Traditional pork pie inspires several twists

“There are probably as many recipes for tourti?re as there are Quebe?ois,” wrote Peggy Gannon of Palmyra.

There certainly are, and this query brought a lovely cluster of them with wonderful memories to match. Tourti?re is a spiced pork and potato pie, traditionally served on Christmas Eve after midnight Mass in French Canadian families.

Jeanine Brown Gay in Belfast wrote to say that her parents “were the first of a large family to marry and have children, so the dozen or more relatives would gather at my parents’ home after midnight Mass for tourti?re, wine and coffee. My brother and I loved it because the aunts and uncles would wake us up to open gifts that Santa had left for us under the tree.”

Peggy learned to make tourti?re by watching her French Canadian stepmother make it, and Charlene Randall in Bangor found two recipes for it in her mother’s recipe box. Charlene wrote that her mother, Jeanette “Odele” Lewis, was 92 when she passed away in 2002, and had cooked for most of her life. “Mother said these pork pies were a New Year’s tradition in her home,” Charlene said.

Sharon Goguen in Belfast sent along her family’s interesting variation on tourti?re, writing, “My father’s family was French Canadian and we always had this on Christmas Eve. It is a little different from most recipes I have seen as this one incorporates apples.”

Alice Rollins sent along three variations on the tourti?re theme, and “avalonwilli” sent via e-mail a version that has complex flavor. I analyzed them all side by side to see what they had in common. I concluded that tourti?re has to have pork, potato, onion, garlic, cinnamon, salt and pepper and be baked between two crusts. Sharon’s family’s apples in place of potatoes is an interesting and delicious variation but doesn’t seem typical.

The amount of pork seemed to average out at two pounds, with some calling for as much as three pounds; the potato amount varied quite a bit, but showed an average of about four medium to large ones, cooked and mashed.

Spices varied quite a bit, too. Most called for cinnamon, a couple called for cloves, and one for allspice. Sage, marjoram, parsley, thyme and poultry seasoning all put in an appearance. One called for chopped celery cooked with the onion and garlic, which was omitted in a couple, while another called for celery seed. Clearly seasoning the pie is a matter of taste; just make sure you use cinnamon. For the one I made, I used an average quantity of half a teaspoon of cinnamon, but I thought it could stand more.

There seem to be two schools of thought on cooking the pork: some brown it, add the spices and then mix it with potatoes. Others add a broth or stock to the pork and cook it for a longer time before mixing it with the potatoes.

Tourtiere is good served warm or cold, and accompanied by cranberry sauce or apple sauce. Brooke Dojny, a cookbook writing friend of mine in Sedgwick, put a tourti?re recipe in her New England cookbook, and reported on a debate she heard about whether to put ketchup on it. We tried it both ways at our house. My husband is such a cranberry sauce fan, that he voted for that, hands-down. But I thought tourti?re with ketchup was kind of good. Probably chutney would be good, too.

It occurred to me that this is a great dish for leftover mashed potatoes, and I decided to burn a few calories by grinding the pork by hand. While I was at it, I ran the onion and garlic through the grinder, too. But of course, you can use ground pork from the meat department of the store. This recipe is for a 9-inch pie, but it is easily expanded to a 10-incher by adding another pound of pork and another potato or two. A couple recipes caution to cool the filling before putting it in the pie crust, which will keep the pastry from softening too much before baking.

The following recipe for tourti?re is an amalgamation of Jean Gay’s and Peggy Gannon’s, with assistance from all the others. You can make it this week and freeze it for later. It is so good you won’t necessarily want to eat it only on Christmas Eve.

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.

Tourtiere

Serves 8 to 10

Pastry for a 9-inch, two-crust pie

4 medium to large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed with milk and butter

2 pounds of ground pork

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic (or less to taste)

1/2-1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2teaspoon of cloves or allspice

1 teaspoon of sage (or poultry seasoning)

Thyme, marjoram, ground celery (optional) to taste

Put the potatoes on to cook and while they are boiling, put the pork, onion and garlic into a large skillet and cook them all together very well. Then add spices, cover the skillet and reduce the temperature to low. When the potatoes are done, drain them and mash them, adding milk and butter if you wish, just as if you were making mashed potatoes for dinner. Mix the pork and potatoes together very well, and put in a cool place to chill a little.

Roll out the pastry, line your pie plate and spoon the cooled pork mixture into the pie. Cover with the top crust. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 F and bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.