French Meat Pie And The Frescos Of Saint Ann's Church

Without traditions, 

life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof!

~ Tevye, Fiddler On The Roof 

As my children get older traditions are more important to them, especially around the holidays. 

One of our favorite food traditions is this French meat pie or Tourtiere (tour - tea - air). We eat it at Christmas time but it can be enjoyed any time of the year. I wrote my recipe and a little about the history of French meat pie when I started my blog, here. My recipe hasn't changed much throughout the years but, this year, I used fresh herbs and spices in place of dried or ground. 

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Before I get to the recipe I want to share a special place with you. One day this past summer I took my daughter to visit the beautiful church that I attended as a child. My family often had French meat pie on Christmas Eve after attending midnight mass here.

Postcard photo courtesy St. Ann's Arts And Cultural Center - all rights reserved.

History: This beautiful church, St. Ann's, or the "little Sistene Chapel" as we used to call it not realizing that it's actually larger than the Sistene Chapel, no longer holds regular masses. As demographics changed, the parish declined and the church eventually closed. It's now an arts and cultural center and is being maintained by a small group of volunteers who are trying save the church and its beautiful frescos from destruction. The buon frescos were made by Italian artist, Guido Nincheri, and all the faces in the paintings are of actual parishioners. So it's a museum-sized record, if you will, of the parish's ancestry. This summer, my daughter was interested in the church from something she learned in school so we visited this hidden gem and took some photos with my iPhone:

The beautiful ceiling in the foyer:

Below is a photo of the church looking back to the choir loft, which brought back lots of memories since I was a choir member while attending St. Ann's Elementary School.

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French Meat Pie Recipe (makes two pies):

3 pounds ground pork
1 small yellow onion or 1/2 a medium onion, chopped or minced

Olive oil, enough to sauté meat and onions in
About 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, add more to taste
About 1/2 teaspoon each of minced fresh sage, thyme, and rosemary, add more to taste (or substitute 3/4 teas of poultry seasoning for all) 
6 medium organic gold (yukon gold) potatoes, halved with skins left on (2 potatoes for every pound of pork. If you want a meatier pie, use 1 potato per pound of meat but add more meat to fill 2 pies)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup milk
Pastry for two two-crust pies

Pepper to taste

For my recipe with dry herbs:  http://www.vittlesandcommittals.blogspot.com/2010/12/tourtiere-my-memere-made-this.html

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Meanwhile, saute chopped onion over medium heat in a little olive oil until soft. Add pork and cook until brown. Remove from stove, drain fat. In a large bowl, mix meat with cinnamon, nutmeg, sage, thyme, and rosemary. When potatoes are fork tender, remove from water and place in a separate bowl. Break up with a spoon or fork while adding butter, milk, and pepper to taste (keep them lumpy). Add potatoes to meat and mix together. Prepare pie plates with a sheet of pastry. Add equal amounts of filling to each pie. Top with another sheet of pastry. Slit holes in top, crimp edges and cover loosely with foil to protect from burning. Cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until pastry is done.

Method 

This, I think, is the quickest way to prepare the meat pie:

Start with boiling the potatoes. 

While potatoes boil, cook the meat filling. 

Meanwhile (in between checking and stirring the meat mixture):

Mince fresh herbs, about three to four sage leaves, thyme leaves from a sprig or two, and rosemary needles from a piece of branch. Each herb should equal about one-half teaspoon. 

Then grate fresh spices. Start with about one-quarter teaspoon of nutmeg and cinnamon each. After tasting, I added about another quarter teaspoon of cinnamon. In this meat pie, you should be able to taste a little cinnamon.

When the meat filling is done, add herbs and spices. 

The perfect time to start the crust, if it wasn't made in advance, is while potatoes and filling cool.

Flaky Pastry For One Two-Crust Pie

This recipe is for one meat pie. I wasn't sure how well it would double so I made two separate batches. It's similar to James Beard's recipe in his American Cookery cookbook so I don't think I'm giving away any great family secret!

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shortening, I used Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening, non-hydrogenated

4 to 5 teaspoons ice water

Sift flour and salt together into a medium bowl, cut in shortening with a fork or two knives until it resembles course cornmeal. Pour onto a cutting board and sprinkle with water, one tablespoon at time, tossing lightly with a fork, knives, or pasty cutter. Shape into two equal size balls. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready. If it's refrigerated, let it return to room temperature before rolling. Roll out onto floured surface.

Well, I'm not a baker and don't have much patience for it so let's just call it a rustic pie . . .

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For more photos and more about the closing of this beautiful church that French-Canadian immigrants built, visit the American-French Genealogy website here.

Tourtiere ~ My Memere Made This

An uncomplicated Christmas eve or New Year's eve/day dinner and quite comforting, this traditional French meat pie has become a favorite in our home.  It was my French-Canadian family's annual tradition, served at different times during the holidays depending on who I was visiting. Mostly, it was served on Christmas eve after midnight mass.

While the tourtiere is a traditional pie originating in Quebec (most think so) centuries ago, there are many variations.  Some don't use potatoes, some do.  Some use breadcrumbs instead of potatoes.  Some combine pork and ground beef, or some just use ground beef and so forth.  You too can make changes to suit you.

French Meat Pie Recipe (makes two pies):

3 lbs of ground pork
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
6 medium yukon gold potatoes, skins left on (2 potatoes for every pound of pork, if you want a meatier pie, use 1 potato per pound of meat but more meat will be needed to fill the pies)
1/2 ts of cinnamon
3/4 ts of poultry seasoning
1/4 ts of nutmeg (I use freshly grated)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbs butter, can vary depending on the size of the potatoes
Pastry for two two-crust pies (Your favorite recipe or store-bought. I used pie sheets from Immaculate Baking Co.)

Boil potatoes, whole or halved, with skins on until fork tender.  Meanwhile, saute chopped onion until translucent.  Add meat and saute until just browned.  Remove from stove, drain fat, and in a large bowl mix meat with cinnamon, poultry seasoning, and nutmeg.   When potatoes are tender, remove from water and place in a separate bowl (including the skins for more nutritional value)  and break up with a spoon adding butter, salt and pepper to taste (keeping them lumpy).   Add potatoes to meat and mix together (the potatoes should bind the mixture, but if not you can add an egg).  Lay a sheet of pastry in each pie dish.  Add equal amounts of filling to each.  Top each with another sheet of pastry.  Slit holes in top, crimp edges, and wrap with foil to protect from burning.  Heat in oven at 350 degrees until the crust is done, about 45 min.

Can be served with ketchup.  I can't explain it - it's just what my family did!

The pies can be frozen for a few months. Make extra and take one out when you're too busy too cook.

Enjoy it for breakfast as well.

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2011 update: for the version using fresh herbs and spices and homemade crust, click here.