Tourtiere
by Jim Cummings
Some of the following information I obtained from two cookbooks put out by The American French Genealogical Society of Woonsocket, RI. The books are Je Me Souviens...La Cuisine De La Grandmere, Volumes I and II. The way I remember tourtiere is the way my grandfather, Romeo Morin, cooked it. This belies the title of the books a bit, since everyone knows that the world’s greatest chefs are Frenchmen, and men often cook in French households.
Two Quotes
Originally ‘tourtieres’ were made with large birds, called ‘tourtes’ until these became extinct. According to some authorities, some tourtiere recipes obtained their name from the deep baking dish (tourtiere) in which they were baked. Since the disappearance of tourtes, fresh pork or a mixture of different kinds of meat is used in this food specialty.--Yvon Paul.
In France the tourtiere pie-dish was a kitchen utensil for cooking pigeon and other birds. The contents of the dish were known as ‘piece tourtiere’ and during the first years in New France these distinctive words were used. Over the years the word ‘tourtiere’ came to mean a pate of fowl or game cooked and seasoned according to a special household recipe in the family stew pan, for into it went not merely turtle-doves but every kind of edible bird. Every housewife possessed her own secret recipe, jealously preserved from generation to generation. It was in this way that some venturesome housewives began to prepare ‘pieces tou-tieres’ not only with birds but with the meat of both wild and domestic animals. Such recipes held additional appeal since they provided more filling and sustaining meals. --Daily Life In Early Canada
In more modern times the recipes generally get away from game and use pork as the primary meat. The pig was a very important animal on the subsistence Quebec farm. Some recipes call for a mixture of pork and ground beef or ground veal. Most call for some combination of allspice, cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg as well as garlic or onion. Some use an addition of bread crumbs or potatoes, some are thick and some are more liquid with the addition of boiling water to the browned, spiced meat.
This was often served traditionally as part of the Christmas celebration, often the family would have this when they returned from Midnight Mass. In my family my grandparents would cook a large roast pork dinner the Sunday before Christmas and the leftover pork and mashed potatoes would go into the pie along with some onions and salt and pepper. My grandfather never used any other spices. This would be served hot on Christmas Eve with either leftover gravy or with butter. My brother Dave used to eat his with ketchup. He was considered a philistine.
Around here it is pronounced “toutcaire” and I have seen it spelled this way, but I suspect that this is a bastardization.
Romeo Morin’s Tourtiere
Chop up leftover roast pork and mix it with some leftover mashed potatoes. Chop one onion, brown it in butter and add this to the mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Put it in the bottom crust and cover with the top crust. Cut some slits in the top and bake it in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes until brown.
Alternatively you can brown some ground pork, drain the fat and use that as a meat, just as good.
I have recently taken to sprinkling a bit of allspice in the mix and adding a little minced garlic to taste.
For another version, which seems to be true to most of the tourtiere that I have had in restaurants: Put about 2 lbs. of ground pork in a large pan and brown, drain the fat.
Add 1 cup of
water
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp. pepper
Simmer for 1/2 hr, stirring often. Remove from heat and
add 3 cups bread crumbs. Mix well and allow to cool. Put it into the pie
crust and top with a crust. Bake 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. --Chef Louis
Baltera, Chateau Frontenac, Quebec.
The following recipe for Stirred Pastry is the crust that I use most often as it is easier to make than a traditional flaky crust, and does not rely on lard or vegetable shortening (which has unhealthy transfats).
Stirred Pastry
In a bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. sugar.
In a cup, stir together 1/2 cup salad oil (preferably canola) and 1/4 cup milk.
Pour over the flour, and stir until no dry flour shows.
Divide into 2 balls. Refrigerate, if not using immediately. Cold dough doesn’t stick so readily to everything.
Roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper, peel off one piece and flop the other piece, with the crust over the plate. Then remove the wax paper so that the dough falls into the pie plate. Fill the crust with the Tourtiere mix and then treat the top crust in the same manner. This comes from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook