Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 12:52:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: The great tourtière debate!Your wonderful on-line magazine is being read in El Paso, Texas, by people of French-Canadian heritage. We carry on traditions from the Philippon-Levesque and Dubrule-Gravel families, and that includes tourtières at holiday time.
Juliana L'Heureux talked about those French-Canadians who settled in the Michigan area, as compared to those who stayed in the New England area. I can only speak for our respective families who settled in northern Vermont and Maine, even while some relatives remain in Quebec. And here is where the tourtière comes in.
It would appear that there are as many "secret" family recipes for the delicious meat pies as there are for meat loaf...no two are quite the same. Juliana spoke of people who used poultry seasoning...sacré bleu! Our grandmothers taught us to use allspice, well pounded into fine powder. And then we get to the subject of potatoes: some claim that potatoes help hold everything together while others aver that potatoes make it taste like hash. And what about onions? One aunt uses only lean pork, another swears by veal, and some like a combination of pork and beef.
To each his own, it would seem! Our families served the meat pies as an addition to a traditional turkey or ham dinner, and only at the holidays. Just the smell was enough to remind us that it was a special time. I still make tourtières for the holidays when our children and their families come home; but our sons-in-law and grandson like a warm slice or two for breakfast too, so the pies disappear very quickly.
Just as a curiosity, in the Lac St. Jean region, a tourtière is a big casserole with two crusts, and the filling is large cubes of meat (usually game and/or beef), potatoes and carrots, the whole thing cooked for several hours in a very slow oven. They call "our" tourtières "pâté de viande"....and they taste just as good by that name!
Greetings to you all, and thanks for good reading.
Louise Dubrule
