Toutiere Lac-Saint-Jean: A regional specialty we should get familiar with.

It’s that time of year again. Time to plan the holidays, including the heritage recipes that bring back memories, connect us to our roots and help feed a table full of family members. This year we’re taking a look at a lesser known, but equally important, traditional dish: Tourtiere Lac-Saint- Jean.

Right out of the gate, this one tends to be lesser known among Franco American groups because its origin within Quebec is regional. Fortunately, it’s got an ingredient base that most will recognize. Tourtiere Lac-Saint-Jean is a casserole-like meat pie that contains a mix of different meats along with potatoes, onions and herbs and seasonings. The ingredients are assembled in the pie crust while raw, and cooked low and slow for several hours. 

A few notes before we start: First, families from the Saguenay will call this tourtiere, while referring to other versions as meat pie or Montreal style tourtiere. Next, in size and cooking style, it’s closely related to the layered cipaille, but the two are not the same. Finally, there's a fierce pride and ownership of this dish, so tread lightly in conversations with those who make it. All of that said, let’s get started. 

This is going to be much larger than a traditional pie (or toutiere), so a much larger pan or dish is going to be necessary. To make this, we’ll need a large casserole dish, Dutch Oven or a roasting pan rather than a simple pie pan. I love my enameled dutch oven, but choose wisely (and don’t worry) as this dish can be scaled up or down. 

Moving on to the crust, it is just a crust. Some will call for a more pastry-like dough but, like all the ingredients, that’s more of a preference. A traditional pie crust will work fine, but we’ll need more of it. Not only will this be much larger than a typical pie, but  most recipes call for a thicker crust as well.  In the end, simply plan on a larger quantity of the normal pie crust ingredients. 

After mixing a rather large pie crust, we turn our attention to the dish's primary ingredient base: meat. Historically this was a lot of wild game. Many family recipes still call for game, but with urbanization and modernization, a mix of beef, pork, veal, chicken or other meat from the local deli is fairly common. For a slight throw back- salt pork is often listed as a key ingredient. Most recipes will start with 4-5 pounds of mixed meats, cut into small cubes.  The meat is marinated with dried or fresh herbs overnight. Herbs have been stressed as they're a differentiating factor in this dish. 

Where many meat based pies use sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves as a base, and may call for more savory herbs as an addition, this one usually calls for the inverse. Savory herbs like thyme and summer savory are typically the base, and the sweet spices may be added. Many recipes for this dish omit the sweet spices all together, but that’s another personal preference. 

At assembly time, after rolling out our crust, we’ll mix the marinated meat, onions and cubed potatoes and place them in the bottom crust. At this point we can add more seasoning if desired. Similar to cipaille, we’ll need the addition of liquid as this dish will cook low and slow for several hours. As with seasonings, there's no right or wrong liquid, but water or broth are commonly seen in recipes. As an added kick we may find a splash of brandy listed as well. Regardless of the liquid used, after we add it, we’ll need to seal the bottom and top crusts together. We’ll need to leave a few openings on the top, as the venting will be needed to crispen up the top crust. After cooking uncovered at a high temperature of the first hour (crispening the crust), the temperatures will be reduced while the dish cooks for the remainder of the time. To prevent over cooking the top crust, the majority of the cooking time should be done covered with a lid or aluminum foil. 

At this point, we’re done. Throughout the preceding paragraphs, there has been a smattering of words like “typically” and there has not been a concrete recipe. The reason is simple: there is no one correct recipe. People who make it, however, will tell you otherwise.  Perusing recipe pages, it’s easy to see a united front behind this dish against other heritage dishes, as well as a complete fracturing of that same group over the specifics. If this sounds familiar, tourtiere and cretons season is here so…you get the idea now. 

If this dish is part of your family traditions, let us know how you do it. If not, the holidays and associated gatherings are a few weeks away, so we’ve got time to look up a few recipes and do a trial run prior to hosting. Let us know how that goes as well. It’s about cultural connection, family and, or course, having fun with a special meal. Cheers everyone!