Canadian Food
Québec Sugar Shack (Cabane à Sucre): What's on the Menu
Everything served at a traditional Québec cabane à sucre meal, when sugaring season happens, and how to recreate it at home.
Every spring, when nights are below freezing and days are above, maple sap runs — usually March into April. In Québec, that means sugar shack season: big communal meals at a *cabane à sucre*, often on long wooden tables.
The traditional menu
- Pea soup — see our [Habitant split pea soup](/recipes/habitant-split-pea-soup)
- Fèves au lard — [maple baked beans](/recipes/feves-au-lard)
- Oreilles de crisse — crispy fried salt pork rinds
- Ham glazed with maple
- Omelette or eggs, sometimes baked with maple
- Tourtière — [meat pie](/recipes/tourtiere)
- Pancakes drowned in syrup
- Pouding chômeur — [the maple cake](/recipes/pouding-chomeur)
- Tarte au sucre — [sugar pie](/recipes/tarte-au-sucre)
Tire d'érable (maple taffy)
The finale: hot maple syrup boiled to about 112–115°C (234–239°F), poured in strips on clean packed snow, then rolled onto a popsicle stick. You can do it at home with a candy thermometer and a tray of snow or shaved ice.
Recreate it at home
Make the beans and soup the day before, bake the pies in the morning, and finish with pancakes and taffy. Browse more on our [Québec recipes page](/quebec).
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