Tourtière
Quebec's spiced pork and beef pie for Christmas Eve and New Year
Tourtière is the meat pie of Quebec, served after midnight mass at the Christmas Eve réveillon and through the holidays, from Montreal to the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region (where a deep, layered version is also called tourtière). This dish contains pork. Minced pork and beef cook slowly with onion, a little potato and warm spices — cinnamon, cloves, allspice and savory — then are baked in a flaky double crust and served with ketchup or fruit chutney. The mistake is a wet filling that makes the bottom crust soggy; cook it until the liquid has almost gone and cool it before filling. Chef's tip: a grated potato in the filling soaks up the juices and holds the slices together.
- Total time
- 120 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 8
Ingredients
For the filling
For the pastry
Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Put 1 ⅛ lb pork mince, 10 ½ oz beef mince, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 potato and ¾ cup water in a pan. Cook over a medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring and breaking up the meat, until it is no longer pink (160°F) and the liquid has almost evaporated.
30 minStep 2: Stir in ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground cloves, ¼ tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp dried savory or thyme, 1 ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp black pepper and cook 2 minutes. Cool completely, then chill.
2 minStep 3: For the pastry, rub 7 oz cold butter into 14 oz plain flour and ½ tsp salt until it looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-size pieces. Add ½ cup iced water a little at a time to bring it together. Shape 2 discs, wrap and chill 30 minutes.
40 minStep 4: Heat the oven to 400°F. Roll out one disc and line a 23 cm pie dish. Fill with the cold meat and level it.
Step 5: Roll out the second disc, lay it over, trim, crimp the edges and cut 3 steam vents. Brush with 1 egg.
Step 6: Bake for 15 minutes, then lower to 350°F and bake for 30–35 minutes more, until deep golden and the filling is bubbling hot. Rest 15 minutes before slicing.
50 minStep 7: Keep 3 days in the fridge or freeze; reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 560 kcal
- Protein
- 24 g
- Carbs
- 34 g
- Fat
- 36 g
- Fibre
- 2 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does tourtière take?
- About 120 minutes in total: 45 minutes to prepare and 75 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 8 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
- What can I use instead of garlic cloves?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
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