tourtière, a double-crusted meatpie that is likely named for a shallow pie dish still used for cooking and serving tourtes (pies) in France. The ground or chopped filling usually includes pork and is sometimes mixed with other meats, including local game, such as rabbit, pheasant, or moose. It is famously served as part of réveillon, a traditional feast enjoyed by Catholic Québécois after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Tourtière can be a shallow pie that is filled with pork or other meats or a many-layered pie that is filled with cubed meats and vegetables, which is the way the dish is prepared along the shores of the Saguenay and Lac Saint Jean. (Acadians living in the Maritimes call their version of tourtière by its common name, pâté à viande.)
Several recipes for tourtière were printed in La Cuisinière canadienne (1840), likely the first French-language cookbook published in Canada. Pork, mutton, veal, potatoes (which came into use in the colony in the 1770s, by way of the British), and chicken all get their own treatment, simmered and spiced before they are enclosed in a sturdy pastry. Beef appears as the main ingredient in a recipe for Pâtés de Noël, which follows the tourtière recipe and its variations.
Elizabeth Driver, a culinary historian, notes that the meat would have traditionally been cut into small pieces with a knife. Many cooks today use ground meat instead, which “changes the texture and one’s appreciation of the dish,” writes Driver. Nathalie Cooke, editor of What’s to Eat? Entrées in Canadian Food History, suggests that lard would have been the primary fat used in the early days of the colony, when “olive oil was expensive; butter scarce.” A flaky lard crust would probably have been the norm.
Tourtière certainly predates the publication of La Cuisinière canadienne, and meat pies have appeared in nearly every culture (e.g., samosas, empanadas, and steak and kidney pie). Québec cookbook author Julian Armstrong suggests that its roots may be traced to a 5th-century cookbook that includes “a pie called La Patina that was made in a bronze pot with four layers of pastry, the top crust with a hole in the centre.” Meanwhile, the word tourte comes from Latin slang: tortus panis, meaning “a round of bread.”
Another creation myth persists in discussions about the dish: that tourtière comes from tourte, which also means “pigeon.” Passenger pigeons, which were declared extinct in 1914, numbered in the billions at the beginning of the 19th century in North America. They were notoriously easy to catch, especially at their nesting grounds on Île d’Orléans, on the St. Lawrence River, where they were hunted and baked into pie.
Tourtière (French pronunciation: [tuʁtjɛʁ], Quebec French: [tuʁt͡sjaɛ̯ʁ]) is a French Canadian meat pie dish originating from the province of Quebec, usually made with minced pork, veal or beef and potatoes.
, a double-crusted meat pie that is likely named for a shallow pie dish still used for cooking and serving tourtes (pies) in France. The ground or chopped filling usually includes pork and is sometimes mixed with other meats, including local game, such as rabbit, pheasant, or moose.
It gets its name from the tourte, which is what it was originally made from. Though the name "tourtière" is derived from its filling, the tourte—the French name for the passenger pigeon that is now extinct in North America—was historically used as its filling before the 20th century.
Historical records of Quebec tourtière, which was likely named for the copper and tin pans the pies are baked in, date back to the 17th century. But hearty pies of the sort have been around for as long as humans have thought to combine pastry with meat.
Traditionally, Tourtière is served with roasted vegetables or a light frisseé salad. An assortment of pickled foods is always delicious; pickled beets, spicy carrots, gherkins or pickled onions. Many enjoy a tomato-based chutney but most… just break out the ketchup.
Meat pie is primarily made of ground meat (pork, beef or veal) and aromatics (onion, garlic, spices, etc.). In Saguenay–Lac‑Saint‑Jean and Charlevoix, however, “real” tourtière is a lot heartier than meat pie and contains other meats (such as game) and potatoes that have been simmered in stock.
Tourte means pie, and they were baked in a tourtière. Simple. The other story is that this pie got its name from the type of birds that were commonly used to make the pie. 'Tourte' or tourte voyageuse is also the French name for a passenger pigeon.
It refers to a generic meat pie (sometimes also called a tourte) in a pastry crust that's baked in a mold called a tourtière. (Like tagine, terrine, and tian, the name of the dish comes from the name of the vessel in which it is cooked.)
Tourtière is a traditional part of winter celebrations in Quebec –Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. There are lots of recipes out there for the meat pies with regional Quebec variations.
If your Tourtiere is already baked, please store it in the fridge. For best results, the pie should be consumed within 4 days of purchase. To warm, place on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 350°F. Bake a 9” pie for 45 minutes, a 5” pie for 25-30 minutes, and a hand pie for 15 minutes.
Wine Pairing Advice: Tourtiere can be served with either whites or reds, but I think that reds go better (and in Canada, where the dish originates, red is what is traditionally served). Try pairing meat pies with light to medium-bodied reds and wines that are big on fruit like a Beaujolais or a Pinot Noir.
For best results, freeze your Tourtière after assembling and before baking. When ready to enjoy, cook from frozen, brushing the top with the egg wash before putting it in the oven. Baking time will be a longer from frozen. Cooked tourtière may be frozen for 4 months or so.
As the breadcrumbs and the broth help add moisture to this recipe, added fat is an unwanted quantity that tends to make the tourtiere fall apart when cutting and also is just not very pleasant.
The tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean differs from a regular tourtière by having thicker crust, cubes of potatoes, meats and broth (instead of only minced meat), as well as being placed in a much larger and deeper container. Like a regular tourtière, the meat chosen is usually pork, beef or veal.
There are four types of pies: cream, fruit, custard, and savory. A pie that contains cooked meat, poultry, seafood, or vegetables in a thick sauce. Examples: Pot pies, Quiche, and Sheppard pie. Made by cooking baking uncooked along with crust.
The Ancient Egyptians were the first to invent a dish close to what we know as a pie today. They had a honey filling covered in a crusty cake made from oats, wheat, rye or barley. A recipe for chicken pie was also discovered on a tablet carved prior to 2000 BC.
These pies were usually fried or cooked under coals. The Romans adopted the Greek creations, using a variety of meats, oysters, mussels, lampreys, and fish as filling and a mixture of flour, oil, and water for the crust. This 'pastry' cover was not meant to be eaten and was discarded.
According to the Oxford Companion to Food, once upon a time, Scotland made its shepherd's pies with pastry instead of mashed potatoes. Indian cooks once considered shepherd's pie to be a perfect dish for tiffin (a word used to mean a light snack in British India).
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