Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean is one of the traditional dishes of Quebec cuisine that fits in well with the holiday spirit; it is generous, convivial and above all, tasty!

And of course, each family has its own recipe, so it would be difficult to say which recipe is the “real” one when it comes to tourtière.

The recipe I’m giving you here is one that my godmother shared with me, which she has been making for several years.

And she has kindly accepted that I share it with you.

The history of the tourtière goes back a long way in the culinary heritage of humanity.

This meat pie would be one of the oldest recipes in the history of man.

And it is certainly one of the oldest recipes in Quebec cuisine.

Although it is a traditional Quebec dish, the recipe for tourtière can be varied to suit your taste, both in terms of the seasonings and the meats chosen.

In terms of ingredients, the list is quite simple.

Some herbs, broth, cubed potatoes and a mixture of different meats mixed with chopped onions and celery.

Which meats to choose to make a tourtière du Lac?

To make a tourtière du Lac, you can choose from several varieties of meat.

The key is to use cubed meat, or a mixture of ground and cubed meat as is the case here.

For the more “classic” meats, I use beef or veal, chicken and pork.

You can also choose game or wild meat, with or without offal: deer, roe deer, hare, partridge, etc. This type of meat will bring a lot of flavour to the tourtière.

If you don’t have any, it’s no problem, you can also use shredded duck confit.

What spices to put in the tourtière?

I chose to keep it simple, adding only salt, pepper and savory.

This leaves more room for the flavors of the meat.

But you could also add oregano or even salty herbs, adjusting the quantities of spices according to your taste and the meats you choose.

I’ve also seen recipes with cinnamon or cloves…when I said there are so many variations!

A few tips to make a successful tourtière

Here are a few tips to help you make your tourtière a success, which also served me well.

First of all, it is important to know that the result of the tourtière can vary from one year to another, depending on the meat used or the seasonings.

One year it may be wetter, another drier or saltier.

There is no “perfect tourtière”.

Nevertheless, I would put this dish in the category of almost impossible-to-miss recipes.

This is encouraging!

Baking the tourtière

I tried to be as precise as possible in the instructions for making the tourtière.

But you will probably have to readjust the cooking times depending on your oven, the thickness of the baking dish and the size of your pie.

The chimney: don’t forget to make a chimney on the top of the pie to let the steam escape during cooking.

The tourtière is cooked in stages :

1. The pie is first seared on high, then lowered to 350F and baked uncovered until the crust begins to brown.
2. Then, cover the pie dish with aluminum foil (or a lid, depending on the dish chosen) and lower the heat to 250F to continue cooking for 3 hours at low temperature.
4. Complete cooking with another hour at 200F.
5. Then, let the pie rest in the oven at 125F for at least 1 hour.

This allows the flavors to be well distributed.

Towards the end of the cooking time, you can check through the chimney on top if the pie still looks too wet.

If so, remove the lid to help evaporate the liquid.

If it is too dry, you can add more broth.

What to serve the tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean with?

Tourtière du Lac is accompanied by marinades such as pickles or pickled beets and fruit ketchup.

A small green salad on the side doesn’t hurt either.

And for the starter, you can choose to serve a soup, a ceviche or some oysters.

And what to do with the leftovers?

If you have any leftover tourtière, which you probably do, you can simply freeze it. It makes a perfect meal for the cottage or on cold winter nights.

Otherwise, it can be reheated the next day in a pan with a little water, taking care not to stir it too much.

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