberries.

Some ingredients like rice, molasses, dried raisins, and brown sugar appear often in Acadian recipes. This is because of historical trade between Acadia and places like the Antilles and Brazil.

Popular Dishes

Here are some examples of traditional Acadian dishes:

• Beurre de homard—This is a rich lobster butter.
• Bouilli Acadien—A boiled dinner with potatoes, salted beef or pork, carrots, green beans, cabbage, and turnips.
• Chiard or Mioche—A mashed mix of potatoes, carrots, and sometimes turnips.
• Chow-Chow—A pickled relish from North America.
• Cipâte—A type of meat or seafood pie.
• Coques frites—These are delicious fried clams.
• Coquille Saint-Jacques—A dish made with sea scallops.
• Cretons—A type of boiled, ground pork spread, similar to a pâté.
• Croquettes de poisson—These are fishcakes.
• Doigt-à-l'Ail—Garlic fingers, often served with dipping sauce.
• Fricot—A type of stew. It has potatoes, onions, and whatever meat is available, topped with dumplings.
• Morue bouillie avec patates et beurre fondu—Cod fish and pan-fried potatoes cooked in butter.
• Pain au homard—A sandwich filled with lobster and mayonnaise.
• Pâté au poisson—A fish paste.
• Pâté chinois—This dish has layers of mashed potatoes, ground beef, and creamed corn.
• Pets de sœurs—Meaning "nuns’ farts," these are pastries filled with butter and brown sugar. They are rolled, sliced, and baked.
• Ploye—A pancake-like food made from buckwheat flour and wheat flour.
• Pouding chômeur—Known as "poor man’s pudding," a sweet dessert.
• Poutine râpée—A boiled potato dumpling with a pork filling inside.
• Poutine à trou—Baked apple dumplings.
• Poutine au bleuet—French fries with cheese, gravy, and blueberries.
• Ragoût—A thick kind of soup.
• Rappie pie or Râpure—Made from grated potatoes and chicken or salted pork.
• Soupe aux pois—Canadian pea soup.
• Tarte au sucre acadienne—A sweet sugar pie.
• Tchaude—A type of fish chowder.
• Tourtière—A savory meat pie.

Images for kids

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  Poutines rapées being made.

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  A poutine à trou smothered in maple syrup.

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  Ployes are extremely popular in the Madawaska region.

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  Rappie pie or râpure is a dish whose name comes from patates râpées, meaning "grated potatoes".