Tourtière (Meat Pie) with Chef Frank Proto | Canadiana

Today, I'm making my favorite version of tourtière (a French Canadian meat pie that originated in Québec) with my pal and yours Chef Frank Proto of ‪@ProtoCookswithChefFrank‬ and ‪@epicurious‬
This is my personal recipe and recalls the tourtière I've had growing up in the Maritimes, but it's worth noting that there are many, many different ways to make a tourtière, including different meat mixes, spice mixes, and vegetables (or lack thereof). The dish was originally named after the deep pie plate it was baked in, and local recipes and family recipes often reflect the proteins most available in the area.
This recipe might look long at first glance, but it's actually easy as, well, pie!
Ingredients:
1 stick cultured butter
2 russet potatoes
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup Spanish onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
poultry seasoning*
1 Tbsp neutral oil
0.25 lb chopped fatty pork fat/belly/bacon
1 lb ground beef (80/20)
0.75 lb ground pork
spice mix**
salt to taste
double pie crust***
Equipment:
spice grinder or mortar & pestle
1 medium sauce pot
1 medium frying pan
1 large sauté pan
1 baking sheet
rolling pin
1 deep dish pie plate (1.5")
Process:
Roughly simultaneously -
1. Peel and cube potatoes, then place in salted water in sauce pan. Boil them until fork tender, strain (reserving about 1 cup of starchy potato water), and mash with salt and butter to taste.
2. Melt 1/2 stick of butter in medium frying pan. Add onion and celery and salt. Sauté until starting to soften, then add garlic and cook 2-3 more minutes. Add poultry seasoning mix, stir, and simmer until vegetables are cooked down and soft.
3. To a hot, large sauté pan, add splash of oil, then pork fat. Render pork fat down until starting to crisp. Add ground meat mixture and salt generously. Break up ground meat with a wooden spoon and aim to brown vigorously over high heat. After a few minutes, turn heat down to medium and stir in spice mixture. Use your spoon to break the meat into smaller crumbles (like you would when making a bolognese). Continue cooking until all meat is brown and a nice fond has formed on the bottom of the pan, but not so long that it dries out, between 10 and 20 minutes (depending largely on the power of your stove).
Once all the above is done, continue onto pie assembly-
1. Pour about a 1/3 cup potato water into the vegetable mix, using the liquid to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.
2. Pour water and veg mix into the ground meat pan over a low heat. Use the liquid to then scrape up all the deliciousness from the bottom of the meat pan. If the water doesn't stretch enough to get everything up from the bottom of the pan, feel free to add a splash more. You don't want the mix to be wet, just glistening.
3. Combine mashed potatoes into the meat and veggie mix. Once fully incorporated, taste for seasoning (and adjust if you feel like it) - this mix will be the pie filling, so if it's not right, now is the time to fix it. If for any reason it's too wet and water, sprinkle on a little flour or cornstarch, or simply reduce by turning up the heat for a minute or two.
4. Spread finished meat mix out on a baking sheet and put in fridge or freezer to cool.
5. Meanwhile, prepare your double crust pie dough if not already ready for action. Preheat oven to 400 F.
6. Once the meat mix is cool, pack it tightly into the bottom crust, pushing it down and leaving no gaps in filling, then cover with top crust and seal (you can use egg wash like glue to create a tighter seal between the top and bottom crusts). Egg wash the top and cut vents in the pastry.
7. Bake at 400 F for 40 minutes or until the pie crust is fully cooked.
8. Allow to cool slightly, slice, and enjoy!
Make ahead:
*Poultry seasoning:
-1 tsp dried sage
-1 tsp dried thyme
-1/2 tsp dried rosemary
-1/4 tsp dried marjoram
-1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
-1/2 tsp black pepper
Grind herbs and spices together into a powder.
**Spice mix:
-1 1/2 tsp mustard powder
-2-3 allspice berries
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp black pepper
Ground all spices & mix together.
***Double pie crust:
-313 g all-purpose flour
-2 tsp white sugar
-1 tsp salt
-115 g cold cultured butter, cubed
-115 g cold lard, cubed
-1/2 cup ice water
1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Toss fats in dry ingredients until coated, then use fingers to break the fats up until no whole cubes remain and lard has slightly crumbled.
3. Slowly pour in water a few Tbsp at a time, mixing just to combine.
4. Pour half of the barely-together dough & any crumbles onto plastic wrap, pull into disc form, and roll in plastic to create a pie dough disc about 1-1.25 inches tall.
5. Repeat for second half of dough. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before using.

[@ProtoCookswithChefFrank]

Tourtiere is amazing! Emily left both pies with us & they didn't last long. Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful Canadian treat.

