A Post Revisited: Tourtiere for a French Canadian Christmas

From 2006:

A decade ago, when I started writing a weekly food feature for a local newspaper, my first topic was tourtiére, the French Canadian meat pie that is an integral part of Christmas Eve. I wanted to personalize the assignment with a nod to my culinary heritage.

I don’t recall a single Christmas Eve without meat pie. My grandmother made it, then my aunts. Now I make it, though I will admit to skipping a few Christmases when time was scarce.

Traditionally, tourtiére is served following midnight or Christmas Eve Mass. My great-grandmother, whom we all called Mémere, washed it down with Champagne. Grandma Annie liked it with Mogen David (likely preceded by her Seven-Up and brandy “highball”). I like a nice Cabernet or a Shiraz with hints of berries and spices.

There are many different versions of tourtiére. Our family tradition is just fresh-fround pork, onions and seasoning. I have two recipe cards, one in my mother's tidy backhand and the other in Jane's slap-dash printing. They just called it "French Meat Pie."

Tourtiére a la Plourde-Laurin Famille

Three pounds ground meat: I like a combination of fresh ground pork and ground chuck
One large onion, minced
Dash nutmeg
Dash allspice
Dash freshly-ground pepper
Dash sea salt
1-2 eggs
1/3 cup cracker crumbs, a hefty pinch of flour or cornstarch

Prepare your crust. Again, I used this pate brisée recipe from Lucy's Kitchen Notebook.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown the meat and onion in a large skillet. Season with pepper and spices. Set aside; you can make this ahead and keep it refrigerated.

Pat your bottom crust into a greased pie plate. Before adding the meat, blend in an egg or two, depending upon the size of your pie. I also add the salt and thickener at the last minute. The eggs keep the pie from crumbling, too.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. I use an egg wash on the crust.

You may serve tourtiére warm or cold. It pairs well with a vegetable side dish, like green beans, carrots or Brussel sprouts and a salad that has a dash of sweetness, such as a pear-blue cheese salad, or perhaps one with apples or cranberries. Cole slaw and applesauce offer a more casual alternative. I treat meat pie as I would a pasty, which my husband's Cornish ancestors ate.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin