Squeaky cheese curds
- Annemarie Bolduc
- Jun 23, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Best fresh on the day, these are a delicious treat available everywhere… in Québec!
Cheese curds, which we call in French “fromage en grain” (or in slang, “fromage en crottes”), are unfinished cheddar curds made from fresh pasteurised milk. The moist, curdled milk pieces make a funny “squeak squeak” in the mouth, and that is why it is often called “squeaky cheese”. In the late 50s, dairy farmers created this product as a solution for selling their excess milk. Since then, anywhere in Québec, you can buy cheese curds. They are fresh daily in supermarkets, fromageries (cheese shops) and dépanneurs (corner stores). They are best at room temperature, and after 24 hours, they must be refrigerated. They can still be eaten, but the texture becomes ordinary, and the squeak effect is lost. Fresh cheese curds can be reproduced outside Québec, but commercially, they are challenging to make when the demand is low. The short shelf life is the main reason. Cheese curds are essential to a traditional Québec poutine, and this unique dish is the key to their production survival and success in the Belle Province*.
Cheese curds are white, mild and soft with a slightly moist consistency, which creates that “squeak” sound and feel on the teeth. They are yummy on their own as a snack, and the best way to use them in a dish is in a classic poutine. If you visit Québec someday, do not miss trying an old-style traditional poutine at any snack bar in a dairy farming region. In Montréal, go to La Banquise, where the poutine has been reinvented in so many fun ways.
Cheese curds and poutine, yes please! • Photography © Bottle and Brush Studio 2018-19
HOME COOKING
For more info about the dish and how to recreate poutine at home, read my Poutinology post and find a copy of my cookbook Québec Kitchen Abroad. I have been experimenting with making cheese curds at home and succeeded with non-homogenised milk and cheese cultures. By gathering all the most reliable methods, I have put together a recipe that is rare to find in Canadian cookbooks. The recipe includes tips and sources for making cheese curds, plus a poutine from scratch. It is the best one I have had abroad so far!
Follow me on Snowy Foodie for news about my cookbook and for extra content about cheese curd making.
* La Belle Province is a nickname for Québec, but also the name of a fast food chain that serves poutine among other greasy favourites like club sandwiches, hot dogs, smoked meat sandwiches and souvlaki pitas.
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