Tradition, Tradition!

Although I stand here up to my elbows in Christmas cookie dough, I am fiercely determined to get this post out before the end of 2010.  

I long for the day when I actually have a moment to think about anything, anything other than boxes of one sort or another, but until that day comes I will have to resign myself to the moments between the timer alerting me to the relative doneness of the cookies in the oven, the laundry in the washer and the packages still waiting to be wrapped.

Things were just starting to wrap up for us (pun intended), but we seem destined to be sent hurtling from one life changing experience just in time to jump right in to another.

I couldn't let 2010 go by, though, without pulling together this post that has been one whole year in the making:  The recipe for the tourtière.

The tourtière has a long and varied history, including a debate about how it got it's name.  Some say it was named after the container in which the pie was baked.  Others say it was named after what used to be the key ingredient:  the passenger pigeon, known as the tourtre in France or tourte in New France.  

And like everything else in this day and age, the pie even has it's own Facebook page.

Every self-respecting family of French-Canadian descent has their own version of the tourtière, the meat pie that is traditional during the Christmas/New Year Holidays, and ours is no different (even Alex Trebek has a version; but this one is probably closest to Mémère's.) 

Every year we just assumed that the pies would be part of the Christmas festivities, and we were never disappointed.  Then, my little corner of the family moved to California.

For the first few years in California we got by without the pies.  Then, in what I guess was a craving for some kind of tradition, I decided to try my hand at making my own tourtière.  I used Mémère's recipe, but with such vague measurements and instructions, I never could get it right.

One of the frustrations that I faced in translating this recipe is Mémère's use of Québécois French, a variety of french particular to Quebec.  The difference between Québécois French and Metropolitan French is apparently somewhat akin to the differences between American English and  British English.  This difference made Google translate go into some sort of cyber-spasm, and the result was practically unintelligible.

There was also some idiom involvement, which would make the recipe easy to understand if you were Mémère's next-door neighbor, but a little more difficult for someone with 2 years of high school french. 

A year ago, Mom hosted a "Tourtière Tutorial" for the interested to learn the history behind the tradition of the tourtière in the Hebert/Fortin families. At the end of this post is the video created that day.

The second video was created this year when I went back for a  "Remedial Tourtière Tutorial", where I cornered Mom into coughing up more detailed instruction on how to create this enigma.  The information I gleaned from this lesson is in brackets.  In quotes is the exact transcription from Mémère's recipe.  In parenthesis is the somewhat convoluted translation.

That being said, here we go:

"2 lbs. hamburg pork"

(2 lbs. ground pork)

[The fresher, the better- you may need less water if the pork is really fresh.   Also, Mom does mention that Mémère always used her cast iron pan.  I don't think it would make a difference taste-wise, but I do believe that in general cast iron and ceramic coated cast iron like Le Creuset would cook more evenly.]

"1 oinions assez gros."

(1 onion, big enough.)

[5.5 ozs. chopped onion, chopped 
small-ish so they cook faster]

"3 patates"

(3 potatoes)

[1 lb. 2 ozs.- any kind]

 

"Cuit ta viande met de l'eau pas trop car sa fait 
pamale de juice pour apeu pres 1 hr, lentement."

(O.K., here's where it gets tricky:  Cook your 
meat slowly for about an hour.  Add water but not too much because it will make quite a bit of liquid.)  

[Here Mémère may have forgotten to mention 
that the onions should be cooked with the meat.]  

Use 1 1/2 c. water added as the meat starts to cook, then 1/2 c. added after 5mins, then another 1/2 c. added about 5 mins later- you just have to watch that the water doesn't cook out of the meat.  After the meat is cooked you may end up taking about 1 1/2 c. of liquid out of the mixture. 

The meat was cooked just under high heat, but you have to watch it so it doesn't brown.  It's supposed to cook slowly, but ended up only taking about 15 mins. on Mom's stove.]

"Cuit tes patates."

(Cook your potatoes.)

"Ecrase les biens."

(Crush them well.)

"Melange les avec ta viande."

(Mix them with the meat.)

[At this point you may want to add 3 1/2 pinches 

of salt and 3 pinches of pepper.  FYI:  a pinch is 1/16 t.]

"Mets du clove en poudre..."

(Add ground cloves...)

[about 1/2 t.]

"...et cinnamon aux gout."

(...and cinnamon to taste.)

[about 1/2 t. plus a pinch more- 9/16 t. to be exact]


"Je n'ai pas de recette.  Je fait cela aux gout.  
Melange bien le tout.  Je crois que tu aura deux tarte."

(I don't have a recipe. I do this to taste.  
Mix it all well.  I think you will have two pies.)

"Bonne chance."
[Well said.]