
Ingredients
Crust*
- 3 cups (705 ml) all-purpose flour
- ½ pounds (225 g) of vegetable shortening
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of salt
- Water as needed
Meat Pie
- ½ pounds (225 g) pork minced**
- ½ pounds (225 g) beef minced**
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3 lbs (1.3 kg) potatoes, peeled and diced
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
- In a large bowl, combine the meat, onion, garlic, and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
- In second large bowl, combine flour, shortening, baking powder, and salt. Hand knead the mixture until malleable, it should not break apart or be too sticky to handle.
- Sprinkle a light layer of flour on a flat surface then drop ball in the middle. Use a rolling pin to flatten crust to a consistent thickness.
- Use a pot large enough to accommodate meat and potatoes. Place on top of the crust then cut out an area larger than bottom by about 2 inches (5 cm). Make cutout of crust and place in the bottom of the pot. Place some of the meat and potatoes composition crust is nearly covered.
- Build up the walls with crust until the entire mixture of meat and potatoes transferred to the pot. Use the remaining crust to cover the pie entirely then punch a thumb-sized hole through the centre of the pie.
- Through punched hole, fill the meat pie with water until just below crust. Place the pie in the fridge (covered) for 5 hours or until ready to place in the oven.
- Start the oven and set to 325°F (170°C). Place pie in oven for about 30 minutes, giving the crust time to dry out.
- Drop temperature to 275°F (135°C), cover with tin foil then let contents stew for approximately 12 hours.
- Periodically check the pie to maintain water level. At about the 6-hour mark, refill for the last time to let the pie dry out a bit prior to serving. You can adjust this step as necessary based on how often you need to replenish the water.
- Pull from the oven and scoop contents with a large serving spoon on plates.
* Pre-made pie crusts may be used instead of making the crust from scratch.
** Meat may be processed through a large-bore grinder to save time.
Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean by Evelyn Chartres is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Leave a Reply