Nestled in the heart of French-Canadian culinary tradition, Traditional French Canadian Tourtière is a savory delight that embodies the warmth and comfort of the holiday season. Warm and cozy feelings aside, there is just as much controversy within French Canadian families about the making of this iconic dish! In my family alone, there are two ways of making this dish, and we'll break it all down in this post!
This meat pie is a cherished classic that has graced countless festive tables, served on the 24th of December after midnight mass. This celebration is call "Réveillon", and involves a large amount of food, large gathering, and lots of music and celebration. Countless variations of Tourtières now exist, but it has come a long way from it's original cousin from Europe!
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Where did it all begin?
It is believed that the Tourtière got its name from its predecessor, made with the Tourte bird, a passenger pigeon, now considered extinct. The tradition was brought over from Europe in the 1600's by the French settlers. At this time, the Tourtière was being made with wild game, spices, and vegetables. It was then cooked with a top pastry until golden. In 1840, one of the first French-language cookbooks already describes many variations of this dish. However served, it is always dished out on Christmas Eve.
What is in a Traditional French Canadian Tourtière?
Meats used in a Traditional French Canadian Tourtière?
Ask a couple French-Canadian families, and you will soon realize the wide variations of this dish. The more modern Tourtière, has moved away from it's gamy meat ancestors and towards ground meats commonly found in grocery stores.
In eastern Canada, you will still find recipes containing pork, beef, chicken, veal, and even horse! In the Canadian prairie provinces (central Canada), the recipe has a more simple variation. My family has either used, just ground pork, or a combination of ground beef and ground pork.
Pie Doughs used in Traditional French Canadian Tourtière?
Many recipes for Traditional Tourtière have a flaky butter crust. Using your favorite flaky pie crust recipe is just as good in my opinion. I have been found to make a pie dough with lard, and even shortening, depending on what I had in my cupboard. In this recipe, the crust recipe contains shortening. The important part is that you have enough dough for a top and bottom pie crust.
Which spices to use in a Tourtière?
You won't find many variations when it comes to spices in a Traditional Tourtière. The four culprits usually are; cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Growing up, those are the spices my grandmothers would use in their meat pies. Personally, I am not a fan of cloves, nor do I enjoy cinnamon and nutmeg in my meat. In this recipe, I propose the use of savory spices and herbs. I am also including a more traditional spice variation if you want to stick to a more traditional taste.
Ingredients for my Traditional French Canadian Tourtière
Meat Filling
- Ground Pork
- Ground Beef
- Potatoes (mashed)
- Onion
- Garlic
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Salt
Pie Dough
- All-Purpose Flour
- Salt
- Shortening
- Water
- Apple Cider Vinegar
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make a Tourtière
Prepare the elements of the Tourtière in this order for quickest results. For this recipe you will need mashed potatoes. Make it your favorite way, or use some of my Cottage Cheese Mashed Potatoes !
Prepare the pie dough. Plastic wrap in two 8-inch disks and refrigerate.
Cook the meat, onion and garlic fully.
Mix in the mashed potatoes in the meat mixture. Transfer the mixture to a dish and cool to room temperature.
While the meat is cooling, roll out the cooled dough into a 9-inch pie plate. You should be using 60% of the dough for the bottom crust and 40% for the top.
Press the cooled meat into the pastry-lined pie plate. Make sure is it nice and smooth
Egg wash the edge of the bottom crust and place the top crust
Substitutions and Variations
As mentioned above, there are many ways to modify the makings of a Traditional French Canadian Tourtière.
- Meat - In this recipe I am using half pork and half beef. You can make Tourtière with only pork, or even using a trio of meat, using veal, pork and beef.
- Pie Dough - You can use your favorite pie dough recipe for this, or even a premade pie dough. As long as you have enough for a top and bottom crust.
Leftover Pie Dough from the Tourtière
Make these traditional pinwheel cookies with the rest of the dough. They are called Pets de Soeurs, and consist of rolling out the pie dough and spreading it with butter or margarine. Sprinkle the dough with brown sugar and cinnamon, and roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into half inch pieces and lay them flat on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Bake them at 380F until lightly golden in color. Let them cool and enjoy!
Check out this recipe for PETE DE SOEUR (NUNS FARTS) from Food.com for more thorough instructions on how to make this amazing treat!
Storage
Make the Traditional French Canadian Tourtière in advanced and freeze before the final bake. Bake it from frozen at 350F for about an hour, as opposed to the shorter cooking time when baking a freshly made tourtière.
Recipe
Traditional French Canadian Tourtière
Ingredients
Pie Dough Ingredients
- 2½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Vegetable Shortening
- ½ cup Cold Water
- 2 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
Meat Filling Ingredients
- 1 pound Ground Pork
- 1 pound Ground Beef
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 cup White or Yellow Onion finely diced
- 3 cloves Garlic finely minced
- 1½ cup Prepared Mashed Potatoes
- 1 cup Potato Cooking Water
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme Leaves
- 1 teaspoon Dried Oregano Leaves
- 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
Ingredients for the Egg Wash
- 1 large Egg
- 1 tablespoon Cold Water
Instructions
- Make your mashed potatoes with 3-4 large potatoes. Make sure to keep 1 cup of the potato cooking water, after they have boiled.
Make the Pie Dough
- In a large bowl, measure out the flour and the salt. Mix to combine.
- Blend the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or with your fingers, until achieving a pea-sized crumbled mixture.
- In a measuring cup, combine the cold water and the vinegar. Pour the liquids over the crumbled flour mixture and fold everything together until just combined.
- Assemble the dough with your hands and divide it. One part would be ⅓ of the dough, and the other, ⅔ of the dough. Wrap the 2 parts in plastic wrap and cool in the refrigerator.
Make the Meat Filling
- In a large skillet on medium-high heat, drizzle the olive oil.
- Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the skillet and cook for a couple minutes before adding the pork and beef.
- Break down the meat and add the spices and salt. Add in the potato cooking water and continue cooking the meat until fully cooked.
- When the water has almost been cooked out, turn the heat off and add in the prepared mashed potatoes. Stir them in to create a unified mixture.
- Transfer the meat and potato mixture to a pan. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it to cool the mixture completely.
Assemble and Bake
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- On a floured surface, roll out the larges piece of dough. The disk of dough should be large enough to go up the sides of your pie plate and slightly overhang.
- Once the bottom pie crust is placed in plate, fill the pie with all of the meat mixture, making sure that the top is flattened.
- Roll out the smaller piece of dough to form the top of the pie. After doing so, cut out 1-3 small vent holes in the center of the disk of dough.
- Make the egg wash by mixing the egg and water together with a fork.
- Use a pastry brush to brush some egg wash on the edge of the bottom part of the pie dough. Place the top dish of dough on top, making sure that the vent holes are centered.
- Press the edges down to seal the top and bottom crusts. Holding a sharp knife vertically, run it all along the edge of the pie to trim off the excess dough.
- Use your thumb and index in one hand, with the index of the other hand, with the dough edge in the middle, to create a fluted edge. Repeat this step all around the pie to create a beautiful border.
- Brush some egg wash over the top part of the pie and the edges of the dough. Bake the freshly made meat pie in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is golden and cooked through.
Cheryl says
Your recipe ingredients are almost exactly like my grammas which my family has made for years. Her recipe called for equal amounts of veal, beef, and pork, and we use sage vs thyme and oregano. I love making meat pies, brings back so many good memories of Christmas Eve in my childhood home.
Tricia says
This is the best tourtiere recipe I have ever used and it will be my go to for years to come.