Tourtière (meat pie)

Growing up in New Brunswick (Canada’s only bilungual province), our Christmas eve dinners always included a tortiere. The tortiere is a French Canadian dish and Quebec is generally credited as the birthplace of the tourtière with it being mentioned as far back as the sixteenth century. It’s interesting to note that French Canadians have an old fashioned custom where they have always used spices to season their meat (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice). The addition of rolled oats in some tourtière recipes was added in the 17th century mainly due to the influence of the Scottish soldiers and potatoes later on were also introduced by the influx of Irish immigrants.

Serves 6
pastry for 9″ pie
500g minced pork (can also use beef)
2 onions, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 – 1 cup beef stock
2 eggs

Combine meat, stock, onion, garlic and seasonings in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a low heat. Cook for 20- 25 minutes until most of the liquid is gone. Stir often while cooking. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and cool in the fridge. Then add 2 eggs to the cooled meat mixture and pour into the pie shell. Cover with pastry and bake 45 minutes at 190c.

The Culinary Chase’s Note:

This pie freezes well. There are many debates as to what constitutes a tourtière and for me, this recipe does the trick! Enjoy!