Homemade “Cretons” Spread
- Annemarie Bolduc
- Jul 9, 2021
- 3 min read
Québec’s unique traditional meat spread, an essential element for a Sugar Shack-style brunch!
"Cretons" is a pork-based pâté generally served on toasted bread with breakfast. This forcemeat-style spread is typically French Canadian, and there is no English word for it. “Toasts with creton, please », my friend Valérie asked as a breakfast order in a Tim Horton café in the west of Canada (where English is spoken by the majority) when we were young backpackers. The lady at the counter did not understand, even though my friend made a great effort to pronounce « crutown » with the best accent possible. But the thing was, and still probably is, cretons are only served in the Tims* that are located in the province of Québec. Cretons are on the menu in restaurants serving breakfast and in the Sugar Shack venue for brunches and lunches. Various home-style brands with different flavours and meats are available in supermarkets. It’s only since living in Australia that I first attempted to cook some from scratch. It’s not something we'll eat often, so when you make a batch with a pack of 500 g of minced pork, it’s quite a lot. Good thing you can freeze a big portion of it, which lasts a while. I was very picky in finding the right texture and taste that reminded me of my favourite ones. I started with a recipe from my grandmother Gertrude’s recipe notebook and combined ingredients to obtain the perfect balance I was hoping for. Now I can enjoy some cretons downunder, and like the “Tourtières” Meat Pies recipe that uses similar spices (like cinnamon, nutmeg, clove), the flavours reveal many memories from “chez-nous” (home).
*Tim Horton was a hockey player who founded Tim Hortons Inc., a restaurant chain serving coffee, donuts, sandwiches, soup, breakfast and other fast foods. If you go to Canada, you can’t miss a Tim, they are everywhere in all cities, towns, roads and airports! Make sure to try some “Timbits”, the famous donut’s holes (bite-size of the traditional donuts in all flavours).
Homemade cretons on toasts • Photography © Bottle and Brush Studio 2021
One day, while I was testing the recipe, I was out of breadcrumbs, and it was too late to return to the shop. I decided to try the recipe with some ground hazelnuts as a substitute. These accidental trials are sometimes surprisingly great, or they’re not. It turned out the hazelnuts made it the best cretons I ever had! Not only for the pleasant taste and texture, but it is also healthier and gluten-free. Later on, I tested with some chestnuts, which were also amazing! You can also find different options for some other ingredients in this recipe. Duck fat or butter are both excellent. The French Canadian Salted Preserved Herbs bring a good salty and herbal flavouring, which can also be replaced by herb blend salt or simply salt and a pinch of dried herbs. Some recipes use veal or a mix of both pork and veal, and even chicken, which is then called, for some reason, a cretonnade.
RECIPE
The final version of this recipe is now available in my cookbook Québec Kitchen Abroad!
