What The Heck Is Tourtière?
For some, it's not Christmas without this French-Canadian pork pie, or tourtière. Learn how it's made the authentic way. It may just become your new favorite holiday tradition!
Everyone loves pie, right? But don’t limit yourself to just the sweet variety. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried rich, savory tourtière (pronounced “toor-tee-AIR”), also known as “pork pie,” a traditional French-Canadian meat pie usually served around the Christmas holidays. It’s filled with cooked ground pork and warm spices all wrapped in a flaky, buttery crust.
So What Makes This Pie So Popular?
Meat pies have been around in one form or another since at least 1600 B.C. It’s thought that the original tourtière was a dish called “patina,” which was a meat pastry served around 400 A.D. in Europe. Centuries later, when the first French settlers came to Canada, they brought meat pie recipes with them, including tourtière.
The name comes from the word tourte, which has two translations: pie and passenger pigeon. Perhaps the name is in part a reference to the pigeons that were plentiful and easily trapped by Canadian settlers, who then made the meat into pies.
Regardless, the tourtière that we know today was first written about in the 1840 French-Canadian cookbook, La Cuisiniere Canadienne. Historians believe that this was the first French cookbook published in Canada, and it described the tourtière as “a meat pie made with pork, veal, mutton, chicken and potatoes, each cooked in their own spices before being chopped into tiny pieces and baked in a double-crusted pie.”
From there, the tourtière became a cultural phenomenon, with regions of Canada each boasting their own versions of the pie. There are many variations—as one French baker says, “there are as many recipes for tourtière as there are cooks in Quebec.” Families have their own “secret ingredients,” and cooking methods. For instance, the Montreal tourtière features pork only, while the Manitoban version can have a variety of meats, including wild game. In Acadia, tourtière can have beef, chicken, and rabbit.
Make Your Own Pork Pie Tourtière
You can make your own flaky pie crust or use a shortcut and purchase crust for a deep-dish double-crust pie. But if you are making your own pork pie, a tourtière crust should be rich and buttery, which is why the traditional recipe calls for both butter and lard — butter to add richness and lard because historically, butter was hard to come by in large quantities.
Make Your Own Pork Pie Tourtière
Ingredients
Crust:
- To make the crust, sift together 2 ½ cups of flour and ½ teaspoon salt. Cut 10 tablespoons of chilled butter and 10 tablespoons of chilled lard into cubes and blend them into the flour mixture until crumbly. As you mix the dough, add up to four tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together as a smooth, just-moistened dough
Divide the dough into two balls, then roll one ball out on a floured board to fit a 9-inch deep dish pie pan.
Filling:
- 1 large potato, boiled, peeled and mashed (or 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes)
- 1.5 lbs ground organic pastured pork (or half pork and half ground beef)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 large onion, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup water
For the egg wash:
- 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water (optional)
Instructions
- In a large frying pan, add oil and pork.
- Cook on medium-high heat until the pork is cooked through, then add onion and spices, continuing to cook until the onion turns translucent.
- Lower heat to medium-low, add the water and simmer to deglaze the pan.
- Once the caramelization is removed from the bottom of the pan, add the mashed potato, a little at a time, and simmer the mixture until it is nice and thick.
- Remove from heat and let the filling cool before pouring it into the pie crust.
- When the tourtière is filled, roll out the top crust, making sure to crimp the crust to seal the edges.
- Brush with egg wash, if desired.
- Cut a hole in the center of the crust so that steam can vent, then bake at 425º F in the center of the oven for 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Cover edges with foil if they're browning too quickly. Makes 1 pie that serves 6-8.
- Serve hot or cold.These pies also freeze well. Let thaw completely before baking.
We want to know: How do you serve and eat your tourtière? Any condiments? Tell us in the comments below.
Amber Kanuckel
Amber Kanuckel is a freelance writer from rural Ohio who loves all things outdoors. She specializes in home, garden, environmental, and green living topics.
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This was a tradition growing up. Memere always brought over two tortiere (toot-chay) pies or as my siblings called it “torture pie”. We ate these on Christmas Eve after coming home from Mass. There was no garlic in her recipe (an extravagance for her) and very few spices that I recall. We did not use condiments other than spreading butter on top and then lifting the top crust and spreading butter underneath…mmm. Lots of good memories.
What a wonderful memory. Isn’t it wonderful what a role food can play in our lives?
I used to cook at a small neighborhood grocery store in MA, and we made these all year. I’d buy a pie, but I’d also buy a container of just the filling, and make a biscuit dough, press/roll into a rectangle, spread the filling, then roll up jelly roll style and bake. Makes my mouth water remembering how good it was all those years ago.
My people are from New Brunswick. We make the pies with beef and pork. Served with ketchup and sweet gerkins.
Everyone in the family loves this. I make it every year from my sister-in-laws recipe. Spices are cinnamon , cloves and allspice and always served with maple syrup poured over the top. Every family’s recipe was a little different. French Canadian Family and they always pronounced it the same as Zoe Bartholomews family.
Maple syrup??! Game changer! Grew up in Maine and had it as a gift from my husband’s co-worker. Also pronounced the same way. I use the recipe from Downeast magazine.
Both my parents were French Canadian. Beaulieu and Deschenes. My mother, aunts and grandmothers made this meat pie for Christmas Eve. No garlic. Just pork potato onion and above mentioned spices. Delish! My mother spoke broken English but pronounced it Toot-Shay or very clise to it. Toot as in foot.
I grew on on these
M6 father made 20 to 25 every Christmas. Ketchup is the only store bought condiment,and moms homemade green relish was the only homemade condiment
Our family recipe is slightly different and prepared differently but I would assume same taste
Does anyone have a recipe for Maple Walnut Cream Pie. It is thick like custard. ( Not syrup like pecan pie ) Mostly found in dinners I don’t think it is baked. Thank You
Does anyone out there have the recipe for “Sugar Pie”, another Christmas treat among
the French Canadians. It too is delicious, and I’ve lost the recipe given to me by a
much loved friend and avid family baker many years ago. Thank you in advance.
This is so good its the best, it reminds me of my grandmother and my mother making them. We eat year round. Yum Yum.
Tourtière is just the best ever meat pie alright, but you’ve got the pronunciation wrong. It’s actually pronounced “tore – ti – AIR”…..accent on the last syllable.
Thanks, birdonthewire, we adjusted the pronunciation – thank you!
If you are Fench Canadian Like my Husbands family, it is pronounced Toot- Shay.Toot like Foot
I am going to have to try this recipe. Both my Mom and I were born in Canada and she use to make meat pies around Christmas time. Been a few years I will have to make one for my family. Thanks for the memories.