[@EmilyDuncan]

My pleasure! Thanks so much for coming along on this tourtière-making journey :D

[@juliagearing506]

I love that, even though you're a chef, you're humble enough to learn from a home cook. Looks good and lamb would be delicious in that

[@Mammutidae]

Not much makes me happier than a Chef Frank/Emily combo video

[@deaconmikepray9793]

Great recipe! My mouth is watering...

[@joshuajohnson2216]

What could be better with Emily and her co Epicurious Frank? Food!

[@jtd66]

In my area, we tend to use bigger cubes of beef/pork/elk (if we have some) instead of ground meat, as well as chunks of potatoes. As we usually do it for christmas, we use a big roaster to cook the dish, and it usually stays in the oven all day. Then we get so many leftovers that we're just tired of it and not cook one again 'til the following holidays.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Ooh, sounds great! What area is that?

[@TommyRobertsMusicChannel]

Emily and Frank along with Lorenzo are my favourites from Epicurious. So glad to have found this channel

[@EmilyDuncan]

So glad you found it too!

[@pinkeyegeorge]

I grew up in Oklahoma with a meat and potato stuffing that we made with the turkey on holidays. I didn’t know anyone else who made this. Same meat mixture. Potatoes. Same poultry, sage and nutmeg seasonings. My great grand mother’s family recipe passed down verbally. It wasn’t until recently I realized it was essentially tourtiere without the pie crust. My great grandmother was French Canadian and it all finally clicked! Now to try it in a pie shell 😊

[@EmilyDuncan]

Mystery solved! That makes sense! I bet it’d be delicious in a pie crust (what isn’t?)

[@daroboff]

These are the best videos!!! Always excited for Emily/Protocooks collabs!

[@EmilyDuncan]

💜💜💜🥳🥳🥳

[@ProtoCookswithChefFrank]

Always a great time collaborating with Emily!!!!

[@incensejunkie7516]

I love tourtiere and had it for my main Xmas dinner this year. Couldn't be bothered with turkey and it was only a small gathering. Everyone loved it, and the only person I've ever met who didn't like (or want!) it is a vegetarian, so that's makes sense :) Yours looked absolutely scrumptious and will try your spicing next time. I'm happy with mine but there is a difference and hey, always happy for improvement.

[@musicforever1645]

As somebody who grew up with a family version of this recipe; This made me so happy! I will think fondly of this video when I have to make 12 of these with the family. XD

[@EmilyDuncan]

Hahah yay! Nothing like the holiday baking marathon 😂

[@1stylishdevil]

Awwww man! The wombo combo~ 🥹

[@sandramacpherson9739]

Love this!

[@rudolfpunt3286]

I love this dish. It’s great with hot sauce as well a ketchup

[@shaunmount130]

Have you ever done Poutine?

[@EmilyDuncan]

I made it as a Level 1 on Epicurious with just packet gravy, frozen fries, and cheese curds! It's a rough and ready recipe but it works, haha. Still working on my more original and involved take :D

[@piotreek7]

Emily, Frank, a do tego muzyka z Makłowicza ❤

[@simondelisle]

Speaking as French Canadian here, that’s not a tourtière, that’s a meat pie ou pâté à la viande. A real tourtiere is cubed beef in a very thick pie cooked in a deep cauldron, « creuset style ». Cooked in the oven with a chimney in the middle. We also have sipaille which is a kind of tourtiere with many layers of different meat that are usually different wild meat

[@EmilyDuncan]

Hey, thanks for weighing in! Would you/your family happen to be from around Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean? I grew up eating tourtière this way in the Maritimes (so admittedly more Acadian), but from reading, it sounds like what we’d call “Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean” is just called “tourtière” in some parts of Quebec, especially around (obviously, haha) Lac-Saint-Jean. That’s the deeper dish kind with cubed meat instead of minced/ground. I’ve never had it that way, so wouldn’t want to share a recipe for something I don’t know, but I did do some reading up on the many different tourtière variations before making this video. So, this is at least what we’d call tourtière in NS/NB! (Not trying to be contrary to your experience, just thinking you might be interested!) 😄

[@simondelisle]

@@EmilyDuncan im from Abitibi, now in Freddie beach, so the dish is originally from Sag Lac and up north and when it was brought “down south “ to Montreal and the area they switched up the name of meat pie to tourtiere and then it travelled and everyone started calling meat pie tourtiere so I’m used to it lol. Not gonna argue with name, they all evolve, just look at what they decided to make of our poutine here with “poutine râpée” or when the just put grated cheese instead of cheese curds! I would be curious to see you try to do the sipaille/cipaille/6 pâtes! Or at least react to it. It’s a heck of an experience!

[@EmilyDuncan]

😂 very fair! For what it’s worth, as far as I’m personally concerned, poutine (not râpée) *must* have cheese curds - or else it just becomes American disco fries! Will definitely have to try a cipaille one of these days. Let me know if you have a favorite recipe or must-have layers and I’ll attempt it!

