Tourtière

As tradition built it

Tourtière

Makes 6 pies. Prep 45 minutes, cooking 1 hour 50 minutes, plus at least 4 hours chilling. The Lac Saint Jean variant, after a 12 hour overnight maceration, bakes 30 minutes at 200°C then about 1.5 hours at 120°C, and serves 6.

Ingredients

Classic

• 4 onions, minced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 45 ml olive oil
• 1.4 kg ground pork
• 1.4 kg ground veal
• 4 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 250 ml chicken broth
• 180 ml breadcrumbs
• 2.5 ml ground nutmeg
• 2.5 ml ground cinnamon
• to taste salt and pepper
• six pie crusts (bottom and top)

Lac-Saint-Jean variant

• 180 g ground pork back fat
• 350 g beef, cut in roughly 1.25 cm cubes
• 180 g pork shoulder, cut in roughly 1.25 cm cubes
• 45 ml chopped onion
• to taste salt and pepper
• 825 ml peeled, cubed potato
• 500 ml flour
• 5 ml baking powder
• 5 ml salt
• 250 ml unsalted butter
• 45 ml water
• 45 ml milk

Method

Classic

1. Soften 4 minced onions and 4 minced garlic cloves in 45 ml olive oil.
2. Add 1.4 kg ground pork and 1.4 kg ground veal and cook about fifteen minutes, breaking the meat apart as it browns.
3. Add 4 peeled, diced potatoes, 250 ml chicken broth, 180 ml breadcrumbs, 2.5 ml ground nutmeg, 2.5 ml ground cinnamon, salt and pepper, and cook a further forty-five minutes until the potato starts to break down and thicken the filling.
4. Cool the mixture, adjust seasoning, and refrigerate at least four hours.
5. Fill six pie crusts, top with a second crust, vent, seal and bake at 190°C (375°F) for fifty minutes to an hour until golden.
6. Many families weight the spicing differently; some lean on clove and savory rather than nutmeg and cinnamon.

Lac-Saint-Jean variant

7. Combine 180 g ground pork back fat with 350 g beef and 180 g pork shoulder, both cut in roughly 1.25 cm cubes, with 45 ml chopped onion, salt and pepper, and refrigerate overnight, twelve hours, so the meat macerates.
8. Mix with 825 ml peeled, cubed potato.
9. Line a three-litre cast iron pot with a pastry of 500 ml flour, 5 ml baking powder, 5 ml salt, 250 ml unsalted butter, 45 ml water and 45 ml milk.
10. Fill with the meat and potato and enough water to reach the top of the filling, top with a second pastry layer.
11. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for thirty minutes, then reduce to 120°C (250°F) for a further roughly ninety minutes.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide farce, redried breadcrumb, reduced maceration liquor, Big Green Egg finish

Method

1. Cook the ground pork and veal filling sous vide as a coarse farce first, at a precise low temperature that renders the fat evenly through the meat without ever risking the greying a hot pan gives ground meat cooked all at once, then finish it hard in a pan only at the very end purely for colour and aroma.
2. Dehydrate a portion of the breadcrumbs and regrind them fresh in the spice grinder immediately before use, for a drier, more absorbent crumb that thickens the filling more cleanly than a shop breadcrumb's own residual moisture allows.
3. Reduce the Lac-Saint-Jean version's own overnight maceration liquid separately in a wide pan before it goes back into the pot, concentrating the same flavour tradition already extracts over twelve hours into a fraction of that volume.
4. Finish the pastry top under the Big Green Egg's direct heat for the last few minutes, for a hard, blistered crust neither oven method alone achieves.