My holiday recipe: Let the smell of fresh-baked tourtière fill your home | CBC News (2024)

FAQs

When was tourtière invented? ›

Tourtière can be traced back to the 1600s, when Québécois settlers attended midnight mass on Christmas Eve and celebrated afterwards with réveillon, a late-night festive feast fit for a king.

Use two types of minced meat

Pork is fattier and will bring moisture in addition to binding the ingredients, while veal and beef have a more pronounced taste. Choose semi-lean or lean meat—extra-lean meat will make the tourtière too dry.

Freshly Baked

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.

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.

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.

From Canadian French tourtière, from a cooking vessel of the same name, from French tourte (“meat pie”). There is a common false etymology that it derives from the alternative meaning tourte (“passenger pigeon”).

Tourtiere is traditional for Christmas or winter holidays but is eaten throughout the year. I have been making Tourtiere for my family for a long time. I tend to make it in the fall or winter, but there's no reason you can't make it year-round.

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.

To reheat from frozen, do not thaw first. Place cooked pie onto a baking sheet directly into 350F degree oven for 40-45 minutes, until centre of pie is hot when tested.

Place the pies on a tray and freeze until firm and then wrap them in aluminum foil or any type of airtight wrapping, label and freeze for up to 4 months.

Is it better to freeze pies cooked or uncooked? ›

Most pies will freeze well from a raw or cooked state. However, custard filled pies do not tend to freeze well. When freezing a fruit pie, you'll see the best results if you freeze a combination of cooked fruit filling in a raw pastry. Raw fruit filling can become watery on thawing and may require additional thickener.

You can freeze Meat Pies either baked or unbaked. Either way, when you want to bake the Pies, you can bake them off frozen. They will, however, take a little longer to bake then the time stated in the recipe.

Historians trace the origin of pie to the Egyptians back in 9500 BCE. In Egypt, the first pies were made with ground grains like barley, wheat, or oats combined with water. This “dough” was shaped into an oval and filled with savory ingredients like nuts, honey, and meat.

From Egypt to Rome via Greece

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.

The history of meat pies dates back to ancient times, with the first meat pie going all the way back to the Neolithic period, around 9500 BC. What surprises many pie lovers is that the first known pie in the world is believed to be from ancient Egyptians!

The history of the pie has its roots in ancient Egypt and Greece. The ancient Greeks ate pie (artocreas), though it was of the savory type with meat in an open pastry shell. The Romans may have been the first to create a pie that included a top and bottom crust.