Most of our dietary intake is made up of common North American cuisine – vegetables, pasta, Hot Pockets – the list goes on and on. But some of the things on our menu are distinctly Canadian. Great Canadian Foods is a new weekly feature on SmartCanucks exploring the tastier side of Canadian living.
When starting a column on Canadian eating, it would be a culinary crime if I didn’t write about a personal favorite first. When I was a child I could pretty much eat my body weight in tourtière. As an adult, I’m not much better. But living in Southern Ontario, I often get a quizzical look from friends and family when mentioning this delicious French Canadian treat.
Toutiere is a delectable meat pie made from ground pork, often mixed with veal and beef. In Quebec the dish is customarily a food served during Christmas and New Year’s, though there’s very little reason to keep this deliciousness reserved for a single week of the year.
There’s some debate about the spices used in tourtière, with cinammon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and pepper appearing to be the most traditional non-meat elements. Dating back to 17th century France, these spices were largely discontinued in French cooking in later years but remained a staple of the tourtière in French Canada.
Other variations have seen ingredients like rolled oats that can be traced back to Scottish soldiers, as well as the Irish-influenced inclusion of the potato. The regional influences on tourtière can offer an interesting (and tasty) window into our nation’s past. There’s even a great radio discussion on the topic in the CBC Archives.
What goes into a traditional tourtière may be well-debated, but some places offer such a different take on the French Canadian meat pie that it’s earned itself a whole new name. Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean is a deep dish alternative filled with diced potatoes and various meats (including wild game) that could feed a small army.
Looking to try a taste of tourtière, but won’t be travelling to Quebec anytime soon? While the restaurants in the rest of Canada tend to overlook this great Canadian dish, the grocery stores don’t. Sure it’s not as good as the real thing, but the President’s Choice label offers up a delicious store-bought alternative. If you’re really crafty, you can always try to make your own! Here’s a delicious recipe that’s earned high praise from the cooking community on AllRecipes.com.
Bon Appétit!
Schneiders also makes a decent tourtiere…
I’m far away from Quebec, but yet grew up in a small city with a large French population. A French language school and church were on the other side of the lot where my elementary school was, and every fall they would have a tourtiere supper. My dad was the Superintendent of Education, so he was always invited as a special guest – and we would go to the little auditorium in the basement of the French church, full to the rafters with people squished next to each other on long benches, and have an absolutely wonderful meal of tortiere (and other foods, I’m sure, but I don’t remember anything else!). What a wonderful memory that is!
I made one for the first time last Christmas and it was delicious. A friend at work, who was raised in Quebec, gave me the recipe. And with the cooler weather coming, I’m thinking I just might look up that recipe and make it again for dinner soon. My pastry usually isn’t very good, so I cheated and used the Pillsbury pre-made pie dough and it worked out just fine.
Having grown up in Northern Ontario and having had parents that ran a restaurant there, a lot of our cooks and staff were francophone, so tourtiere was a staple often sampled during the holidays. Made with ground pork, the right spices and a flaky, golden crust, it was very tasty. These days, a good replacement is the one by President’s Choice. Good column btw!
I prefer the Toronto Ptarmigans over the Montreal Tourtieres.
Anyone who gets the joke gets 100 Canuck points.
Having grown up in Quebec, and being French myself, tourtiere is a staple in my home, especially during colder weather..I make mine with half ground pork, and half ground beef of turkey. I also do not add the paprika, such as the Allrecipes site says to.
I also like adding some tiny diced carrot, potato, and onion sometimes, and serve it with chili sauce on the side, or as my father used to do, with gravy!
I can’t wait to make tourtiere, I usually make a few in October and freeze some for easy meals on cold nights…
I like tourtiere but i don’t like it enough to make from scratch. I should try the presidents choice brand.
Mmmm Tortiere – my Grandparents were English from Quebec and were posted there for a number of years and as such tourtiere became one of our Christmas family traditions along with a healthy portion of fruit ketchup (chili sauce) When I met my husband one of the first things I asked him upon learning that he was Quebecois was could he and would he make me tourtiere – he did and that sealed the deal 🙂
Eric,
Are you talking hockey?
Looking forward to the weekly feature!
Pardo Villa Acres Farm Market; just outside of Blenheim, ON has a terrific tourtière. Of course they also have seasonal veggies, and lots of delicious pastries. Worth the stop!
Never ate it before!
Probably because I’ve only ever had the british version, steak and kidney pie hahaha.
Josée, kinda. They’re the favourite hockey teams of Dale and Frank in the Canadian cartoon, Chilly Beach.
Love me some tortiere! Presidents choice one is good as well as the No Name one that’s only $2.99!! mmmm now I have to make one for dinner this week!! YAY!!
Franco-manitobans make a pretty darn good tourtière too! My mother actually entered her tourtière in a Radio-Canada taste-test contest and won! Her recipe is a version of the one from the Ritz-Carlton. Yum! I have some in my freezer calling my name…that with my dad’s cranberry sauce. Hum, guess what I’ll have for supper LOL!
I’m an Anglicized French-Canadian who grew in Montreal proper and I always referred to Tourtiere as Torture Pie when I was a kid. I enjoyed it when I grew up, but I’m vegetarian now… I actually made a pretty decent faux-meat version last year though (laugh away if you like).
I think I’ll enjoy this feature, thank you. 🙂
Brings back memories when my grandma made this from scratch along with chili sauce also homemade.
I made one tonight for my French Canadian husband and he was pleasantly surprised.
Prairie girl is right, you need to try it with home made cranberry sauce. LOVE IT
This is a MEAT PIE.
NOT a TOURTIÈRE.
Tourtière is a WHOLE different thing.
Thanks for participating to the widespread misconception of what a Tourtière is and for taking away the rightful name of a meal that is much better, bulkier and tastier than these lame meat pies.