Traditional 
     
     Foods 
     
    
   
   
    
     Acadians in the Evangeline Region inherited a diversified 
     
     cuisine, since their ancestors had easy access to farm pro- 
     
     duce, seafood, game and wild berries. The amount of meat or 
     
     fish that a family ate varied according to whether they lived 
     
     on a farm or whether they earned their living from the sea. In 
     
     many cases, people survived by both farming and fishing. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Until the middle of the 20th century, pork was the most 
     
     common meat because virtually every family raised at least 
     
     one pig. It was not uncommon to see a pork roast or a boiled 
     
     pork dinner on the table. The pig was killed in early Decem- 
     
     ber and most of the meat was salted. Blood pudding and 
     
     head cheese were made at slaughtering time. Although blood 
     
     pudding is no longer made, some people still make head 
     
     cheese and sauce de cochon (blood sauce) with pig’s head, 
     
     blood and offal that they get at the abattoir in Summerside. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Fish and shellfish occupy a place of honour on the Acadian 
     
     dinner table. The choice is varied: herring, mackerel, cod, 
     
     smelt, tommy-cod, trout, eel, lobster, bar clams, quahogs, 
     
     soft-shelled clams and oysters. Flounder, crab and mussels 
     
     are more recent additions. As a rule, fish is either boiled or 
     
     fried. Lobster and crab are boiled, whereas mollusks are usu- 
     
     ally steamed. In either case, they are eaten plain or used in 
     
     fricots (soups) and sauces. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The potato is one of the basic ingredients of traditional 
     
     Acadian cuisine. Potatoes are used in a number of dishes and 
     
     are served as a vegetable for the main meals of the day. 
     
     Acadians did not grow them during the French regime. It was 
     
     only in the early years after the Deportation that they adopted 
     
     the potato. They also borrowed a number of recipes from 
     
     their British and American neighbours. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Among these recipes, there were several dishes in which 
     
     grated potatoes formed the main ingredient. The best known 
     
     of these potato dishes are called chiard, poutines rapées (potato 
     
     dumplings) and beignets rapés or crépes a la rapure (potato 
     
     pancakes). Some historians believe that the Acadians obtained 
     
     the recipes for these dishes from United Empire Loyalists of 
     
     German descent who moved to southeast New Brunswick at 
     
     the time of the American Revolution. These grated potato 
     
     dishes are not known in either France or Great Britain, but they 
     
     do appear in traditional German and Scandinavian cooking.