[@botanicalement]

@@EmilyDuncan Acadian from NS here! While my family never made meat pies/tourtiere, your does look like the ones made by friends / family in NS and PEI :-) I'm not a fan of poutine râpée, but we do have râpure (rappie pie) that is similar-ish but a lot lighter. And fricot!

[@simondelisle]

@@EmilyDuncan well google keeps deleting my answer, maybe because it has an hyperlink… anyway if you search for Cipaille d'Au Pied de Cochon, you’ll find my favourite recipe!

[@rickcasedrinksbud]

Emily and Chef Frank 🫶🏽

[@DegrassiInstantStar]

We love seeing Emily embracing this!! I love it. But... we all know we came hoping for the ketchup! Haha.

[@MichaelRicksAherne]

This reminds of the early internet more than most things. It's just wholesome.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@LilT2o00]

I follow a very simple formula. I see Emily, I hit the thumbs up.

[@RavenclawNimbus]

FRANK! Two classic Epicurious legends in one video 😂

[@Kimchi_Fried_Lice]

Plot twist: All those photos of tourtière and ketchup on Google are from Emily.

[@EmilyDuncan]

ahaha noooo.....

[@bethhelminiak5063]

Chef Frank is like a proud papa letting his baby bird soar! Emily, I'm holding my gołobki recipe hostage until you agree to cook it with Chef Frank! Also, this is somewhat reminiscent of a pasty. Sorry, I grew up in Michigan until I was a pre-teen, can't help making the connection.😂

[@rebeccasunflower]

I grew up in South Australia, so I likewise appreciate the pastie comparison.😊 Though we also have a version of meat pies sold alongside them.

[@defaultuser1447]

You didn't snag that bottle of Japanese ketchup?

[@P_L90]

Right when I subscribed to you, you posted this video 😂 can’t wait to watch!

[@EmilyDuncan]

What timing! Welcome!!

[@adamdemasi156]

J'Adore! My gram always did hers clove heavy, It's nice to see this getting out there beyond the Quebecois diaspora!

[@JohnJohn-jq7cd]

Québécois here. My grand mother used to spend the whole night to slow cook it in the oven. Any thought or tips on that? Does cooking time really have an impact here? Also yeah you 100% eat it with ketchup.

[@EmilyDuncan]

Yes! That sounds like the Cipaille @simondelisle was talking about in another comment! Very labor intensive, very traditional and definitely delicious 😄

[@HarryFullerCT]

i usually have it cold with ketchup and hot without. Great stuff! Thanks.

[@dianechayer7336]

As a québécoise, I “approve “ your tourtière! 😂 One thing you don’t get perfectly right though: ketchup is a standard! Homemade ketchup or commercial ketchup! Sauce is acceptable of course. 😂

[@defaultuser1447]

This is one I've heard about from Canadian KZbin channels I follow, like Curiosity Inc. and The Hockey Guy.

[@rougevagabond9649]

I'm 25 and I've been cooking as an amateur since 5 Years, channel like Epicurious had bring me growth and lessons... I'm so glad of your progress and how good you had become. I wish you great things! :)

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thank you so much!! I’m sure your cooking is making great progress too! 😄

[@christinadipinto]

Yum!! My family is from the Quebec side of Canada, and my grandparents grew up in Fall River, MA - we have a very similar recipe in our family that we always made for Christmas, the only difference is that the ratio of mashed potatoes to meat is a lot higher haha! Definitely adding this to my list to make for Christmas this year! 😍🎄

[@Sylent35]

I love you guys! You both have so much chemistry between you. You both need your own channel.

[@Jayteeef]

Tourtiere with maple syrup is the bomb!!

[@shaunmount130]

Cool. What about Rappie pie?

[@EmilyDuncan]

Have never tried making it! But have certainly eaten it on the South Shore in NS. Do you make it at home?

[@shaunmount130]

No My cooking skills aren't there yet.@@EmilyDuncan

[@Riael]

Woah! What an amazing crossover!

[@brookgill7658]

Hell yeh! Shout out to Matty❤

[@paigekrystalwilcox6031]

Your videos always make me feel good about myself and trying new things in the kitchen. Thanks for being you. ❤

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thank YOU!

[@miaththered]

Woot!

[@defaultuser1447]

Looking forward to the live stream in a few days.

[@EmilyDuncan]

🙌

[@farronroboff255]

It looks delicious. Hope to have it soon 😎😋

[@EmilyDuncan]

I think we can make that happen... :D

[@ellieisanerd]

This was just so great!

[@EmilyDuncan]

Thank you!!

[@robwilliams6753]

YES!

[@EmilyDuncan]

🙌

[@Romi_Zii]

Yum, love meat pies with a bit of zing! 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🤍🤎 Show me you are from the Commonwealth without telling me you are from the Commonwealth? 🇬🇧🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿 Puts ketchup on everything! 🍅🥫🍅