Bastardising Tradition: A Bacon-Laced Tourtière

[Cette recette est aussi disponible en français.]

In case this was not public knowledge, I'm French-Canadian. As a consequence, one of the traditional dishes in my family is... tourtière. It's a version of meat pie, with a bit of a twist, and several traditions attached. Multiple variations of this dish exist: in some regions of Québec, a tourtière is a thick, multi-layered pastry cooked in a deep clay dish. In the Montréal area, it tends to resemble a meat pie. It can be eaten any time of the year, but is often associated with Christmas and New Year's, and is eaten with the turkey and other trimmings. Now, I decided, for the benefit of bacon science, to try a baconised tourtière.

So here's the basic recipe:

Double pie crust (whatever recipe you prefer)
Equal amounts of lean ground beef and lean ground pork (about 1 pound (500 g) of meat is required for each tourtière)
Finely chopped onion (to taste; I used ½ medium onion for 8 tourtières)
Butter (to taste)
Worcestershire Sauce (1 tbsp (15 ml) per ½ pound (250 g) of meat, to taste)
Salt, Pepper, Savoury, to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter and warm onions until golden and translucent. Do not let the butter go brown. Add meat, pepper, savoury and Worcestershire sauce. Do not add salt until meat is cooked.

Cover and let simmer, stirring roughly every 5 minutes, until the meat is cooked thoroughly. The point is not so much browning as boiling the meat in its juices. Add salt and correct seasoning. Reserve.

Prepare pie crust, preheat the oven, and garnish the bottom of the pie with meat, draining excess fat from the meat as it is drawn from the pot. Do not fill over the brim to avoid fat and juices overflowing.

Cover with another layer and cut holes for steam. Cook according to needs of pie crust for double crust with cooked filling. For a nice golden finish, brush egg white over the crust prior to cooking.

This is the basic tourtière recipe. Now, for the bacon variation. I simply cooked half a package of bacon (½ pound, 250 g) and then poured the bacon and its juices into the remaining tourtière meat in the pot (when there was just enough for one pie). And then I cooked according to the ordinary recipe. The tourtière on the left on the image heading this post is the one with bacon.

The verdict will have to wait for the return of the other Bacon Saturday bloggers to this here town so they can taste this masterpiece... It is in the freezer, awaiting our next gathering! I have not touched it! BTW, tourtières freeze very well and keep up to six months in the freezer.

See, I'm doing my part for the cause, even going so far as bastardising a time-honoured French Canadian tradition. What I will not do in the interest of bacon science...

Amendment as of January 10, 2009. This has been tasted and has proven delicious.