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January 29, 2002
Oh Canada!
Poutine, that artery-clogging french fry, cheese and gravy snack is uniquely French-Canadian, but did you know it wasn't always made with potatoes? In the 1840s and 50s the French and Métis couriers de bois would take with them on their hunt for beaver pelts, cheese for snacking. Upon catching and skinning a beaver, the fur traders would build a fire and cook the beaver meat, spreading cheese and a sauce made from the drippings on the meat. They would then extend this dish to their companions saying "Pour toi" meaning for you. This eventually got shortened and colloquialized to "poutine".
After making the beaver Canada's national animal, the fur trade was prohibited from killing these tree-munching rodents. The poutine was nearly lost forever, until, in 1901, a Québec resident of French and Irish background Charles O'Gratin had a brainstorm. Knowing his Irish ancestors were saved from famine by potatoes, he sliced a boiled one up, poured cheese and deer drippings (still legal to kill) onto it and invented a national food. Oh Canada!